Top 50 Emerging Leaders 2021 continued (in alphabetical order by CVC unit): Amy Daniels Burr, managing director of operations and partnerships, JetBlue Technology Ventures

Amy Burr is the managing director of operations and partnerships at JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV), the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm that backs developers of travel, hospitality and transportation technologies on behalf of US-based airline operator JetBlue Airways.

JTV president Bonny Simi said: “She has done a remarkable job in 2020 to help pivot our work to support our parent company in sourcing and implementing new technologies to adapt to the challenges of covid-19. This includes startups in UV technology, health passports, sanitation and more. In addition, her team has supported our portfolio companies in expanding proof of concepts and implementations across the travel ecosystem. Amy is building expertise and a strong brand and reputation in the travel and VC communities and is definitely an emerging leader.”

Having been in the travel space for the past two decades, Burr’s current role is to build an ecosystem of partners and deployment opportunities for the many technologies of JTV’s portfolio companies. She focuses on advancing innovation thinking and compelling value propositions throughout JetBlue and its partners.

Burr said: “CVC is exciting because it allows companies to utilize emerging technology to solve common business problems. At JetBlue Technology Ventures we are able to really push the envelope on innovation by leveraging travel and hospitality startups, which is a much-needed shakeup for our industry as a whole.

“A big win during my time here was the launch of our International Partnership Program, which is composed of like-minded travel providers interested in working with new technologies to enhance the industry at large. I am also proud of growing our innovation programming for JetBlue Airways and our partners by adding new events like strategy days, demo days and innovation sprints. That aspect of our business has been really fun to grow over the past two years.”

Edison Fu

Edison Fu is a reporter and Asia liaison at Global Corporate Venturing.