Launching Skift30: Travel’s Top Online Movers and Shakers

Today, we’re launching Skift30: Travel’s Top Online Movers and Shakers, highlighting the executives shaping investment, acquisitions, trends and innovation in the online travel industry.

This follows our Skift50 list, devoted to the top travel marketers, which recognized the 50 global travel marketers that were exceptional in 2013.

Our new Skift30 list defines the online travel industry in U.S. and Europe. These executives help foster the startup ecosystem either by serially starting companies, by investing in it, by mentoring it, by looking at acquiring companies in the space, by doing due diligence on companies in the sector, by defining trends in it, or by completely redefining whole swathes of it.

From Philip Wolf, the charismatic founder of PhoCusWright who defined online travel for a whole industry, to Joel Cutler, the investor-kingmaker in online travel, to Marina Kolesnik, the CEO of Russian online travel giant Travel.ru, and one of the few top woman CEOs in online travel, to Brian Chesky and Travis Kalanick, who are singlehandedly reinventing huge sectors of the industry, these 30 picks represent the forefront of innovation in online travel.

One big caveat: as this list shows, the number of people who define the online travel industry in U.S. and Europe is small, white and predominantly male. It is a clear problem at the C level in online travel, and hopefully in the coming years we hope to see the list be as diverse as our first list of top travel marketers.

Check the full Skift30 list here.

As usual, we love any and all feedback — positive or negative — drop us a line 30@skift.com or comment below.