2013 Executive Excellence Awards (CEOs): Dara Khosrowshahi

Since taking over as CEO of Expedia in 2005, DARA KHOSROWSHAHI has led the charge to overhaul the companys technology to secure its place as the worlds leading online travel agent. In the past five years alone, Expedia has spent $1 billion on new technology. Nobody else [in travel] can spend that kind of money, says Khosrowshahi.

The company had $3.4 billion in 2011 revenues, which has allowed Expedia to continuously improve the customer experiencefrom offering more choice to radically increasing the speed of its websites. At Hotels.com, one of Expedias 100 online travel sites, that investment translated into revenue growth of 39 percent in 2011, up from 12 percent the year before. Its not surprising that the companys mission statement is to revolutionize travel through the power of technology.

Educated in engineering, Khosrowshahi started his career in finance, learning the art of mergers and acquisitions at Allen & Co. He used that talent to make acquisitions across the globe, establishing a presence in 60 countries. In the year ended June 2012, Expedias international revenues grew 16 percent to $1.5 billion.

Technology plays an important role in binding together those disparate properties. But if technology is the companys engine, the fuel is the passion of its employees. To stoke that passion, Expedia requires employees to use all their vacation time each year and offers employees hundreds of dollars a year to purchase services on Expedia sites. Employees are encouraged to send email if they see something wrong and engineers are assigned to fix those problems. You want employees passionate about your product, says Khosrowshahi.

Developing a diverse workforce is also important Khosrowshahi says. Travel is about diversity and we want to live those values. He adds: The big war is the war for talent, and its in our self interest over the long term to embrace diversity.