September 2014 BCBusiness 19 brAm beLLONi
Darren Huston
The B.C.-born CEO of travel behemoth Priceline
Group wants to emulate his ex-boss Bill Gates
and completely dominate his industry, one
website at a time
by Shannon Melnyk
D
arren Huston, the family
farmhand turned
CEO
of $60-billion Priceline
Group Inc., is arguably
one of the most success-
ful C-suite exports to come out of
this province that you've never
heard of. Born in Hope, B.C.,
and equipped with a Master of
Economics from
UBC and an MBA
from Harvard, Huston quickly
climbed the corporate ladder
at Starbucks and Microsoft as
a senior VP, including a three-
year run as president and
CEO
of Microsoft Japan. In 2011, he
landed at Amsterdam-based
travel website Booking.com as
CEO; in less than three years'
time, he tripled the size of that
operation, and in January of this
year Huston was named
CEO of
the parent company, Priceline.
In addition to Booking.com and
its eponymous website, Price-
line's other online properties
include Kayak, Rentalcars, Agoda
and Villas. This June, Priceline
expanded into a new digital
realm, purchasing table-booking
app OpenTable, the preeminent
restaurant reservation site, for
$2.6 billion.
Is it true that even you had
never heard of Booking.com
before you became a candidate
for
CEO?
Yes. That was partly due to the
fact that the historical focus of both the
Booking.com business, as well as the brand
awareness, has been in Europe. I was
attracted to the growth potential, but Book-
ing.com also suited my passion for technol-
ogy, travel, consumer-oriented business
and leading people. In the Netherlands,
it was always their biggest fear to have an
American come and run Booking.com, as
the culture is very European. When they
knew I was Canadian, it was a real positive
and they were relieved.
T O U R I S M
