A 20-year veteran airline industry executive and expert in electronic reservations systems technology, Jeffrey Katz was most recently chairman of the board and CEO of Orbitz, the travel website founded by Mr. Katz, American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United airlines. Known as a company that was innovative with technology and oriented towards customer care, Orbitz grew quickly in scale to be among the top 3 online travel sites with over $4B in gross travel sales.
Prior to joining Orbitz, Katz was president and chief executive officer of Swissair Group’s core airline unit, Swissair. Previous to Swissair, Katz spent 17 years at American Airlines where he honed his industry expertise in positions, including finance, pricing and sales; and In-flight Service. In 1993, the AMR Corp. board elected Katz vice president of American Airlines and president of the Computerized Reservation System Division (CRS) of SABRE, where he was responsible for its worldwide CRS business
Katz was named one of four “People to Watch 2001” (leisure travel) in USA Today, and is published in The Heidrick & Struggles Leadership Opus: Access and Influence in the 21st Century. He is a well-known speaker at such prominent venues as the 2001 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and the 2004 PC Forum. He is frequently interviewed on airline and online travel issues by national and local media such as USA Today, The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN and CNBC.
Katz holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California-Davis, and Master’s degrees from both Stanford University in California and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Katz is a licensed commercial, instrument, and multi engine pilot.
Concurrent with the sale to Cendant, Mr Katz left Orbitz and has begun serving on boards including the City of Hope National Cancer Research Institute where he chairs the board’s technology committee. He is also a member of the board of directors of Northwest Airlines, and friendster.com an internet startup based in Mountain View, California.