Kayak CEO Steve Hafner steps down

After more than two decades leading the metasearch engine, Hafner will become Kayaks executive chairman and take on a new leadership role at Booking Holdings, focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) innovation.
"Steve pioneered the metasearch category with the launch of Kayak and delivered industry-leading results for Kayak for many years, since our acquisition of the brand in 2013," said Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel.

"Steve pioneered the metasearch category with the launch of Kayak and delivered industry-leading results for Kayak for many years, since our acquisition of the brand in 2013," said Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel. Hafner said its the right time to hand off responsibility to Bueller, calling him "indispensable" to Kayaks success. Bueller joined Kayak in 2016 as the companys CFO, taking on additional responsibilities as COO in 2021. According to Booking Holdings, his focus has been on expansion, growing Kayak for Business and pushing commercial innovation. "As CEO of Kayak, I will continue to focus on making Kayak everyones favorite travel app, while raising the bar on our user experience and turning our strategy into results. We see a lot of opportunity ahead, and were well positioned to pursue it," Bueller said. Kayak was founded in 2004 by Hafner and co-founder Paul English, who stepped down in 2013. Source: PhocusWire