This is a roundup of news and announcements for travel people in April 2017.
Friday 28 April 2017:
Sabre appoints two business chiefs
- Wade Jones joins becomes executive vice president and president of Sabre Travel Network and Dave Shirk takes on the same title of Sabre Airline Solutions. Shirk joins the company from mobile app provider Kony where he was president for the last two years (previously at HP and CSC). Jones had the current role on an interim basis after joining Sabre in 2015 from Barclaycard, initially to oversee product, marketing and strategy.
Thursday 27 April 2017:Vacasa hires for tech boss role
- Tim Goodwin becomes chief technology officer at the vacation rental technology and management company. He was most recently chief information officer at Fiserv and previously had roles at M-Com in New Zealand, INRO and Datacom.
Wednesday 26 April 2017:Flitways hires for exec team
- The ground transportation tech provider has named Peter Sjolin as its new chief technology officer, having previously worked at FlexStylist and Proactive Professional Solutions. He is joined by Dean Skupen as chief financial officer and Gary Rabin as growth strategist.
Tripbam opens in Europe
- The business travel service has hired Peter Grover to run a UK office - its first foray in Europe. Grover joins from Fareportal where was general manager for EMEA following previous positions with WNS, Galileo, Amadeus and TRX.
Monday 24 April 2017:Priceline Group appoints new board director
- Robert Mylod joins the Booking.com and OpenTable owner as a member of its board from 16 May this year. He will be on familiar ground having worked at the company from 1999 to 2011 including as vice chairman, chief financial officer and head of worldwide strategy and planning. He is currently the founder and managing partner of Annox Capital Management.
Inntopia appoints product boss
- Andrea Rosamilia joins the travel technology supplier as its vice president of product management. She has previously worked for Sabre, TripChat and Passkey International.
Wolf back with
DataArt- DataArt has brought back industry veteran and Phocuswright founder Philip Wolf. He returns to the technology consultancy business as a senior advisor to its travel and hospitality practice.
HotelsPro Americas appointment
- B2B wholesale specialist HotelsPro has named Juan Mi Llompart as its new regional vice-president sales and contracting for the Americas. His CV includes stints with Hotelbeds in APAC and Tourico in central and Latin America.
Friday 21 April 2017:Sojern lands in Dublin
- The travel marketing specialist has opened an office in the Irish capital, using the base as a spearhead for its RevDirect tool for managing and analysing directing bookings for hotels. Angela Canny will lead the office as regional sales director for EMEA, following previous roles at the Guinness Storehouse and BDL Ireland.
Datalex opens Manchester unit
- The airline commerce specialist plans to double the workforce at its Manchester in the UK and open a centre of excellence. Currently, 30 people work in the city's office, with plans to expand its range of services in software development.
Thursday 20 April 2017:Ex-Air Canada boss joins ID90 board
- Montie Brewer, ex-CEO and president of the national airline, becomes a board director at the airline technology company. He headed Air Canada between 2004 and 2009 following other senior roles at United, Northwest, Braniff and Trans World Airlines.
Booking.com opens call centre in Canada
- The Toronto facility will have more than 200 people by the end of 2017, with a target of up to 600 by 2022. Employees will handle customer service through incoming calls, email and messaging platforms.
Zaplox expands to North America
- Emma Dupont becomes sales director for the region at the Sweden-based mobile key provider. She comes in from Expedia where she was most recently an associate market manager for two years after joining initially in September 2014.
Tuesday 18 April 2017:Sabre expands APAC chief role
- Roshan Mendis will become senior vice president of global distribution and corporate travel business in EMEA alongside his existing APAC duties, giving him responsibility for commercial operations and business development in both markets. Mendis has worked in the Sabre empire in a variety guises since 1997, covering Travelocity, Zuji and, most recently, at the mothership.
TrustYou expands to Southern Africa
- The reputation management company has appointed Namibia-based Rainmaker Digital to handle distribution of its products in the region. TrustYou's Meta-Reviews, Trustscore widgets and API data will also be integrated into the Rainmaker Digital's products.
Broadvine appoints product chief
- Josh Anderson becomes vice president of product development at the business intellifgence and analytics software provider. He has previously held senior positions at Dude Solutions, StepLeader and REAL.
Thursday 13 April 2017:Amadeus rejigs APAC senior team
- Cyril Tetaz becomes head of commercial for the Amadeus airlines group in the region, moving over from a similar role for Japan and China, and previously director of airline distribution marketing. Jonathan Tong and Abdullah Ozkececi become head of airline IT solutions and head of airline IT sales respectively for Asia-Pacific, Russia, Turkey and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Tuesday 11 April 2017:TripAdvisor marketing boss at Time Out
- Christine Petersen will head the Time Out Digital Business as CEO, following her appointment in February this year. She was previously CMO and president of TripAdvisor For Business between 2004 and 2013.
Wednesday 5 April 2017Sabre adds to ecommerce and distribution role
- Rakesh Narayanan joins as vice president of supplier commerce, Asia Pacific, for Sabre Travel Network. Narayanan has worked within Sabre for 20 years and most recently was regional director for Sabre Airline Solutions in South East Asia and the Indian Sub-Continent.
Monday 3 April 2017SilverRail recruits from Google
- Phil Dixon has joined rail connectivity specialist as chief information officer. Dixon will be responsible for all customer services including IT systems, infrastructure and operations. He will also be building his team out across all locations. Prior to SilverRail he spent five years at Google where he helped build a team to make the integration of acquired companies smoother.
NB: Travel people image
via Pixabay.