This is a roundup of news and announcements for PEOPLE moves in travel, tourism and hospitality for November 2015:
Thursday 26 November 2015:
Qunar founder falls into Tripping
- Fritz Demopoulos has joined the board of directors for the vacation rental metasearch company. Qunar co-founder Chinese metasearch service Qunar and is now behind the Queen's Road Capital investment company.
Ola shuffles management pack
- The taxi app brand has hired Rajiv Bansal as its new chief financial officer, joining in January 2016 from Infosys where held the same position. Current Ola CFO Mitesh Shah has moved sideways to become head of strategic finance initiatives.
Thursday 19 November 2015:MakeMyTrip woos Goibibo co-founder
- Deepak Tuli will be joining the online travel agency as its senior vice president of growth business, with a particular focus on the accommodation segment of the company. Prior to co-creating and having a chief operating officer role at travel search site Goibibo, Tuli worked as part of the founding team of Yatra.
Tuesday 17 November 2015:Priceline Group names new CEO for OpenTable
- Christa Quarles is promoted to the top job after holding the CFO position since May 2015. She replaces Matt Roberts who became chairman in September (she also has been interim CEO since then). Prior to joining OpenTable, Quarles was chief business officer at Nextdoor and had previously worked for Disney Interactive.
Fusion connects with two new hires
- Rob Sikam will join the company to spearhead the travel ancillary delivery platform's services in Asia-Pacific, having held senior positions at DS TAGS and Travelport, as well as roles with with KLM and Martinair. Sinead Finn of Affinnity will act as a consultant for growing the company's European network of clients.
Friday 13 November 2015:SITA appoints president for the Americas
- Randy Pizzi will be based at the company's Atlanta, Georgia office, having joined from Rockwell Collins/ARINC. He was most recently managing director of the company's Asia-Pacific division.
Wednesday 11 November 2015:DHISCO announces quartet of new execs
- The hires for the hotel distribution company include: Greg Berman as chief operating officer (ex-eRevMax), Noreen Henry as chief revenue officer (ex-Intent Media and Travelocity), Jennifer Mays as VO of product design (ex-Sabre, and Anne Cole as VP of content (ex-SDL).
Amadeus hires ex-Cisco exec for R&D brief
- Rashesh Jethi will head the Research & Development division in the Americas region for Amadeus, having joined from Cisco Systems where he was leader of its portfolio management and marketing. He has held various technology roles at a number of Silicon Valley-based companies including Visage Mobile, and was has previously worked for Lufthansa, Travelocity, American Airlines and Southwest.
Thursday 5 November 2015HolidayIQ appoints new CTO
- Vikas Rana joins the company the Indian user review service as chief technology officer from Must See India, where he was CEO and founder for eight years. Proof to that he was a developer and then manger at software company, Trilogy.
Travelport names country manager for Egypt
- Merfat Alfy replaces Tarek Bassiouny as head of operations in Egypt for the company. She previously worked in the same role at British Airways.
Wednesday 4 November 2015:SITA boss to step down
- Francesco Violante will leave the airline and airport IT company during the second half of 2016 after more than 13 years with the company. Geneva-based Violante has previously worked at Telecom Italia and is credited with overseeing a large number of initiatives at SITA including its acquisitions of WorkBridge A/S and Com-Net Software and the development of its OnAir strategy. The company has yet to announce a successor.
Wego juggles exec pack
- Graham Hills will become chief product officer at the company's headquarters in Singapore. Ruwie Rahardjo will take over Hills's role as general manager for the metasearch engine in Indonesia.
Monday 2 November 2015:Revinate unveils new CEO and other exec changes
- Major shuffle of the pack and new entrants for the reputation management service, including Jay Ashton stepping down as CEO to become chief product officer, with global vice president of sales Marc Heyneker taking over the role. Kelly Buchanan (Zynga, Lucasfilm) is new VP of people; Kenny Lee (Lithium Technologies, Adobe Systems) is VP of marketing; Dany Bolduc (AirAsia, BlackBerry) is GM for Asia-Pacific.
OneFineStay gets Breakwell on-board
- Simon Breakwell, a well known figure from the early days of online travel, joins the home rental service as a member of its board of directors. The former-head of Expedia in Europe also had a stint establishing operations for ride-sharing service Uber in Europe from 2012 and 2013.
NB: People moves in travel image via Shutterstock.