Egencia CTO relocates to Europe from Seattle

Alex Kaluzny says move is part of a global reorganization. Continue reading →

Egencia’s chief technology officer  Alex Kaluzny is set to relocate to Paris from Seattle in a bid to better support the company’s global growth initiatives.

The Expedia-owned travel management company is going through a global reorganization as it looks to increase its market share across the world.

Last year, the company opened offices in Hong Kong and Singapore and now has operations in 65 countries.

Kaluzny was previously based in Bellevue, Washington, home of a Egencia development team and headquarters of Expedia, Inc. and other technology giants. The firm says his move to Europe was driven by the growth of technology and development teams outside of the US – which it says have grown twice as fast as those in the US over the last two years – and a need to compete in a race for global talent.

“As a company, we want to put key players in strategic regions to spearhead business growth,” said Kaluzny. “My proximity to Egencia development staff in France will help us compete for talent outside of the U.S., which in turn contributes to our global success. By moving to Paris, I can get more facetime with the teams and hopefully be a more effective leader across the regions.

In 2016, Egencia launched a smartwatch app and a new travel intelligence dashboard for easier reporting for travel managers. In October, the business travel company announced a new global organization to support their ambition to be the “most business traveler-centric company in the world.”

Kaluzny added: “At Egencia, there are only two levels of hierarchy below senior technology leadership – team manager and functional domain leader. We promote this structure to streamline responsibilities and give people ownership of their work. And it works. But it also means the role of each one of us becomes critical to Egencia’s success. My move to Paris will help ensure I can provide full-time support to all team members globally.”

Christophe Peymirat, chief commercial officer at Egencia said: “Alex’s move is indicative of our culture. Two things we all have in common in the Expedia family is a passion for travel, and a belief in the power of diversity. With a truly global organization, we can pull from a vast variety of talent and our employees reap the benefits of traveling for work.”