Newsmaker: Amadeus Lures Diners' Fogwell To Miami

<B> Newsmaker: Amadeus Lures Diners' Fogwell To Miami</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

It took a year, but Amadeus Global Travel Distribution LLC president Jim Davidson finally found the perfect person to fill his former role as vice president of sales and marketing: Douglas Fogwell.

Davidson identified Fogwell as the person he wanted early on; the hard part was convincing the 18-year travel industry veteran to leave his post as senior vice president of marketing for Citicorp Diners Club Inc. in Chicago, the city he's called home for most of his career. But Davidson's persistence finally paid off last week, as Fogwell joined the Miami-based national marketing company.

Davidson said Fogwell's key strengths are his "consistent leadership, focus on people, the market and customers," as well as "a well-disciplined style that is very consistent with Amadeus."

Fogwell and Davidson have known one another for years, though in the past it was Fogwell who lured Davidson to new jobs. They first met in 1985, when both worked at Official Airline Guides. Fogwell left to join a start-up travel technology firm called Airplan Systems Inc. as vice president of marketing, and then recruited Davidson to join him. Airplan later was sold to System One, which was acquired by Amadeus. After System One, Fogwell worked for Page Net before joining Diners, where he developed and implemented the brand's U.S. strategic positioning and marketing campaign. Before being promoted to his last position, Fogwell served as Diners' vice president of information products and of marketing.

Fogwell began his new job last week, flying off to a customer meeting in Spain before even meeting any of his new reports in Miami. Although the top spot has been vacant since Davidson was promoted to president last March, Amadeus has an entire sales and marketing team in place.

Fogwell's primary job, Davidson said, will be "bringing a consistent strategy to both the sales and marketing organization. Our belief is that it's a hand and glove operation and we want to make sure the right glove fits on the hand." Fogwell will be working closely with customers and his staff to ensure the products are meeting customers' needs. And, as Amadeus' top salesperson, he is charged with overseeing both corporate sales and the release of the booking module that will debut next month in the SAP/R3 release.

Davidson denied that the ongoing talks about a potential merger with Worldspan had any impact on filling this position. "We're charging down a path that no one gets in our way," he said, and until something is definite, he can ill afford to delay any decisions. Just last month, Iberia chairman Xabier de Irala said Amadeus and Worldspan were continuing merger talks and predicted that a deal would be completed by year-end, before Amadues floats its initial public offering. Neither Amadeus nor Worldspan would comment on the Iberia chief's revelations. Iberia owns 29.2 percent of Amadeus, with Air France, Lufthansa and Continental Airlines. The latter only owns 12.4 percent of the Madrid-based GDS.