Northstar Travel Group, parent company of Business Travel News and portfolio mates The Beat, Meetings & Conventions, Phocuswright and Travel Weekly and events like Cruise World and the annual American Lodging Industry Summit, announced today it has appointed Jason Young as its new CEO. Young succeeds Thomas Kemp, who has been chairman and CEO since 2009. Kemp will transition to the role of chairman.
Young most recently served as president of Chicory, a contextual commerce media company serving the consumer-packaged goods industry. Prior to that, he spent 20 years with Ziff-Davis Media, where he last served as CEO in 2010. He founded Smart Device Media, a mobile advertising network, later acquired by Crisp Mobile, where Young became CEO of the combined company. After the acquisition of Crisp by Quotient Technology in 2017, Young became chief media and marketing officer.
“We are thrilled to have Jason join Northstar as our new CEO to lead the company in our next strategic transformation as a content, marketing services, event, and data company. I have known Jason for over 20 years as a visionary leader integrating data and technology into solutions for media companies and their clients,” said Kemp in a statement.
“I am honored to join the team at Northstar. At a time of significant evolution in the media and digital ecosystem, Northstar’s market leading brands and unparalleled content/data footprint provide essential benefits to the audience and for its travel marketing partners. I look forward to working with this amazing team and driving the next stage of strategic growth,” said Young in a statement.
Along with this leadership change, Bob Sullivan, who was president of Northstar’s Travel Group, which includes BTN, is promoted to chief commercial officer of the company.
“I am excited about the passion, experience and skills Jason brings into the business and am eager to work with him to unlock even more value for our customers and partners. I could not be more excited about the opportunity ahead for Northstar.”
Anup Bagaria, co-managing partner and Michael Struble, senior partner at EagleTree Capital, Northstar’s primary investor, in a statement added, “We would like to thank Tom for his leadership of Northstar over the last fourteen years, and we are excited to bring in a visionary talent in Jason Young to lead the next transformation of Northstar Travel Group serving our communities, our partners and our clients.”