Travelport has named former Sabre Travel Network president
Greg Webb as its new CEO, effective Aug. 1, as current CEO Gordon Wilson
announced he is stepping down.
The leadership change comes a few months after Travelport's
$4.4 billion sale to private equity owners Siris Capital Group and Evergreen
Coast Capital. Several new board members already had joined since the closing,
and Webb now will join the board, as well.
Wilson has served as Travelport's president and CEO since
2011 and has been with Travelport for a little more than 28 years. Speaking
last month at the CAPA Centre for Aviation airline CEOs summit in Seoul, as
reported by The Beat, he called the move to private "a good thing" as
it enabled Travelport to ratchet up investments without the worry of quarterly
reports, though he was more coy on his own future, responding only with
"I'm still here" when asked whether he expected to be kept on as
Travelport's leader.
"It is time for me to hand over to someone else to run this
business, and the recent change in ownership of Travelport is the right
occasion for this to happen," Wilson said in a statement. "I firmly
believe that Travelport’s new investors, Siris Capital and Evergreen Coast
Capital, will be good for the company and I am delighted to be handing over to
an executive as well tenured and experienced in travel technology as Greg Webb."
Webb comes to Travelport with 20 years of experience at Sabre,
including leading the Sabre Travel Network from 2009 to 2015. He most recently
was SVP and general manager for Oracle Hospitality. In a statement, he said he
was "delighted to be joining Travelport, especially at such an exciting
and transformative time for the company."