December Alumni Spotlight: Bart Welch
Bart Welch, a 2005 Out for Undergrad Business Conference alumni, has taken his passion for travel and built a career out of it. After working at McKinsey & Company as a Travel & Logistics consultant for 7 years, Bart jumped into the entrepreneurial space and joined Rocket Travel, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Booking Holdings (NAS: BKNG) more commonly known as Rocketmiles. In January 2020 he took the reigns as Chief Executive Officer. Of course, in his own joking words, “at no better time than that of the worst economic downturn in travel and tourism in recent history.” Through it all, Bart is putting his UNC-Chapel Hill undergrad experience and Harvard MBA to work, charting a course for what a post-pandemic travel & tourism ecosystem will look like.
When Bart left McKinsey in 2015, he knew he would be taking a risk jump from a consulting role with a clear career path to an uncertain future in the start-up space. But his work at McKinsey positioned him to succeed in his former role at Rocketmiles as the Chief Revenue Officer. When asked what propelled him to make such a move, he said “I was tired of always knowing what was going to happen in my career. I always kind of knew what would be next for me — the title, the timing, the promotion, the boondoggles. So when I was presented with this opportunity to join Rocketmiles, it just seemed like the right catalyst to dive into the unknown and take on a new type of risk in my life.” He also acknowledged that the relationships he built through Out for Undergrad and McKinsey gave him the confidence he needed to feel comfortable making that transition from corporate to start-up life.
Bart looks back on his O4U experience fondly. “It was pretty much my business-community coming out story,” he said. Explaining that before the conference, administrators and professors he worked closely with didn’t know he identified as gay until he applied for funds to attend the conference. “It was a profound experience to see so many individuals just like me in this corporate space. It really gave me the confidence I needed to come out and be authentic to myself,” he said. However, O4U seemed to change his life in more ways than just that. Through the conference, Bart met several individuals who ended up becoming key mentors at McKinsey and especially through his interview process. Little did he know that 15 years later, thousands would follow in his footsteps from the conference doors to successful careers in business, tech, marketing, and engineering.
When asked what advice Bart has for current O4U attendees, he says “Take advantage of the amazing O4U network — both the current students and also the very large and talented alumni network. I’ve crossed paths with so many alums over the years in friendship, mentorship, and even business deals. Those relationships have played a role throughout my career” Back when he was an attendee, he noted that the best advice he had received was that “Your job is to make your boss’s job easier. It sounds simple and maybe meek but if you follow that mindset you’ll succeed faster and into bigger things.” As the now CEO of Rocketmiles, it seems that advice has paid off.
