TripAdvisor(R), the world's largest travel community, today announced several key appointments in its management team, including the hiring of a proven leader from outside the company and the promotions of top contributors inside the company. TripAdvisor has hired Bryan Saltzburg as general manager of new initiatives. Promotions include Christine Petersen, from senior vice president of marketing to chief marketing officer, Andy Gelfond from director of engineering to vice president of engineering, Adam Medros from vice president of site revenue to vice president of product, Michele Perry from senior director of communication to vice president of global communications and Sarah Welch from senior director of marketing to vice president of marketing.

Bryan Saltzburg; general manager of new initiatives

TripAdvisor recently hired travel industry veteran Bryan Saltzburg into the newly created position of general manager of new initiatives. Saltzburg is responsible for creating new businesses and driving growth by leveraging existing TripAdvisor assets in new ways.

"Bryan has a spectacular record of building dynamic high growth products at leading consumer brands, and we're thrilled to bring him on," said Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. "His success at building and launching products based on complex multipart transactions will be very valuable as TripAdvisor continues to grow and diversify."

Saltzburg was most recently vice president, leisure businesses at Travelocity where he was responsible for nearly $1 billion in sales in dynamic packaging, cruises and travel extras. In seven years at Travelocity he held a variety of roles including vice president, cruises. Prior to Travelocity, he held marketing positions at Walt Disney Consumer Products, Johnson & Johnson and Princess Cruises. Saltzburg earned a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and an M.B.A. at the Marshall School of Business at The University of Southern California.

Christine Petersen; chief marketing officer

Christine Petersen has been promoted from senior vice president of marketing to TripAdvisor's top marketing position. Petersen joined TripAdvisor in 2004 and has overseen tremendous growth of brand recognition, site traffic, revenue, content and membership. She has also led initiatives that have greatly increased user interaction with TripAdvisor.com including adding new product functionality and distributing TripAdvisor content off-site and across social networking applications. Prior to joining TripAdvisor, Petersen was vice president of member services with Travelocity. Petersen also held senior marketing positions at Charles Schwab & Co, American Express and Fidelity Investments. She holds an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree from Colby College.

"Christine has been one of the most valuable leaders in the company right from her first day, and she continues to demonstrate outstanding personal leadership and management in every aspect of the business that she's in involved with ... which is almost everything," said Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor.

Andy Gelfond; vice president of engineering

Andy Gelfond has been promoted to TripAdvisor's top technology position, as vice president of engineering. Gelfond leads the teams that build and operate TripAdvisor's industry-leading user-generated media sites, serving in excess of one billion pageviews per month. He also leads engineering for travel applications on Facebook and MySpace, with plans to roll them out to virtually every social networking platform around the world.

"Andy has shown tremendous technical and leadership skills through TripAdvisor's continued steep growth, and we're confident that his talents will help us sustain and surpass our previous pace," said Steve Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor. "TripAdvisor's engineering team is poised to increase in size to support the company's growth, making this a rewarding time to take on the leadership role."

Gelfond joined TripAdvisor in 2004, and most recently served as director of engineering at TripAdvisor. Prior to TripAdvisor, he founded, and helped run as CTO, several Boston based companies, including InterGroup Technologies, LumaPath and Publish2Go, and was an architect and development manager for Lotus Development Corporation. Gelfond moved to the Boston area in 1987 after selling one of his companies, DeltaCom, to Index Technology. He attended the Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

Adam Medros, Michele Perry, Sarah Welch

Adam Medros has been promoted to vice president of product, and leads TripAdvisor's activities in acquisitions, search marketing, revenue optimization and worldwide product development. He most recently served as the company's vice president of revenue. Michele Perry has been promoted to vice president of global communications, and is responsible for all communications, including public relations operations in the U.S. and in Europe, where TripAdvisor's brand is growing rapidly with consumers and media. Sarah Welch has been promoted to vice president of marketing, where she is responsible for building CRM programs, brand marketing, and acquiring and engaging new members both through third-party applications and on the TripAdvisor domains.

About TripAdvisor Media Network

TripAdvisor(R) Media Network, operated by TripAdvisor, LLC, attracts nearly 30 million monthly visitors* (across ten popular travel brands, TripAdvisor(R), airfarewatchdog.com(TM), bookingbuddy.com(TM), cruisecritic.com(TM), holidaywatchdog.com (TM), independenttraveler.com(TM), seatguru.com(TM), smartertravel.com(TM), travel-library.com(TM) and travelpod.com(TM). TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 25 million monthly visitors*, six million registered members and 15 million reviews and opinions. Featuring real advice from real travelers, TripAdvisor-branded sites cover 300,000+ hotels and attractions and operate in the U.S. (http://www.tripadvisor.com/), the U.K. (http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/), Ireland (http://www.tripadvisor.ie/), France (http://www.tripadvisor.fr/), Germany (http://www.tripadvisor.de/), Italy (http://www.tripadvisor.it/), and Spain (http://www.tripadvisor.es/). TripAdvisor(R) Media Network provides travel suppliers with graphical advertising opportunities and a cost-per-click marketing platform. Collectively, the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network have won hundreds of awards and accolades from press and industry worldwide. TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Network are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. .

TripAdvisor, SeatGuru, Travel-Library, Holiday Watchdog and TravelPod are either registered trademarks or trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Airfarewatchdog, Booking Buddy and Smarter Travel are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Smarter Travel Media LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Cruise Critic and The Independent Traveler are either registered trademarks or trademarks of The Independent Traveler, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix, Digital Calculator Report, July 2007

SOURCE: TripAdvisor