Terry Jones, the founder of Travelocity.com
The residents of Qatar particularly young aspiring entrepreneurs are going to have an opportunity to benefit from innovative entrepreneur Terry Jones, the founder of Travelocity.com, who will be speaking at Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC) auditorium on April 24.
Widely known in the world for founding Travelocity.com and serving as founding Chairman of Kayak.com, Terry Jones has become a powerful voice in the world of entrepreneurship through his numerous speaking engagements and the publication of his book, “ON Innovation”.
QBIC empowers entrepreneurs to start and grow companies through QBIC’s unique programmes aimed at developing Qatar’s entrepreneurial scene and young businesses with a high potential to grow, including the very successful “LeanStartup” and “LeanScaleup” programmes run several times during the year, according to QBIC website.
Being organised under QBIC Speaker Series, the topic of Jones address is “Disruptive Technologies – The Fuel for Innovative New Business Models”. “Join us for a special speaker series session with a world-renowned industry leader in collaboration with the US Embassy in Qatar,” QBIC said on its social media page.
Jones, who began his career as a travel agent, spent 24 years at American Airlines, in marketing and information technology, capping his career as Chief Information Officer of its SABRE division. While at SABRE, he led a team of six working on a project that became Travelocity.com. Jones served as CEO of Travelocity for seven years transforming it to a public company with $3bn in travel sales, says Jones personal website tbjones.com
He left Travelocity when the company was taken private and became part of the founding team at Kayak.com, a company that yet again revolutionised how travel was purchased. He served as the chairman of the company from its founding until it was sold to Priceline for $1.8bn in 2013.
Today he is the Chairman of Wayblazer and managing principal of "ON Inc", a consultancy he founded to help companies in their transition to the digital economy. He has served on the boards of 13 public and private companies and currently serves on the boards of Wayblazer, Boingo, Smart Destinations and The Camping and Education Foundation.
In previous years, QBIC has hosted several sessions held by renowned professionals and high profile entrepreneurs, such as Louis Foremen, founder of Edison Nation; Elmar Mock, co-inventor of SWATCH; Dr Kai Ruggeri, Researcher and Lecturer at University of Cambridge; Mohammed Jaffar, former CEO of Talabat.com; Rabea Ataya, founder and CEO of Bayt.com; and Christopher Free, General Manager of UBER Qatar and UAE to encourage and support aspiring entrepreneurs in Qatar.
QBIC offers "a complete range of services either to start up from your first idea or to grow an existing company, including space, support, industrial workshops for light manufacture, smart financing , and mentoring and coaching". The lecture of Jones for registered participants will be from 5pm – 7pm on April 24 at QBIC Auditorium – Salwa Road, Exit 17.
