Our Team

 

Professionals You Know... People You Trust

 

Lynn Boccio - Vice President, Strategic Business & Diversity Relations

Dustin Collins - Manager, DBE Compliance Reporting

Susan Pettit - Senior Procurement Specialist, Strategic Business & Diversity Relations

Lyndelle Abela - Program Coordinator, Strategic Business & Diversity Relations

Robert Bouta - Senior Vice President, Properties & Facilities Department

 

Lynn Boccio
Vice President, Strategic Business & Diversity Relations

Lynn Boccio heads the supplier diversity team at Avis Budget Group and oversees the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program at Avis and Budget’s two hundred and thirty-eight airport locations, as well as the company’s corporate world headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Lynn is involved in several outreach activities designed to increase supplier diversity and community relations both nationally and in the New York Metropolitan Area. She is presently the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Women Presidents’ Educational Organization and the 2nd Vice Chair of the Airport Minority Advisory Council. In addition, Lynn serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. Lynn has held numerous other positions on other regional and national boards and committees that advocate for minority and woman businesses.

Lynn has been repeatedly awarded for the excellence she displays in the Supplier Diversity field. In 1999 she became the first woman ever to be honored by the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. That same year, Minority Business News USA selected Lynn to appear in the limited special edition “Best of the Decade in Supplier/Workforce Diversity 1990-2000” for her contributions over the previous 10 years in the area of minority business. She was awarded the 2002 Women & Diversity Award from America’s Athletes with Disabilities. Lynn has also made various television appearances on “Hispanic Business Today,” a weekly program on WNBC-TV in New York, and was MBE Advocate of the Year in New York City at the New York New Jersey Minority Purchasing Council’s Annual Partnership Awards Gala. In 2004, Lynn received the prestigious Award of the Chair of the Airport Minority Advisory Council, recognizing Lynn’s outstanding, direct and personal contributions toward the success of AMAC. Avis Budget Group has also recognized her twice for her outstanding work at making the Avis and Budget brands more diverse.

Prior to joining Avis in 1996, Lynn practiced as a defense attorney with one of the nation’s leading law firms. She is a former prosecutor who worked for tele¬vision personality “Judge Judy,” and as Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York, she defended the City in high profile cases. On top of her role with Avis Budget Group, Lynn is a faculty member at The National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Hofstra University School of Law in Hempstead, NY. Lynn holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from the Hofstra University School of Law. She is fluent in Spanish and lives on Long Island with her two daughters.

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Dustin Collins
Manager, DBE Compliance Reporting

Dustin Collins is the Manager of DBE Compliance Reporting. In this capacity, he maintains compliance on each of Avis and Budget's more than two hundred and eighty airport locations throughout the United States.  Consequently, Dustin prepares government-mandated reports on a monthly, quarterly, and fiscal basis to inform the national airport authorities of Avis Budget Group's commitment to excellence in the field of supplier diversity.  This requires Dustin to review, quantify and analyze spending with diverse suppliers. Dustin is also Lynn's and ABG's liaison with all airport officials, as well the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA"), the Department of Transportation ("DOT") and Homeland Security.Dustin works and advocates extensively with the FAA and DOT with respect to all federal rules and regulations that impact Avis and Budget's federal compliance on airport as well state laws that contravene and/or affect same.

Additionally, Mr. Collins handles special assignments, such as drafting legal memorandums, position papers, speeches and presentations for senior management on various issues of concern. Mr. Collins, handles the Department's responses in bid documents for Avis and Budget to requests for proposals ("RFP") put out by National Airports. This entails, review, preparation of bid documents and drafting pre-bid questions to ask airports to clarify, modify and/or amend an RFP, so as to ensure compliance on airport.

Mr. Collins also handles all 2nd tier reporting that Avis and Budget's fortune 500 corporate clients contractually require.  This provides the Sales Department and the corporate clients with Avis Budget's diversity expenditures that are attributable to the specific client as 2nd tier diversity spend with minority and women owned and certified businesses.

