Security Expert Paul Viollis' Safety Tips for a Meeting

"We live in a world where anything can happen, anywhere," Paul Viollis, a security specialist and president of Viollis Group International, says in Successful Meetings'most recent cover story. "A better strategy is for planners and suppliers to add a deeper level of due diligence to their risk management protocols."

Here are some other words of wisdom Viollis delivered during the 2016 Successful Meetings International in New York City on the topic of risk management.








Read Full Article @ http://www.successfulmeetings.com/Strategy/Meeting-Strategies/Security-Expert-Paul-Viollis--Safety-Tips-for-a-Meeting/

Darren Huston's email

Location : Vancouver, BC, Canada


Work : CEO & Founder, BlackPines Capital Partners @ CEO & Founder at BlackPines Capital Partners
Executive Advisor @ Hillhouse Capital (高瓴资本)
CEO & Founder @ BP Global Advisors, B.V.

Education : 1992-1994 MBA in General Management @ Harvard University
1989-1990 MA in Economics @ University of British Columbia
1985-1989 BSc Honours in Economics @ Trent University
1983-1985 International Baccalaureate @ United World College of the Adriatic


Click Here To Know Full Information: https://rocketreach.co/darren-huston-email_427743

From The Commoner to CEO: Darren Huston

Darren Huston became the president and CEO of Microsoft Japan in July 2005, moving to Japan with his wife Clarissa (who graduated from Trent in 1990) and their children Erinne (six) and Owen (three). 

Before joining Microsoft, Darren Huston was a senior vice president at Starbucks Coffee Company where, among other things, he led the rollout of the Starbucks Card and Wi-Fi to Starbucks stores around the world. A graduate of the United World College in Trieste, Italy, he earned his Honours B.Sc. Honours in economics at Trent, his Masters in economics at UBC, and an MBA from Harvard University.

Read Full Article @ https://www.trentu.ca/trentmagazine/vol37no2/vol37no2.pdf

What CEO Darren Huston learned from Bill Gates

Darren Huston, the family farmhand turned CEO of $60-billion Priceline Group Inc., is arguably one of the most successful C-suite exports to come out of this province that you’ve never heard of.
 
Born in Hope, B.C., and equipped with a Master of Economics from UBC and an MBA from Harvard, Huston quickly climbed the corporate ladder at Starbucks and Microsoft as a senior VP, including a three-year run as president and CEO of Microsoft Japan. 

In 2011, he landed at Amsterdam-based travel website Booking.com as CEO; in less than three years’ time, he tripled the size of that operation, and in January of this year Huston was named CEO of the parent company, Priceline. In addition to Booking.com and its eponymous website, Priceline’s other online properties include Kayak, Rentalcars, Agoda and Villas.

This June, Priceline expanded into a new digital realm, purchasing table-booking app OpenTable, the preeminent restaurant reservation site, for $2.6 billion.

Read Full Article @ https://www.bcbusiness.ca/what-priceline-group-ceo-darren-huston-learned-from-bill-gates

Darren Huston, Founder and CEO of BlackPines Global Advisors

Darren Huston the founder and Chief Executive Officer of BlackPines Global Advisors B.V. incorporated in May 2016 in The Hague.  BlackPines’ mission is to help both owners and leaders of private companies optimize the value of their investments.

Since July 2016, Darren Huston has been working as an Executive Advisor to Hillhouse Capital, Asia’s largest investment firm.  In January 2017, his work with Hillhouse Capital became non-exclusive and he took on two leadership roles.  The first as Chairman of Magento, the world’s largest eCommerce software platform, and the second as Executive Chairman for Allegro, Poland’s largest eCommerce site.

From January 2014 to April 2016, Mr. Darren Huston served as President & CEO of the Priceline Group.  In September 2011, Mr. Huston was appointed to the position of CEO of Booking.com, the principal subsidiary of the Priceline Group. During his tenure, Booking.com expanded four-fold, becoming the world leader in the online booking of accommodations.  The Priceline Group was also named a Fortune 500 “Most Admired Company” for the first time in 2014 and increased its market value from $30 billion in 2011 to now over $80 billion.  Mr. Huston also led the acquisition of OpenTable and investments into Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agency.

Mr. Huston previously held senior executive positions at Microsoft Corporation from 2003-2011, including Corporate Vice President of Global Consumer & Online and President & CEO of Microsoft Japan.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Darren Huston was a Senior Vice President at Starbucks Coffee Company, in charge of acquisitions, alliances and new product development.  In this role, he led many efforts, notably the development of the global WiFi network and the creation of the Starbucks Card.  Previous to Starbucks, Mr. Huston worked at McKinsey & Company (1994 to 1998).

Mr. Darren Huston earned his Master’s degree in economics from the University of British Columbia and his Master’s in business administration from Harvard University.

Read Full Article @ https://www.arts.ubc.ca/walls-vs-bridges-panelist-bios/

Paul Viollis, Looking at College Housing and Safety

Episode 88: Assignment #8–Looking at College Housing and Safety

Listen to The Security Brief with Paul Viollis, coming to a TV station near you this fall and currently a podcast on CBS radio. Paul Viollis is truly the expert on this topic.

