Expedia CTO, Senior Engineering Leader Exit on Policy Violation

Natalie Lung, Bloomberg News

The Expedia logo on a smartphone arranged in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, US, on Monday, July 31, 2023. Expedia Group Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 3. Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Expedia Group Inc. said its chief technology officer and a senior engineering leader were fired due to “a violation of company policy,” just days after the online travel firm’s annual product and partner conference.

CTO Rathi Murthy and Sreenivas Rachamadugu, senior vice president, core services product & engineering, are no longer employed at the company, Expedia said Friday in a statement, without disclosing further details. “We’re actively searching to fill these roles and remain confident in our technology, strategy, and employees,” the company added.

Murthy said in a statement that she had endeavored at all times to serve the best interests of the company. “I’ve conducted myself with a commitment to the highest level of integrity,” she said. “I look forward to sharing my story at the appropriate time and setting the record straight.”

The surprise move comes just days after Murthy presented at the main stage at Expedia’s annual conference with its business partners in Las Vegas, where she announced the launch of the company’s AI travel assistant.

“Due to confidentiality, we will not be making any further comments on the matter,” Expedia said in the statement.

Murthy and Rachamadugu joined Expedia in 2021 within months of each other from Verizon Media, a former unit of Verizon Communications Inc., where Murphy had been CTO for more than a year.

During Murthy’s time at Expedia, the company underwent a multiyear, resource-intensive back-end update, which served to unify Expedia’s two other main brands, vacation rental site Vrbo and Hotels.com, onto a single technical platform. That enabled the company to also launch a unified loyalty program across the three flagship brands.

But the technical updates have slowed its vacation rental business in particular and haven’t yet brought the anticipated recovery in overall growth, at a time when the travel industry are grappling with uneven demand.

Read More: Expedia Hits Five-Month Low After Booking Miss, Guidance Cut

It’s also the second surprise C-suite change the company has had this year. New Chief Executive Officer Ariane Gorin officially took over this week after former CEO Peter Kern announced in February he was stepping down in tandem with the completion of the technical upgrades.

Read More: Expedia Drops Most Since 2020 on Sudden CEO Change, Soft Outlook

(Corrects to include statement from Murthy in third paragraph)