Jeff Katz is an enigmatic figure in the travel industry, having overseen a string of business and considered by many as an important thinker in the development of the modern sector.
American Airlines and Sabre for 17 years from the early-1980s, CEO of Swiss Airlines in the late-1990s, founding chairman and CEO of Orbitz, then a string of board positions and even time to run a educational toy business (Leapfrog).
More recently, since 2016, he has run Journera - a business that, he believes, will help connect travelers, their needs and their hosts (be they airlines, airports, hotels, intermediaries and others) through the advanced used of smart data.
In some respects, Jounera is considered a technology that helps business travel (thus his appearance on-stage at The Phocuswright Conference about the changing face of corporate travel) but Katz believes the application of it will eventually have an important influence on many areas of the industry.
PhocusWire spoke to Katz at the same event about this and other trends in the industry, such as blockchain, collaboration and data mining.
PhocusWire @ Phocuswright 2018 - Journera on connecting the travel world