Armin Meier, former CEO of Europe-based leisure travel firm Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd., this month assumed the position of Travelport GDS chief commercial officer, succeeding former CCO Kevin Mooney, who left the company in late April.
Travelport said Meier joined the firm on a part-time basis on June 1, and would assume the full-time CCO role in September, reporting to Gordon Wilson, president and CEO of Travelport's global distribution system division.
Travelport said Meier takes on "global responsibility for sales, marketing, segmentation and customer engagement for Travelport GDS."
In November, Meier's predecessor Mooney was tasked with the CCO role after previously serving as CFO of Travelport's acquired Worldspan entity. He was charged with leading the integration of the Worldspan and Galileo sales and marketing teams. The Travelport GDS business has sagged recently due to a slump in travel demand and the continued decrease in Worldspan bookings and revenues due to the loss of Expedia's business, starting in 2005. Travelport said segments for its global distribution system businesses this year so far have decreased from 2007
(BTNonline, May 13).Travelport CEO Jeff Clarke during the company's earnings call last month said the company is making further investments in its GDS sales force to bolster its approach to the market. "We're investing in building out what we would call specialized sales forces to sell some of our data and software products. We're adding some people to do a better job of calling on global customers. In our industry, we probably have not had a good enough of what I would call an enterprise sales force, going to large customers and doing more of a relationship-based sale."