From an industry giant to a newbie - former president of Sabre Hospitality, Felix Laboy, has been appointed CEO of new kid on the block, Wayblazer.
The company has started to catch the attention of the industry after it launched last year (TLabs here) with a promise of using natural language to answer difficult travel questions (in other words, one which cannot be easily fit into standard search boxes).
It is also one of the first travel companies to use the IBM Watson technology to power the trip planning service.
Founder of Travelocity, Terry Jones, is part credited with coming up with the idea of Wayblazer.
Laboy, who replaces acting CEO Manoj Saxena, left Sabre in May 2013 after four years as president and general manager of its Hospitality division to work as a consultant.
Saxena was keeping the big chair warm following its launch under the wing of his early stage investment fund, The Entrepreneurs' Fund.
Sabre bought Laboy's previous company, E-Site Marketing, in 2007 (a business he created in 1999).
Jones says:
"Felix’s strong track record in building and scaling travel businesses along with his deep travel experience is just the right mix to lead our company forward."
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