Amadeus announced the appointment of Rajiv Rajian as Global Head of Business Travel.
With global business travel spend set to reach $1.6 trillion in 2020*, Rajian will be tasked with driving continued growth worldwide across three key pillars of Amadeus’ business travel division: Global Travel Management Companies (TMCs), the Specialty and Networks customers, and corporations.
This will consist of leading global TMCs and clients operating in the managed travel verticals such as marine and energy as well as the franchise and network clients. The role will also encompass expanding Amadeus’ business travel portfolio, including Amadeus cytric Travel & Expense and continuing to support the 11,000+ customers that use Amadeus’ online booking tools today.
Rajian brings 20 years of deep travel industry expertise to Amadeus, with a strong track record in business travel, product marketing, strategy and mergers and acquisitions. In his most recent role, Rajian was responsible for all commercial activities for Sabre Travel Network, incorporating both global and corporate customers, as Vice President, Global Sales & Account Management. Before that, Rajian spent time as Vice President, Product Marketing, also at Sabre, with responsibility worldwide for all points of sale and platform solutions.
Rajian will oversee all areas of Amadeus’ growing business travel portfolio, including Global Travel Management Companies (TMCs), the Specialty and Networks customers, and corporations
“Corporate employees can be demanding travellers, requiring instant, mobile and personalised itineraries that allow them to travel and work efficiently. At the same time, corporations need to control their corporate travel whilst ensuring traveller safety, compliance and cost management. I’m excited to lead our team as we look to not only transform the corporate traveller journey but also grow Amadeus’ entire business travel portfolio; across Global TMCs, Specialty and Networks, and corporations”, said Rajiv Rajian, the new Global Head of Business Travel, Amadeus.
“The appointment of Rajiv is something of a milestone for Amadeus’ business travel division growth,” said Laurens Leurink, Senior Vice President, Distribution, Amadeus. “Today business travel is no longer simply about just the booking. It is about the complete end-to-end journey and the wider travel ecosystem too. Given his experience and expertise, I am convinced that Rajiv will shape the future of our business travel portfolio, with much energy and enthusiasm to expand Amadeus’ footprint both in terms of the customers we are serving and the breadth of solutions that we can offer them”.
This appointment follows the successful launch of Amadeus cytric Travel & Expense earlier in 2016, which itself followed Amadeus’ acquisition of a majority shareholding in i:FAO in April 2014, a leader in solutions for corporations. Amadeus cytric Travel & Expense was launched to combine the best features of Amadeus e-Travel Management with the strength of the integrated i:FAO cytric solution.
