Sabre's Vasiliou To Become Radius CEO, Lead Global Expansion

Travel management company network Radius today announced that it has named Sabre Travel Network senior vice president and general manager of Asia/Pacific Christopher Vasiliou as its new president and CEO, effective July 14, and tasked him with expanding the company's global footprint and acquiring travel management companies.

Vasiliou, currently based in Shanghai, also will serve on the company's board of directors and will be based at Radius' Bethesda, Md., headquarters. His initial contract is a three-year term. Interim CEO Allan Slan will return to his executive vice president role.

Vasiliou succeeds Tony Hughes, who resigned in November after five years in that role and now is Qatar Airways senior vice president of the Americas.

Vasiliou yesterday formally announced he will leave Sabre July 1, after first joining the company in 1983. Prior to the Asia/Pacific region, Vasiliou held several executive roles at Sabre, including Travelocity COO and senior vice president of North and South America for Sabre Travel Network. Previously, he worked in the hotel industry and for American Airlines.

"We were looking for someone with international travel management experience, which he certainly has working 15 years overseas in Europe, Asia and Australia and working in the U.S. in various GDS and airline capacities, and he started in the hotel industry," said Radius chairman and Omaha, Neb.-based president and CEO Bill Tech, who noted Visiliou's past M&A and partnership strategy deals, including Sabre's joint venture with Asia/Pacific global distribution system Abacus.

As for the company's goal of acquiring travel management companies, "We are looking to start facilitating that by looking for investors that would want to invest in the purchase of agencies around the world so that we can fill some voids in certain parts of the world by buying an agency here or there, while still working with our shareholders around the world as affiliates where we are all individually owned," Tech said. "Radius' goal is to look to have the best of both worlds, both with ownership and the network that we've developed over the years that we will maintain and continue to develop."

Agency buys will occur if a current member considers selling, for stronger country representation, or as a way to fill a gap instead of signing on a new member, according to Tech. "It's not going to happen overnight, but it's a long range goal that will occur."

Executive recruitment firm Korn/Ferry International led the CEO search and brought in five candidates for review by the Radius board of directors hiring committee of chairman Tech, vice chairman Axel Rasmussen from Warsaw-based Weco Travel, treasurer Brian Robertson of Vision 2000 Travel Group in Canada and secretary Bob Govan from U.K.-based Portman Travel.