Travelport announced today the appointment of Maria Chevalier as Global Vice President of Corporate Incubation, a newly created role to help develop Travelport’s corporate and commercial offering. Maria brings over 25 years of business travel industry experience and expertise in travel strategies, data management and customer experience. Chevalier joins Travelport this month and reports into Travelport’s Chief Commercial Officer, Kurt Ekert.

Ekert said: “Maria brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the corporate sector that will be incredibly valuable at this important stage in our growth as a company. This is a newly created role that will develop and drive our offering to corporations working alongside our Group Vice President, Global Accounts & Corporate Direct Sales, Sandra McLeod.  With this role focused on innovation, Maria’s direct sector knowledge will help Travelport to incubate and bring to market new and enhanced products and services for corporate customers.”

Maria Chevalier added: “Joining Travelport, a business that is driving change in the global travel industry and redefining travel commerce, is a great opportunity for me. It is a company I know well and have admired from afar for how it has led the change in the way travel is distributed and transacted. I look forward to applying my experience in the corporate sector and identifying the next opportunities and customer innovations that will help Travelport continue to deliver a superior service to its corporate customers.”

Maria joins Travelport from her own consulting firm. She was previously Global Director of Travel & Meetings Services at HP and at Johnson & Johnson, with responsibility for traveling employees in over 65 countries, credit card, travel technology, airline, hotel, ground transportation, meetings and travel agency. Earlier in her career, Maria held several senior executive roles at BCD Travel in their hotel relations and consulting divisions and was COO of the Travel Desk.

The investment in the newly created Corporate Incubation role follows other investments by Travelport earlier in the year focused on its offering to corporations.  Travelport acquired Hotelzon, a provider of corporate hotel booking technology, and also invested in Locomote, an Australian based corporate travel procurement and management platform. Travelport will continue to develop its offering in the business travel space and, as well as strengthening its partnerships with TMCs, it will look at new opportunities to invest in products that distribute travel technology solutions to corporations.