Kurt Ekert, president of Sabre, is also taking over as chief executive as Sean Menke transitions to be solely executive chair of the board.
Sabre announced Menke would be relinquishing the CEO role to Ekert effective April 27. Prior to joining Sabre as president in January 2022, Ekert was CEO of travel management company CWT for five years before leaving in mid-2021.
Prior to that, he spent time at Travelport as executive vice president and chief commercial officer.
Sean Menke joined Sabre in 2015 first as president of its travel division before being promoted to CEO in 2016.
On the leadership transition, Menke says: “It has been an honor and privilege to help lead Sabre over the last eight years. I am proud of what our teams have accomplished and how we’ve served our customers during unprecedented times. It has been immensely gratifying to see the dedication and success of our team, as Sabre continues to transform itself to become the trusted, and preferred, technology partner in travel. I look forward to transitioning into the role of executive chair and welcome Kurt as our new chief executive officer. He’s been a driving force at Sabre over the past fourteen months and I am confident he will continue to successfully lead this organization into the future.”
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As president Ekert has looked after Sabre’s business and technology operations.
A statement says he has “developed new growth strategies and successfully executed against the company’s operating plans, including successfully reorganizing its Travel Solutions business, implementing robust operating principles to enable faster and more efficient execution, and putting a refined leadership team in place.”
At the Phocuswright Conference 2022, Ekert shared his view on distribution trends, the shape of the economy and migrating to the cloud.
See the full interview below:
Executive Interview: The Sabre View - The Phocuswright Conference 2022