Wyndham Appoints Venky Rangachari CTO
JULY 24, 2009 - Wyndham Hotel Group, a business unit of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: WYN) and the world's largest hotel company with approximately 7,000 hotels and 11 brands, has appointed Venky Rangachari as chief technology officer, responsible for the development and implementation of the company's technology initiatives.
Rangachari will oversee the Hotel Group's information technology department and will lead the overall strategic direction for the Hotel Group's technology efforts, ensuring alignment of the company's technology vision with its business strategy.
"Venky has extensive experience in hospitality and franchising, a combination that makes him an ideal addition to the Hotel Group's leadership team," said Robert Loewen, Wyndham Hotel Group executive vice president and chief financial officer. "As a global hospitality company that franchises and manages hotels in 66 countries, Wyndham Hotel Group requires an expert who is well-versed in implementing and managing initiatives in large, complex organizations."
Most recently, Rangachari was chief information officer at StarCite, a global leader in meetings management solutions, where he developed technology strategy, reduced operating expenses by 20 percent and implemented a company-wide learning management system that helped prepare employees for the company's next generation products.
Prior to joining StarCite, Rangachari was vice president of operations at Jacent Technologies, an on-demand solutions provider for the restaurant industry. While there he managed the Web operations order management system for the Pizza Hut(R) and Quiznos(R) chains.
Rangachari also held various positions with Stratify, an Iron Mountain company and one of the world's largest electronic discovery service providers working with some of the highest grossing law firms in the U.S. and general counsel from Fortune 500 companies; Digiprise, a provider of customer relationship management and employee relationship management solutions for small to mid-size services companies; and Exodus Communications, an Internet hosting service and Internet service provider to dot-com businesses.
He is a member of the CIO Executive Council, an executive organization of global business leaders working to drive value from the intersection of business, information technology and strategy.
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