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Jeffrey Katz AA '80

Aeronautics grad leads high-flying change at Orbitz, Swissair

(First published in Technology Review, May/June 2006)

Love of flying propelled Jeffrey Katz's career.

These days, Jeffrey Katz writes a weekly entry in his blog. His entries talk about airline delays, his favorite MP3 players, and his observations and views on travel, technology, and customer service. But when he was CEO of Orbitz, he wrote weekly e-mails to his employees. "A Good Morning e-mail connected the employee community to a dizzying array of events, technology breakthroughs, and marketplace challenges," he says.

At MIT, Katz earned a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics with some management courses for good measure. (Meanwhile, his wife, Karen Ray, a novelist whose works include a fictionalized account of her father-in-law's escape from Nazi Germany, worked as a Technology Review editor.) Katz also made time to teach other students to fly small planes in IAP classes. His training in business and engineering, as well as his interest in planes, ushered Katz into a career helping airlines grow through change.

Katz's leadership and communication skills helped guide American Airlines, Swissair, and Orbitz to success during times of upheaval. One career step led to another, he says. In 1993, he was in charge of American's booking system, Sabre, then the largest computerized airline reservation system in the world. He was recruited to become the president and CEO of Swissair when the European Union deregulated the airline industry in 1997. In 2000, Katz returned to the U.S. to become the founding chairman, CEO, and president of Orbitz, now one of the most successful travel e-commerce companies. He focused on making the computer-driven travel systems reliable for customers and profitable as a business model.

Katz sold Orbitz in 2004 and now serves on the boards of City of Hope National Medical Center, educational-toy manufacturer Leapfrog, and Northwest Airlines. Katz and Ray live in Los Angeles, while one daughter studies at Wellesley College and the other daughter works as an executive recruiter in New York.

The basis of his success? "I could talk and operate a calculator at the same time," Katz says.

By Catherine Nichols