Mr. Collins was selected to serve on the Airport Minority Advisory Council's Legal Committee under Bill Kirk where he monitors and reports on cases, legislation, administrative law and statutes that impact concessionaires on airport.  He has serves on the AMAC Government Affairs Committee where he provides research, anecdotal information and disparity study comparisons that have been inserted into bills before and passed by the House and Senate that affect Airport Concessionaires.  He was also appointed by the Chairwoman of AMAC to serve as Chairman of the By-Laws Committee, which requires Dustin to analyze, modify and propose amendments to Board of Directors on a monthly basis to preserve and protect the integrity, operation and corporate governance of AMAC.

Mr. Collins serves on the Certification Committee for Women's Business Entrepreneurs National Council's ("WBENC") Regional WBOP; Women's President Educational Organization ("WPEO").  This requires Dustin to analyze and present a position to the Committee for a vote on applications, financial statements, tax returns, board minutes, corporate governance and supporting documents submitted by alleged women owned businesses applying for certification as WBEs.  Also recently Dustin was selected to serve on the WPEO's newly created Internal Review Committee.  Dustin also attends and engages in various outreach efforts with various organizations along with team.

Prior to joining Avis Budget Group, Dustin served as a Senior Paralegal for various law firms in the New York City Metropolitan Area, where he focused on drafting motions and appeals and trial preparations on the local, state and federal level dealing with real estate litigation.  Dustin was the President of Magna Carta Legal Services, LLC, a small business, which provided various law firms and individuals with extensive legal and administrative research services.

Dustin holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government and Politics from St. John's University in Queens, New York, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He received a Juris Doctorate at Touro College's Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip, New York, where he was the Associate Editor in Chief of Touro's Moot Court Honor Society.

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Susan Pettit
Senior Procurement Specialist, Strategic Business & Diversity Relations

Susan Pettit gained more than fifteen years of procurement experience in the Purchasing Department with Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. prior to joining the Strategic Business & Diversity Relations team in 2002. In her various capacities in Purchasing, Susan set up, implemented and maintained numerous national account programs and was responsible for purchasing the commercial print/forms in addition to maintaining inventory for over 100 line items. Through the years of close contact with field operations and the World Headquarters business units, Susan has acquired the working knowledge of the company’s various department operations and their specific procurement requirements. As Senior Buyer in the Purchasing Department, Susan worked closely with the Strategic Business & Diversity Relations unit to infuse certified Disadvantaged, Minority and Woman-owned businesses into the supplier chain. Being an advocate of Disadvantaged, Minority and Woman business development, Susan was a natural addition to the unit.

Susan is involved in and coordinates outreach activities designed to increase supplier diversity and community relations both nationally and locally. Her main responsibility includes increasing corporate and airport utilization of diverse suppliers. She is an active member of a number of local supplier advocacy organizations throughout the New York Metropolitan area, and participates in various airport, national, and regional supplier advocacy events throughout the United States.

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Lyndelle Abela
Program Coordinator, Strategic Business & Diversity Relations

Lyndelle Abela, joined our unit in 2005, after serving in various capacities in the Information Technology Department for Avis Rent A Car System. With the Avis Budget Group since 2001, Lyndelle’s background includes more than 25 years experience working in the accounting, engineering, and IT fields. As the program coordinator, Lyndelle works with all members of the team and serves as a liaison between our department and others within the company. She also works extensively with our advocacy group partners, helping promote our team commitment to diversity. In addition, she lends critical support to our team, communicating with aviation boards on daily issues and processing all departmental invoices. She also arranges our team’s numerous trips to trade fairs and conferences across the nation.

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Avis Budget Group Senior Leadership

 

Robert Bouta
Senior Vice President, Properties & Facilities Department

Bob Bouta is responsible for the management and construction for all Avis and Budget airport and urban locations throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. He has direct oversight of supplier diversity efforts at all of Avis Budget Group’s domestic airport locations.

Bob is a twenty-five year veteran in the real estate and airport business with previous positions at APCOA, Airport Logistics and the Welsh Companies, and another car rental company.

Bob is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in Political Science and earned a Juris Doctor cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law. He is admitted to the bar in both Minnesota and New York.

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