Caroline Dietrich is senior manager of revenue management science, AI, and innovation at Air Canada. Caroline has a graduate degree in aerospace engineering and a MS in applied mathematics. Caroline decided to pursue a career in RM after making a connection on LinkedIn. “As a master’s student, I had heard about RM but I wasn’t sure how the field is applied in reality,” she explains. “To understand what happens in practice as a professional I reached out to the first profile the LinkedIn search engine retrieved, Richard Cleaz-Savoyen’s profile. We had a call, and I ended up applying for an open position in his organization. All of the stars aligned for me to start working in RM!”
Caroline enjoys working in RM because “we can test things and go to market extremely fast. If today we implemented a strategy, in a few days we’d be able to see if the strategy worked or is showing signs of effect. It is very rare across industries to have this level of reactivity that is embedded in the mindset of the company.” Another reason Caroline enjoys working in RM is because of the people. “One of the greatest things I realized working in revenue management is that everyone within and outside of the company is willing to help advance the industry and practice. The field connects fantastic people.”
When Caroline joined Air Canada, she was surprised by just how much technology was limiting RM. Now, she sees new technologies such as NDC and ML/AI as enablers that will allow Air Canada to better understand airline customers’ booking behaviors and optimally reach them through customized offers.
For students interested in pursuing a career in RM, Caroline recommends they “remain curious and close to academia by continuing to read articles, seeing what is being done and how things are evolving” and to “be prepared for a journey in which you learn something new every day.”
Interested in learning more about Caroline? Check out her LinkedIn page.