Expedia Group CEO Mark Okerstrom And CFO Alan Pickerill Resigning

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2019
  • Expedia Group announced the resignation of Mark Okerstrom as CEO and CFO Alan Pickerill, effective immediately

Today Expedia Group announced the resignation of Mark Okerstrom as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors and CFO Alan Pickerill, effective immediately. Going forward, Barry Diller, Chairman of the Board, and Vice Chairman Peter Kern, Director of Expedia, will oversee the executive leadership team at the company. And they will manage day-to-day operations while the board determines the long-term leadership of the company.

And Expedia Group Chief Strategy Officer Eric Hart will serve as acting CFO. Ariane Gorin — who most recently served as President of Expedia Partner Solutions — is being promoted and will have an expanded role as President of Expedia Business Services. Okerstrom and Pickerill both took these roles in 2017 when Okerstrom succeeded current Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Expedia also announced a new share repurchase authorization for up to an additional 20 million shares of Expedia’s common stock — which is in addition to the 9 million shares available under the company’s existing authorization. Now Expedia has approximately 29 million shares available under its repurchase program.

“Ultimately, senior management and the Board disagreed on strategy. Earlier this year, Expedia embarked on an ambitious reorganization plan with the goal of bringing our brands and technology together in a more efficient way. This reorganization, while sound in concept, resulted in a material loss of focus on our current operations, leading to disappointing third-quarter results and a lackluster near-term outlook. The Board disagreed with that outlook, as well as the departing leadership’s vision for growth, strongly believing the company can accelerate growth in 2020. That divergence necessitated a change in management. Mark Okerstrom is a talented executive and his 13 years of service to Expedia has greatly benefited the enterprise. The Board and I wish him the best for the future, as we do for Alan Pickerill,” said IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia Group chairman and senior executive Barry Diller. “I will be purchasing additional shares in the company as a tangible sign of my faith in and commitment to Expedia’s long-term future,” added Diller.

“While we share and understand the investment community’s unhappiness with our third-quarter results and how 2019 has shaped up overall, we are keenly focused on the future and all of the opportunities ahead of us. We believe there is significant opportunity for Expedia to grow revenue and margins in what is a still a very dynamic online travel industry,” added Kern. “The company has an exceptionally strong and deep executive leadership team in place. Barry and I, as well as the entire Board, look forward to working closely with them in the period ahead, as well as over the long-term. Additionally, we intend to use our strong balance sheet to continue and amplify our stock repurchase program, given our belief that the market currently undervalues our company.”

Diller has been Chairman of the Board of Expedia Group since 2002 when IAC/InterActiveCorp acquired a controlling interest in Expedia and has been Senior Executive of Expedia since the completion of the company’s spin-off from IAC in 2005. And Kern has been a director of Expedia Group since 2005 and has served as Vice Chairman of Expedia Group since June 2018. Kern was most recently CEO and board member of Tribune Media Company and is Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners VII. Plus Kern also serves as Chairman of Hemisphere Media Group and is on the board of Trivago.

Expedia Group’s family of travel brands includes Brand Expedia, Hotels.com, Expedia Partner Solutions, Vrbo, Egencia, trivago, HomeAway, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Wotif, ebookers, CheapTickets, Expedia Group Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert, CarRentals.com, Expedia CruiseShipCenters, Classic Vacations, Traveldoo, VacationRentals.com, and SilverRail.