New Zealand-based online booking technology provider Serko has
appointed corporate travel technology veteran Johnny Thorsen vice president of
strategic business development, effective immediately.
Thorsen will lead Serko’s strategic growth initiatives and
enhance the company’s positioning as a market leader in business travel. His
responsibilities include developing Serko’s network of travel management company
partners through the commercialization of Serko’s growing platform ecosystem.
Additionally, Thorsen will focus on enhancing Serko’s product offerings through
innovation, building customer acquisition strategies and fostering partnerships
to ensure long-term growth and leadership in the North American market.
Thorsen is an innovation expert named among BTN’s Most
Influential in Business Travel in 2024, 2018 and 2010. He has held leadership roles
at some of the highest profile travel tech startups in the last 15 years—most recently
at Spotnana as VP business development for content distribution but also at one of the first AI-driven
mobile booking platforms Mezi and his own mobile communications platform ConTgo
acquired by Concur in 2013. He has served in advisory roles for such platforms
as Troop and Thrust Carbon. His reputation as a corporate travel visionary
brings a zest for tech transformation to the newly created role.
Serko CEO Darrin Grafton noted in a statement Thorsen’s “ability
to anticipate trends” in the travel industry, his passion for innovation and his
skills that “bring transformative ideas to life.”
Growth in North America is a major focus for Serko, given
its recent acquisition
of GetThere and its strategic partnership with Sabre to accelerate
innovation and coordinate sales and marketing efforts. In a November interview with
BTN, Grafton outlined Serko’s road
ahead in the region.
Thorson called out “significant opportunities to strengthen
the brand” and “solidify [Serko’s] leadership in North America and beyond.”
Serko today provided an updated investment figure at US$100
million over the next three years to enhance its platform that now includes a
number of entry points: GetThere, Zeno and Serko’s partnership with Booking.com
to serve entry-level corporate travel booking technology.
Platform development will be critical as the business travel
tech market in North America is heating up with players like Spotnana (and
Direct Travel under Steve Singh’s leadership) and TravelPerk challenge the
market with big acquisitions and rollouts last year. At the same time, business
travel booking tech leader Concur has re-vamped its platform and is
aggressively moving clients to the new tools. GetThere has been a relatively
sedate player in the market and has been viewed—at least outwardly—as an aging
workhorse.
Grafton told BTN in November the innovation ramp at GetThere looks different on the
inside, where impressive modernization has already taken place.
While Thorsen’s reputation as an innovator precedes him, his
30-plus years in corporate travel leadership roles also includes legacy
business travel players Concur and American Express. Even legacy players were
one-time startups, and Thorsen was there. For five years starting in 1998—when one-time
Internet Travel Network was acquired by Sabre and got its new name as GetThere—Thorsen
led the charge as business development director for the EMEA market.
