Travelport GDS appoints Mark Ryan as Chief Information Officer

Travelport GDS has appointed Mark P. Ryan as its new chief information officer (CIO) with the global responsibility for formulating and executing the company’s technology strategy, including software solutions and applications development.

Ryan leads a team of more than 500 Travelport technology professionals worldwide with development hubs located in Atlanta, Denver and Kansas City in the United States as well as Langley in the UK.

He also oversees Travelport’s joint venture technology operation in Delhi, India and manages an additional 1,000 development staff through relationships with application partners and service providers in Asia, North America and Europe.

Ryan is based in Atlanta and reports to Travelport GDS president and chief executive officer Gordon Wilson.

“Mark Ryan brings vast experience to Travelport, having worked in demanding technology leadership roles at Matria Healthcare, eBay, weather.com, Vodafone and IBM,” said Gordon Wilson. “Mark is a ‘hands-on’ leader with a strong track record for establishing technology strategy and governance, combined with exemplary process and operational execution. I’m excited about the insight into alternative technologies that Mark will bring to Travelport’s solutions portfolio and his unique perspective on delivering content to optimise the consumer experience.”

Most recently, Mark Ryan served as senior vice president and chief information officer of Atlanta-based Matria Healthcare, leading 350 IT professionals supporting 50 facilities located across the USA.

Prior to joining Matria Healthcare in 2005, he was chief technology officer and a board director of Vodafone Global Content Services, part of the world's largest mobile cellular phone service provider based in the UK.

From 1999 to 2001, Ryan was chief technology officer at Weather.com/The Weather Channel, where his initiatives were credited with significantly improving customer satisfaction during severe weather situations and helping to propel weather.com to become one of the most highly accessed weather websites in the world.

Ryan also served as chief technology officer for eBay where his leadership resulted in the improvement of the company's website stability, availability and overall quality at a time of exponential growth.

Ryan spent eighteen years with IBM prior to joining eBay and was an executive-on-loan to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Games in the role of chief integration architect.

“I’m delighted to be joining Travelport at a time when innovation is playing such a critical role, both in the re-invention of the GDS model and in keeping travel customers competitive,” said Mark Ryan. “I’m looking forward to applying my knowledge and experience as we accelerate development of many of Travelport’s ‘game-changing’ technologies such as e-Pricing, Universal Desktop and our collaborative ‘journey manager’ project with Microsoft.”

Mark Ryan succeeds Keith Woodcock, who stepped in to the CIO role on an interim basis following former CIO Sue Powers’ appointment as CEO, Travelport IT Services & Software in April this year.

Woodcock now returns full time to his role as senior vice president, New Business Development.

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