So, if you visit a campus housing facility with your teenager, notice whether there is an adult uniformed security guard with sign-in and sign-out books at the entrance of that residential facility. Ask whether the security guard is there 24 hours a day. I know that many college students find these security guards to be a drag, and I know that this amount of supervision is one reason some students prefer to move into off-campus housing after the freshman year. 

But, I can tell you as a parent that I loved seeing that security guard at the entrance to my daughter’s super-attractive high-rise of apartment-like suites in the middle of Manhattan at Fordham University‘s Lincoln Center campus? even if I did have to get out my driver’s license and sign in and sign out every time I stopped by.

Obviously, uniformed guards provide a higher level of security than a reception desk staffed by students who are working part-time jobs or work-study jobs. And some colleges, as a matter of fact, do not have anyone on duty monitoring the flow of traffic in and out of residential buildings; students just go in and out with their own keys or cards, as I did years ago at Cornell.

Read Full Article @ http://usacollegechat.org/tag/the-security-brief-with-paul-viollis/

Priceline Group CEO ‘Doesn’t Appreciate’ Hotel Chains’ Direct-Booking Moves- Darren Huston

The argument of Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston is that chains are shooting themselves in the foot — and their properties aren’t happy — when the chains offer lower rates on their own websites because then their listings on Booking.com won’t convert as well as they should. But as Huston says in a different context, perhaps the hotels would reply that they are “playing the long game.”

With hotel chains such as Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International making a major push for direct bookings and offering loyalty program members lower rates than they give to online travel agencies, Priceline Group CEO DarrenHuston isn’t happy about some of these moves.

“I don’t appreciate some of the actions that are taken on a chain level sometimes … ” Huston said during Priceline’s fourth quarter earnings call February 17. However, Huston characterized Booking.com’s relationships with hotels as “tight.”

The comments came in response to a question about Hilton Worldwide getting more aggressive in its marketing and chains becoming more stingy in giving sites such as Priceline’s Booking.com last-room availability.

Read Full Article @ https://skift.com/2016/02/17/priceline-group-ceo-doesnt-appreciate-hotel-chains-direct-booking-moves/

Darren Huston: Fifth Of Room Nights On Booking.Com Go To Business Travellers

President and CEO of The Priceline Group, Darren Huston, says there is no negative impact on the company's financial performance as a result of allowing bookings to take place on TripAdvisor, rather than on the mothership.

Bookings via TripAdvisor as a percentage of the overall pie are in the "low single-digits", Huston says.

Nevertheless, Darren Huston adds that the branding that Priceline Group-run companies get on TripAdvisor is "great", and that in the US this may have helped raise the profile of Booking.com, where traditionally Priceline has been the better known brand.

Overall, Priceline Group says gross travel bookings increased by 12.67% to $12 billion in the last quarter of 2015.

For the full year, gross bookings increased by 10% to $55.5 billion.

Read Full Article @ https://www.phocuswire.com/Priceline-Group-says-fifth-of-room-nights-on-Booking-com-go-to-business-travellers

Darren Huston Interview: Why He Didn’t Spend $4 Billion to Acquire HomeAway

Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston touts his company’s organic growth versus Expedia Inc.’s strategy of mostly acquiring companies that need to be put back on track. Rest assured, however, that Priceline would plunk down a few billion dollars on the right acquisition target. It just wasn’t HomeAway, and TripAdvisor and Airbnb are too expensive.

Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston says his company didn’t get involved when HomeAway put itself up for sale because “we’re quite picky” and HomeAway’s model of allowing vacation rental owners to wait 24 hours before confirming a booking and charging travelers a booking fee “just didn’t fit us.”

These were among the more newsy points that Huston made when Skift conducted a one-one-one interview with him at the Phocuswright conference in Hollywood, Florida, on November 18.

Expedia Inc. announced November 4 that it would acquire HomeAway for $3.9 billion in cash and stock. Asked whether the Priceline Group got involved in that sales process, Huston said: “No. Although we’ve talked to them for years. We were very much aware of it. We knew kind of how it was going. We did a little bit of thinking and said this isn’t the right thing for us. We’re quite picky.”

Read Full Article @ https://skift.com/2015/11/30/interview-priceline-ceo-on-why-he-didnt-spend-4-billion-to-acquire-homeaway/

Priceline Figured Out China - Darren Huston

China has been unkind to the U.S. Internet giants Google, Facebook and Amazon.com.

But as a growing China spurs demand for foreign travel, a smaller player—Priceline Group-trying to change the narrative.

Darren Huston, who took over the CEO role at Priceline, said at a Goldman Sachs conference that he’s spent a lot of time in China and called it a “high priority of mine to had a place in the Chinese market.”

Unique to China, Darren Huston said, that the current growth driver was outbound travel, meaning the most important piece was capturing revenue as people go abroad. Both Booking.com and Agoda.com were supplying inventory to Ctrip, expanding the likelihood that consumers will land on a Priceline property when searching for a hotel.

Read Full Article @ https://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/13/priceline-the-only-big-us-web-company-thats-figured-out-china.html

Priceline CEO Darren Huston steps up