This is a roundup of people moves in tourism and hospitality for January 2017.
Tuesday 31 January 2017:
ECommPay looks to Europe
- Payments service provider, ECommPay has named Paul Marcantonio as its head of UK and Western Europe. His brief is to "build upon existing relationships and forge new ones across multiple industry verticals".
Grab nabs ex-police chief
- Southeast Asia's biggest taxi app business, Grab, has brought in Indonesia's former chief of police to help it grow further in what is already its largest market. Badrodin Haiti will help Grab "contribute constructively to the implementation of new transport regulations and safety guidelines."
Monday 30 January 2017:Amadeus promotes for Australia chief role
- Justin Montgomery becomes general manager for Amadeus in the country, moving up from a head of commercial position he took in January 2016. He joined Amadeus from TravelTheWorld and has earlier roles with Virgin Australia and Holidays.
Thursday 26 January 2017:Travelport board director departs
- Gavin Baiera, the managing director of Angela, Gordon & Co, will step down from the board of Travelport from March 1 this year. The company has this week appointed John Smith (ex-chief operating officer of Burberry Group and a former exec at the BBC) to take a seat on the board from the same date.
Wednesday 25 January 2017:Ola says hello to new COO
- India's biggest taxi app Ola has named Vishal Kaul as its chief operating officer. He has worked for PepsiCo Foods since 1999, most recently as GM for Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. He replaces Pranay Jivrajka, who becomes a founding partner.
Monday 23 January 2017:Ex-Googlers hail Uber
- Amit Singhal has joined Uber as senior vice president of engineering. Singhal spent 15 years as head of search for Google, leaving the business last February. He will be joined at Uber by another former Google vice president, Kevin Thompson, who will report in to Singhal as VP of marketplace engineering.
Amadeus finds corporate travel boss
- Rajiv Rajin becomes the company's global head of business travel. He has joined from Sabre Travel Network where was vice president of global sales and account management. He has held a number of senior roles elsewhere in the Sabre empire, including marketing, agency product and the Red app launch team.
SITA rejigs APAC team
- Sumesh Patel will become president for Asia-Pacific at the airport and airline IT company, moving up his previous position as vice-president of business management in the region. He is replacing Ilya Gutlin who will be become president on the air travel solutions division.
Thursday 19 January 2017:Travelport hires for MESA region
- Rick Saggar joins as commercial director for India and Sri Lanka, coming in from Flynas and after an earlier stint with Travelport. Kathryn Wallington will be the country manager for the United Arab Emirates, moving over from a business development role covering Southern Europe and Africa at the company HQ in the UK.
Dreamlines gets commercial
- Dreamlines.de, the international cruise booking site based in Germany, has named Marcel Mayer (48) to the newly created role of chief commercial officer. Meyer is tasked with expanding its worldwide tour operator business.
Wednesday 18 January 2017:easyJet merges digital and marketing
- easyJet has promoted Ian Cairns to a newly created role of director of customer and James Millett to a newly combined director of digital and marketing position. Anthony Drury, who was in charge of easyJet's business travel operations, is leaving the airline and moving back to the Far East with his family.
Xotels gains a VP
- Yann Fruchart joins as vice president of global business development at the hotel technology provider and consultancy. He previously worked in a similar role for marketing agency 80 Days and had earlier positions at Olery, Booking.com and Burufly.
Tuesday 17 January 2017:Skyscanner execs move on
- Skyscanner's chief operating officer Mark Logan and its chief commercial officer Frank Skivington have left the business. Skivington's duties will be taken on by commercial director Stuart Middleton while Logan's will be taken on by regional growth teams. Skyscanner was bought by Chinese OTA Ctrip in November for £1.4 billion.
Monday 16 January 2017:Trainline hires chief operating officer
- Mark Brooker joins the European rail booking and information platform - a new role for the company that will report to CEO Clare Gilmartin. He was previously COO at Betfair and had earlier stints at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
Friday 13 January 2017:Fareportal expands board team
- Mike Stacy joins the online travel group - owner of the CheapOAir and OneTravel brands - as a board director. He is currently CEO at ID90 Travel and was previously CEO at Groople for five years to 2010 and a senior vice president at CheapTickets between 2003 and 2005.
Thursday 12 January 2017:Musafir unveils new boss
- Rajesh Pareek joins the online travel agency in the United Arab Emirates as its new group CEO. He was previously chief financial officer at the Dubai International Financial Centre.
BookingKit hires ex-
Booking.com manager
- Berlin-based travel tech provider BookingKit has a new chief sales officer in the guise of Carlo Zachau. He joins from Tapptic, where he was business development director for six months after a six-year stint at Booking.com (with a variety of roles). Zachau has also worked for AirBerlin and GermanWings.
MTT renames to Travelport Digital
- The Ireland-based mobile technology provider says the switch reflects its position within the wider Travelport business and role as a broader digital travel specialist. The company was bought by Travelport in July 2015.
Wednesday 11 January 2017:Thayer Ventures gets additional boss and fund
- Lee Pillsbury joins the venture capital as managing director, ahead of the launching of its third investment fund which is hoped to raise $100 million. Pillsbury is a co-founder and co-chairman of Thayer Lodging group and has previously worked at Micros and Marriott. He is also a director at Duetto and an investor in Adara, both existing Thayer-backed companies.
Sabre shake-up
- Sabre has announced that executive VP and chief product and technology officer Deborah Kerr will leave the business when her current contract expires. She joined in March 2013. Elsewhere, Sabre's hospitality business unit has named Brian Jorgenson as senior vice president of product management, with Frank Trampert brought in to run its APAC operations. Trampert joins from Tune Hotels Group where he was CEO.
Monday 9 January 2017:Snapshot heads west
- The hotel analytics company is opening an office in the US city of San Diego, under the auspices of Louis Hauge as vice president of business development for the western US. He was previously director of hospitality sales at Intelity and had earlier roles at Micros, Marriott and Chefwear.
Leisure Pass Group gets new CEO
- Darren Evens is stepping down as leader of the city pass provider and platform operator to become chairman, with Tom Enraght-Moony stepping up from his existing chief operating officer role. Exponent Private Equity took over the company in December last year. Tom Enraght-Moony has previously worked at Match.com (as CEO), AT&T and Kano, prior to joining LPG in April 2016.
Friday 6 January 2017:MediaConcepts moves to the UK
- The hotel technology provider has expanded its operations to Europe (and a new base), following the relocation of CEO John Bowen to the UK. The 15-year-old company was formed Singapore, where it will retain an office, with a client base that now includes Marco Polo, Ascott and GLH.
Zipcar gets a president
- Tracey Zhen becomes president of the car-sharing brand, joining from TripAdvisor where she held a number of roles including vice president of its FlipKey and HouseTrip brands. She was general manager for EMEA strategy and emerging markets at Expedia between 2008 and 2011, as well as having a six-year stint at IAC from 2006.
Thursday 5 January 2017:EveryMundo targets APAC
- EveryMundo, a performance marketing specialist for airline dotcoms, is expanding into APAC, naming Jonathan Liu as its managing director for the region. He will be based in Hong Kong. His previous employees include Expedia, hotels.com and Yahoo! EveryMundo has also named Oliver Dunn as a director of business development, based at its Miami HQ. Dunn joins from a medical software business.
China expert for
UNWTO- Dr. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, head director at the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute and a professor in international tourism management, has joined the UNWTO Panel of Experts. He has more than 35 years of "practical and academic" experience of Chinese tourism.
NB: Travel people moves image via Shutterstock.