Expedia Business Services' New Top Boss to Pull Levers for Long-Term Growth
Skift Take
Expedia in December promoted Ariane Gorin to become boss of Expedia Business Services. Gorin had led a team that had recently won major enterprise accounts, like Marriott's exclusive redistribution deal. Opportunity abounds for the company to expand its business-to-business partnerships.
At the same time that Expedia Chairman Barry Diller took control of the company's leadership last December, he promoted Ariane Gorin to an expanded role as group president of Expedia Business Services.
Gorin had been president of Expedia Partner Solutions, which provides business-to-business services. Under the new group Expedia Business Services, Gorin now also oversees Egencia, the corporate travel arm. The company created the Expedia Business Services umbrella group last year, and Egencia boss Rob Greyber now reports to Gorin.
Since then, Diller has groused about Expedia Group's inefficiency. The company in late February announced layoffs for about 12 percent of its workforce.
Much of Diller's publicly voiced complaints have been about the group's consumer-facing groups.
But the teams Gorin oversees are on the business-to-business side. The "partner solutions" effort lets airlines, hotels, online and offline travel agencies, and other companies onward sell Expedia's travel offers and get a cut.
Gorin has a track record of success. She helped champion several enterprise deals that launched in late 2018 and led to a rise in gross bookings in 2019.
Skift caught up with Gorin to get an update. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Skift: Why has the company created a new organization called Expedia Business Services?
Ariane Gorin: While Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS) and Egencia have different end-users, the teams share many common practices and capabilities. They can learn and help one another
