Corporate Insider Stolkey Takes On Top EDS Travel Post
<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Corporate Insider Stolkey Takes On Top EDS Travel Post</B>
By Cheryl Rosen
<I>Plano, Texas </I>- Texas technology giant EDS this week will name long-time insider Dennis Stolkey as president of the Global Travel Services Industry unit, whose customer base includes players in virtually every segment of the travel industry.
EDS, Amadeus and Continental Airlines own equal shares of System One Co., the Houston-based CRS; EDS also has equity in Lufthansa Airlines. After chalking up $12 billion in technology and consulting contracts from customers in 42 countries in 1995, it spun off from parent company General Motors this past April.
Stolkey steps into the spot vacated in September by Arthur Chavoya, who left the travel industry for an entrepreneurial role as president of ATC Communications Group in Dallas.
"Dennis is the right leader at the right time to match our vision," said Riz Rizavi, EDS vice president of strategic planning and marketing. "Just look at his background and capabilities: He came from AT&T, so he understands communications and infrastructure, which is crucial in the travel industry, and he has played key roles with airlines-in the trenches, and at the executive board level.
"Arthur was outstanding when we needed a visionary, a dynamic, charismatic leader to help us start the unit, position ourselves and build an infrastructure. Now we need someone who can manage the overall operations and expand the business.
"Dennis has the strong leadership and operational capabilities that coupled with the team Arthur built will be a most powerful combination for us."
Rizavi credited Stolkey with "single-handedly" pulling together the flight information system and electronic ticketing projects EDS developed for Continental Airlines. In addition to running operations for the company's other travel holdings, Stolkey will be overseeing the 10-year technology contract under which EDS is building the Mantis technology backbone of BTI Americas, the nation's fourth-largest travel agency.
Stolkey started at EDS in the telecommunications division in 1985, after 20 years at AT&T. He moved to vice president of the Airline Services and Global Accounts division, where he helped build the Air Transport Services unit into one of EDS' largest, with 150 airline customers, before moving over to the freight side as vice president of the Logistics and Transport Services division.
And he has his work cut out for him in the turbulent travel industry of 1997. Rizavi said EDS "expects a lot of growth" from the GTSI group, having "learned a lot, and realized how much we really needed to learn," in its first year of working with BTI. Mantis is "definitely a model we plan to export to other travel agencies, to Europe in 1997 and to Asia as well," Rizavi said-but he emphasized that the company sees its role in the travel industry as far more than just dumping technology solutions on the existing system.
The travel industry is experiencing "a sense of urgency" as a changing distribution model combines with the "complexity and excitement of new technologies" like the Internet, ticketless travel and smart cards-and is compounded by pulling in the "financial intermediation" end of travel, Rizavi said.
Rizavi said EDS also is expecting growth from its airline and airport customers in 1997, including customers like Continental, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic and a "full outsourcing relationship" with Aeromexico. On the airport side, EDS contracts at Heathrow and JFK Airports, and a new flight information display system at Hong Kong Airport, have brought the company new visibility in the global marketplace, he said.