PHOENIX - Ric Leutwyler has been hired as the new vice president of E-Commerce for Best Western International. In addition to his e-commerce experience, he brings to Best Western a wealth of knowledge and experience in sales and marketing, business development, financial management and travel industry experience. In his position, he will be charged with further developing Best Western’s rapidly growing worldwide internet reservations business and e-commerce marketing channels.

Leutwyler comes to Best Western from Trilegiant Corporation where he was executive vice president and general manager of all products. Prior to that, he worked for 10 years at Cendant Corporation in various executive management capacities of the direct marketing and travel divisions. Most notably, he served as senior vice president and general manager of the Auto, Leisure and Travel division, CEO of Central Credit, Inc. and president of RCI Travel. Leutwyler began his career in 1983 with AT&T. During which time he began as a sales representative and worked his way up to national account manager for several top accounts.

Leutwyler holds a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Iowa where he double majored in marketing/industrial relations and human resources. He also served in the United States Marine Corps.

“Ric’s previous experience in intermediary marketing operations and online business development will be essential to his success with Best Western,” says Mike Kistner, CIO and vice president of Information Systems for Best Western. “We have enjoyed tremendous success in our e-commerce initiatives and we look to Ric’s experience and leadership to continue that momentum.”

Best Western International is The World’s Largest Hotel Chain? with more than 4,000 hotels in 80 countries and territories. It is a membership association of independently owned and operated hotels that provides marketing, reservations and operational support to its member hotels.

——-