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John F. Davis III is chairman of the board, chief executive officer and president of Dallas-based Pegasus Solutions, Inc., a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors.
In 1988, Davis was recruited by 16 of the world's leading hotel and travel-related companies to launch a company that would lower hotel reservation distribution costs. He led the launch of the Pegasus Electronic Distribution "switch" technology, which was created originally to link the central reservation systems of hotel companies with the major airline global distribution systems (GDS), such as SABRE and Galileo. Today, this technology enables more than 60,000 hotels to be booked by agents via the GDSs as well as to be booked on alternative distribution channels such as Internet sites.
In 1992, Davis led the formation of Pegasus Commission Processing, the industry's first hotel commission clearinghouse. As the world's largest provider of hotel commission payment processing services, Pegasus now provides more than 35,000 major hotels and thousands of travel agencies worldwide with consolidated commission payment and management reporting via an electronic network.
In 1994, Davis led the launch of TravelWeb.com, which was the first Web site to offer real-time online hotel reservations. Over the years, the site evolved to offer reservations at more than 50,000 hotels, and its booking engine and content database became the foundation for Pegasus' successful online distribution business, which now powers thousands of sites, including Hotwire, Expedia and Orbitz.
In 2000, Davis led Pegasus' acquisition of REZsolutions, Inc., the hotel industry's largest third-party marketing and reservation provider. As a result of this transaction, Pegasus grew from 150 employees to 1,200 employees in 12 countries. Through this acquisition of REZsolutions' Utell business and its RezView central reservations system, Pegasus immediately became the major player in both the CRS and hotel representation arenas.
In 2003, Davis led Pegasus in the purchase of Unirez, Inc., one of the fastest growing hotel reservations services companies in the world. The acquisition of Unirez allowed Pegasus to expand its U.S. hotel customer base and enhance its technology offerings to small hotel chains and independents worldwide. With the Utell and Unirez portfolios combined, Pegasus now represents more than 1 million rooms in more than 7,000 independent and small hotel properties around the world, making Pegasus the leading provider of hotel representation services.
A longtime entrepreneur, Davis co-founded the toll-free ordering company 800-FLOWERS for the floral industry. After selling the company, he founded a telemarketing company, ATC Communications. Within two years, ATC's sales had jumped from zero to $25 million, and its staff had grown to 1,200 employees. By 1988, Davis had made ATC one of the nation's largest providers of inbound and outbound telemarketing services. Prior to these entrepreneurial successes, Davis was president of Mid-South Drilling Company as well as the campaign director and treasurer for Senator John G. Tower's re-election campaign in 1978.
Davis serves on the boards of Pegasus Solutions and TRX Inc., and is on the Board of Trustees of Texas Christian University (TCU). Davis is also a member of the International Board of Visitors of TCU's M.J. Neeley School of Business.
Davis holds a bachelor of business administration degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Davis lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife and three sons. | 