Sabre Travel Network Gets An Interim President

Sabre Corp. named Wade Jones interim president for Sabre Travel Network, the company’s GDS business and its mobile-enabled platform for travel buyers. In addition, he will retain his responsibilities as senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Travel Network.

Since joining the company in 2015, Jones has been involved in a number of business development and technology initiatives.

Among them was the integration of Abacus, the Asian GDS that was a joint venture of Sabre, which supplied the technology, and a consortium of Asian airlines. Sabre acquired the entirety of the business in 2015.

Jones also has played a key role in the development of the new version of the Sabre Red Workspace platform, with a goal of providing a “holistic view” of suppliers’ products to travel agencies. The rollout is slated for mid-2017.

Before joining Sabre, he was senior vice president and general manager of Deem Inc., a company that aims to simplify business travel management. Jones oversaw Deem’s Syndicated Commerce business unit, which included product management and development, marketing, content sourcing and distribution, operations and account management of strategic partnerships.

Meanwhile, Sabre is conducting an internal and external search for a permanent president of Travel Network to replace Sean Menke, who became president, chief executive officer and member of the board of Sabre Corp. on Dec. 31. Jones remains in the running to fill the permanent position.