Gordon Wilson, the new president and CEO of
Travelport GDS, the entity created to oversee Worldspan and
Galileo, said his new management team will take a holistic view
when paring redundancies and integrating customer services over the
next four months.
Wilson, a former
Galileo CEO, and key executives taken from both Galileo and
Worldspan were appointed by Travelport last week to oversee the
impending transition and combination of the two GDS giants, after
the Travelport acquisition of Worldspan was finalized last
month.
"What the
management aims to do through this new structure is look at the GDS
business and make sure as we build new products and add features
that we start making those products consistent across both of the
GDS operations," Wilson said in a telephone interview last week
from his offices in the U.K.
As that process
gets under way with Travelport and its private equity owner, the
Blackstone Group, looking for at least $100 million in cost savings
from the merger, there will be employee layoffs and changes in
systems.
But more
importantly, Wilson said, the new senior management will be focused
on streamlining functionality and content so that Galileo customers
will have access to Worldspan services and vice versa.
"Our first priority
is to complete the integration as rapidly as possible," Wilson
said. "In deference to our customers and to our own people, we need
to make it clear as soon as we can who is doing what, and who
customers should contact going forward."
To that end, a
steering committee, which will include Wilson and Travelport CEO
Jeff Clarke among others, will work with several integration teams
from Galileo and Worldspan as they check off tasks on their
timetable.
"We have assembled
a cost-functional integration team from both Galileo and
Worldspan," Wilson said. "Every major part of the business, from
operations to technology, will have dedicated units and will
complete different parts of the integration at different times.
Each unit will disband when those tasks are complete, all by year's
end."
Travelport named
Philip Emery, CFO of Galileo, to fill that same position at
Travelport GDS. Kevin Mooney, CFO at Worldspan, has been named
chief commercial officer. Sue Powers, chief information officer at
Worldspan for the past five years, will fill the same post at
Travelport GDS.
Others on the new
senior executive team include Dave Lauderdale, chief technology
officer, who comes from Worldspan; Tad Ostrowski, general counsel,
who held that post at Galileo; Lee Golding, human resources senior
vice president, who comes from Galileo; and Bob Goggin, vice
chairman of Travelport GDS, also from Galileo.
Wilson said that
job cuts and other efficiencies will address what the combined
companies share.
"Ultimately, with
Galileo and Worldspan, we have two of everything," Wilson said. "We
have two data centers, where we don't need two. We won't need to
spend doubly on marketing because we will have one GDS marketing
message, and we won't need to spend time to develop products twice.
We will save money in all those places."
To
contact reporter Dan Luzadder, send e-mail to [email protected].