Mobile Travel Technologies has an interim CEO after founder and current boss Gerry Samuels decided to leave the business.
Samuels sold the Dublin, Ireland-based company to Travelport in July this year for Euro 55 million.
The company officially launched in December 2005 and Samuels has since commuted regularly between his home in London and Ireland. But after an extended holiday following the acquisition, Samuels said he decided he wanted to "spend more time with the family and improve my work-life balance".
Samuels will remain as a consultant to Travelport and is considering a number of other projects including working with a charity that helps young businesses emerging from disadvantaged backgrounds.
He adds that the ten-year anniversary of creating the company triggered his decision to step down, as well as knowing he is "leaving it in good shape".
Bryan Conway, currently chief marketing officer at Travelport, will oversee operations from MTT's HQ until a permanent chief executive is appointed from within Ireland where a recruitment plan is said to have already started.
The mobile platform provider was purchased and expected to be run as a separate company within Travelport, under the existing management team and Samuels.
This remains the case, Conway says, but in addition to him immediately taking over in the short term from Samuels (who officially leaves on 18 December), Travelport's chief of staff and head of commercial strategy, Fergal Kelly, will be joining MTT on a permanent basis as its first chief commercial officer.
Conway says:
"Operationally they are first class, but what they do not have is a structured set-up for the commercial end of business.
"It is no longer a startup and now needs to move into the next stage of its journey."
MTT counts airlines (EasyJet, Singapore Airlines), hotels (Jumeirah), travel management companies (BCD Travel) and online travel agencies within its customer base.
Samuels previously worked for Sabre (vice president of business development between 2000 and 2002) and was director for Northern Europe at Worldspan for five years in the early-1990s.
His departure from MTT, the second business he has created (Gradient Solutions was the other in the late-1990s), will mean he is not be included in the performance-related stock options that MTT executives are hoping to share in 2018.
A lifer at Travelport, Conway has worked at the company and its predecessors since 1988, holding a number of senior positions and becoming CMO in 2012.