Zigzag: Trulaske alum follows love of travel down varied career paths

From a young age, Tom Botts’ love of travel was sky-high. Literally.

“My parents can tell you stories of taking me to the airport as a little boy to watch planes take off,” Botts recalled.

Eventually, this Boston native packed his bags and traveled from Massachusetts to the Midwest, where he pursued a business degree at the University of Missouri.

“My grandfather, who is also Tom Botts, was the track coach at Mizzou for better than 30 years, so I grew up going to football games. Both of my parents were Mizzou grads, too,” Botts said. “So it was in the cards.” 

Coming from Boston, this intrepid explorer said he felt a bit like a fish out of water when he arrived in Columbia, Missouri. The experience taught him to put himself out there and meet new people — both valuable skills when he graduated from Mizzou with a business degree in 1991 and ventured out into the professional world.

After college, Botts followed his love of travel to Delta Air Lines, where, as he puts it, he performed both “above-the-wing and below-the-wing jobs,” eventually landing in Atlanta. Just as he found himself both “above and below” the wings in the airline industry, he also followed his passion for travel down several paths, working in revenue management and e-commerce for Delta, and then in the early days of start-up Hotwire.com, which was later sold to Expedia. Botts then moved to hospitality and New York where he joined the corporate leadership team at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and later co-founded Hudson Crossing, a travel advisory practice with clients around the world. Prior to his current role, Botts was CMO for Miraval Group, a high-end spa resort brand backed by private equity giant KSL Capital, which Botts and the team successfully sold to Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.

Now, as president of Flex Pay, a leading fintech company based in San Francisco, Botts helps make others’ travel dreams accessible by providing “buy now, pay later” financing geared to the travel industry. Under Botts’ leadership, the company now boasts more than 750 travel and retail brands within its network. But it’s individual stories that continue to drive his work.

“For me it’s always been about a passion for travel and learning — experiencing new destinations, cultures, food, wine — and helping other people experience those same moments. Whether that’s a family reunion in Kansas City or a honeymoon in Bali, all my roles have been focused on travel,” Botts said. “I have a passion for it, and I want other people to experience some of the things that I have, as well.”

For the man with a passion for experiencing the world, settling down in Manhattan was an obvious choice. Botts and his wife, who also works in the travel industry, have called New York home for the past 25 years, and are grateful for the cultural opportunities it has afforded their two children. But he still feels a special connection to his alma matter, particularly the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, and the role it played in his success.

Balaji Rajagopalan, Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. Dean of the Trulaske College of Business, is grateful for the partnership and support of alumni like Botts, whose vast professional experiences and expertise widen the scope of the education that Trulaske is able to provide to its students.

“Tom followed his own sense of curiosity and passion for learning down a fulfilling and successful career path,” Rajagopalan said. “He’s broadened horizons for travelers around the world. I’m grateful that he’s doing the same for students here at the Trulaske College of Business.”

For Botts, helping shape Trulaske’s future is a way to stay connected to his own family’s legacy at Mizzou.

“I’m excited about the vision that Dean Rajagopalan has, in terms of raising the bar for Trulaske and Mizzou in general,” Botts said. “Helping to be part of that is important to me.”

Having an entrepreneurial eye and the ability to recognize start-ups as worthwhile investments have both been important throughout Botts’ career. Whether it’s encouraging business students to pursue their own innovative ideas or teaching them to recognize the potential in others’ ventures, Trulaske’s commitment to inspiring an entrepreneurial mindset is critical for the success of tomorrow’s business leaders, Botts said.

“It’s important for students to understand they can be entrepreneurs in lots of different ways,” Botts said. “We want to help those lightbulbs go off.”

As he reflects on a career that’s led him in varied directions since his Mizzou days, Botts has one piece of advice for those just starting their own professional journeys: “It’s ok to zigzag.” For him, even the zigzags never took him far from the road he loved.

“It’s never boring if you’re passionate about it,” Botts said. “It’s still work, but it’s a lot less work when you love it and you’re helping other people experience their passion.” 

Mizzou’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business prepares students for success as global citizens, business leaders, scholars, innovators and entrepreneurs by providing access to transformative technologies, offering experience-centered learning opportunities and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset.