Skift Take
Fogel was the deals guy who helped construct an online travel powerhouse. Now he runs it, and Booking Holdings is expanding its product lines and global footprint.
Power is not just about who holds the top job but who shapes the landscape, drives innovation, and sets the agenda for what comes next. With that in mind, we proudly present Skift’s Power Rankings — our list of the most powerful leaders in travel.
Booking Holdings is now the largest travel business and one of the most profitable, and current CEO Glenn Fogel played a key role in putting all the pieces together starting two decades ago.
In 2004 and 2005, as head of corporate development for Priceline, he led the acquisitions of the UK’s Active Hotels and the Dutch accommodations site Bookings, which a year later merged to create Booking.com. In 2018, Skift characterized it as the “greatest acquisition in online travel history.”
“Glenn Fogel is a great guy, who did all the right acquisitions when everybody did the wrong acquisitions,” tech and startup investor Arthur Kosten told Skift in 2018. Kosten prev