Expedia Group has named Peter Kern, its Vice Chairman, as its new CEO, and company veteran Eric Hart as its new CFO. The news comes four months after the travel booking site’s previous CEO and CFO left the company. Expedia has been without a CEO and CFO since Mark Okerstrom and Alan Pickerill resigned December 4 over disagreements with the board on strategy.
The company also announced it has raised $3.2 billion to help it survive the coronavirus pandemic. It is no secret that the travel industry is one that has been the hardest. Expedia will issue $2 billion in debt, and is taking an equity investment of $1.2 billion from two private-equity firms, Apollo Global Management and Silver Lake.
Kern has been a member of the Board since 2005, and became Vice Chairman in 2018. He was previously CEO of Tribune Media. Expedia Board Chair Barry Diller said that Kern has assisted him with operational supervision of the company since the CEO and CFO left in December, “In these last five months, he has shown outstanding leadership in all aspects of the business, first in a wide reorganization and then dealing with the impact of the Corona crisis on our business.”
Eric Hart has worked at Expedia for 11 years, and was most recently Chief Strategy Officer. He has served as acting CFO since Pickerill’s resignation.
The company also announced that the Chairman, CEO and members of the Board will forgo salary for the remainder of the year, and the other senior executives will take a 25% pay cut.
