New Sato Owners Old Hands

<B> New Sato Owners Old Hands</B>

The acquisition of Sato Travel is but the latest in a long series of travel-industry investments by the Ueberroth family. Former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth first entered the industry in 1959, when he founded Transportation Consultants International and signed Alaska Airlines as TCI's first client. By the time his brother John joined the company seven years later, TCI had 14 offices nationwide.

The Ueberroths took TCI public in 1970, renaming it First Travel Inc., and in 1971 bought Ask Mr. Foster Travel. They expanded into lodging, starting Colony Hotels, which managed condominiums, the Ambassadors Hotel in Los Angeles and the Biltmore.

By late 1979, Peter, the company's chairman and majority owner, was invited to manage the Olympics. The brothers sold Ask Mr. Foster to Carlson Companies, which at the time had only a small investment in travel as owner of Premium Incentive Corp. John Ueberroth stayed on as president of AMF and First Travel until 1985, when he moved to Minneapolis to head the Carlson Travel Group. He started Carlson's franchise program the following year.

Peter was later named commissioner of baseball and John became president, CEO and chairman of Hawaiian Airlines. In 1989, the two formed the Contrarian Group, an entrepreneurial firm whose mission was essentially to make existing companies more profitable. Its ventures included everything from a large bank in Arizona to Adidas North America. In 1994, Peter again got involved in the hotel business when he and Dick Ferris were named co-chairmen of First Guest Suites, which they renamed Doubletree. Doubletree has since bought Red Lion and merged with Promus.

The Ueberroths then bought International Ambassador Programs, taking it public six months later as Ambassadors International. John serves as the agency's president and CEO, and Peter is chairman. Ambassadors International now sells $100 million worth of meeting and incentive travel a year.