Orbitz co-founder Alex Zoghlin named ATPCO CEO, Rolf Purzer to retire

Alex Zoghlin - a serial entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CTO of Orbitz - will join ATPCO November 1 to transition into the role of CEO when current president and CEO Rolf Purzer retires, effective January 2021.

Zoghlin has had a long and diverse history in the travel industry. Upon leaving Orbitz after its IPO in late-2003, Zoghlin went on to create G2 SwitchWorks, providing direct connection between airlines and third-party distributors. He left there in 2008 when Travelport acquired the company and then worked outside the travel industry before reentering in 2013 as an executive at Hyatt Hotels. Most recently, he has served as founding partner at Machine Learning Ventures.

Purzer joined ATPCO in 1996 and has been president and CEO since 2017, overseeing the company’s acquisition of Routehappy in early 2018. That company’s founder, Robert Albert, stayed on with ATPCO until July when he left to pursue other interests. 

With the integration of Routehappy, ATPCO has in recent years expanded its services beyond fare filing to spur more modernized flight shopping based on a range of attributes and offerings in addition to price.

In recent months, ATPCO has created multiple content products to help airlines and sales channels better communicate COVID-19 policies to consumers. And in June it launched an “Emergency Flexibility” solution to enable airlines to automate the processing of changes due to pandemic-related travel restrictions. 

Under Purzer’s leadership, ATPCO also partnered with SITA to create the NDC Exchange platform, designed to simplify adoption of IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard. He also launched internal initiatives including ATPCO’s Lead From the Front program in 2018 to develop women leaders in the industry. 

“ATPCO’s vision toward all content, all channels, and best‐in‐class tools remains unchanged. ATPCO has been the connective tissue between airlines and distribution, supporting an entire ecosystem; our mission to support the airline industry will not falter,” Purzer says.

“It has been a privilege to work at ATPCO for the last quarter century and serve as ATPCO’s CEO for the last four years. I will be leaving ATPCO in the capable hands of dedicated staff and, with the Board’s full blessing, I know Alex will be a leader that can continue to move ATPCO into the next chapter.”

Says Jerry Foran, board chair at ATPCO and head of product delivery, global revenue at British Airways: “For decades, Rolf has been a leader supporting the air distribution ecosystem. He has fundamentally shaped ATPCO into a modern industry utility whose innovation is changing flight shopping for the better. With Alex joining ATPCO, the organization is in good hands and well positioned for the future and will continue to serve the industry as an integral and neutral organization.”