Background
Rich Barton holds a highly rigorous, deeply analytical background in industrial design and software product management. Educated at Stanford University and intensely trained during his early tenure managing MS-DOS and Windows products at Microsoft, his massive background in user-centric design and software scalability provided the exact strategic blueprint required to architect the first major online travel booking engine.
Role at Expedia Group, Inc.
Rich Barton is a legendary American technology entrepreneur and the highly influential visionary founder of Expedia. Working as a product manager at Microsoft in 1994, Barton was initially tasked with creating a travel-guide CD-ROM. Recognizing the massive disruptive potential of the burgeoning internet, he aggressively pitched Bill Gates on a radical idea: empowering consumers to book travel directly online, entirely bypassing traditional travel agents. Microsoft launched Expedia in 1996, and under Barton's massive executive leadership as CEO, it completely revolutionized the global travel industry. He successfully orchestrated the company's 1999 IPO and its subsequent multi-billion dollar acquisition. Following Expedia, Barton utilized his exact playbook of democratizing consumer information to famously co-found Zillow and Glassdoor, cementing his status as a legendary consumer tech operator.