Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, to Receive the Yale Legend in Leadership Award
Glenn Fogel, the president and CEO of Booking Holdings, will receive the Yale Legend in Leadership Award at the Yale CEO Caucus, which will take place in Washington DC on March 11. The award, conferred by the unanimous vote of Yale representatives and past award winners, will be presented by Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer; Lynn Good, chair and CEO of Duke Energy; and Barbara Humpton, president and CEO of Siemens Corporation.
Summit organizer Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management, commented:
“I am pleased to recognize Glenn Fogel as our Yale Legend in Leadership Award winner, following his recognition as a 2024 CEO of the Year in Fortune Magazine.
“The story of Glenn’s transformation of Booking Holdings, and his soaring performance since taking the reins, is truly remarkable.
“Merely months after Glenn joined Booking Holdings, then Priceline, in the corporate development department in February 2000, Priceline’s stock imploded, plummeting over 98% within a year as the dot-com bubble burst, dropping from $300 a share to less than $1 a share. In fact, in last-ditch desperation, the company had to do a reverse split of 6 to 1 to avoid Nasdaq de-listing rules.
“Priceline avoided the fate of hundreds of other startups that went bust largely by embarking on a journey of growth through external mergers and acquisitions. The company acquired competitors methodically; built a multi-platform online travel agency with the scale to compete globally; and offered travelers a one-stop shop for booking flights, restaurants, hotels, rides, tour tickets, and everything in between.
“Under the leadership of Glenn, the architect of that ‘growth through M&A’ strategy, Booking Holdings now contains such iconic brands as Booking.com, Priceline, OpenTable, KAYAK, Agoda, Cheapflights, Rocketmiles, Rentalcars.com, and many more. These brands have been allowed to grow and flourish on their own, allowing for more creative autonomy by each subsidiary’s leadership team while retaining formidable customer brand loyalty and name recognition; while over Glenn’s eight years as CEO, Booking Holdings has gradually united its brands in a more coordinated, integrated operation, achieving synergistic benefits through centralized processes that did not previously exist.
“With such a diversified portfolio of brands, Booking Holdings is truly globally diversified, drawing substantially more than half its revenue from outside the U.S. Booking Holdings stock has tripled since Fogel became CEO in 2017, reflecting a >30% CAGR over a quarter of a century and well outpacing the S&P 500 and all industry rivals as travel growth continues to outpace global GDP growth.
“For these reasons and many more, Glenn embodies one of the most remarkable business transformation success stories of any company operating today. We are pleased to recognize Glenn Fogel and Booking Holdings’ soaring successes with the Yale Legend in Leadership Award.”
Fogel has served as Booking Holdings’ CEO and president since January 2017, and as CEO of Booking.com since June 2019. Previously, he served as Booking Holdings’ head of worldwide strategy and planning from November 2010 to December 2016, and as executive vice president of corporate development from March 2009 to December 2016. Fogel joined the company in February 2000. Prior to that, he was a trader at a global asset management firm and an investment banker specializing in the air transportation industry, after beginning his career as a software developer in Morgan Stanley’s Management Information Systems department. Fogel is a retired member of the New York State Bar, and earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics, Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Magna Cum Laude, and a Juris Doctor, from Harvard Law School Cum Laude.
The Yale Legend in Leadership Award was created 35 years ago to honor current and former CEOs who serve as living legends to inspire chief executives across industries, sectors, and nations.
Past recipients include: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple; Larry Fink, chair and CEO of BlackRock; James Quincey, chair and CEO of Coca-Cola; Marc Benioff, chair and CEO of Salesforce; Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile; Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank; Arvind Krishna, chair and CEO of IBM; Steven Spielberg, filmmaker and chair of Amblin Partners; Darius Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell; Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine; Doug Parker, chairman of American Airlines; Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer; Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson; Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy; Lisa Su, CEO of AMD; Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID; Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart; Arne Sorenson, CEO of Marriott International; Andrew J. Young, mayor of Atlanta (1982-1990) and ambassador to the United Nations (1977-1979); Brian C. Cornell, chair and CEO of Target Corporation; Ivan G. Seidenberg, chair and CEO of Verizon Communications; Ken Frazier, chair and CEO of Merck & Co.; Colin Powell, four-star U.S. Army general, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), and secretary of state (2001-2005); Virginia M. “Ginni” Rometty, chairman, president, and CEO of IBM; Janet Yellen, United States secretary of the treasury; Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever PLC; Mary T. Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors Company; Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO of Bank of America; David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-executive chairman of the Carlyle Group; Leonard S. Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; George D. Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast; Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin; Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase; and Ken Chenault, chair and CEO of American Express.
The Caucus theme is “The Strategic Opportunities and Challenges of Trump 2.0: Business Leadership Lessons from Trump 1.0.”
Our leadership partners and sponsors include TD Bank, Joele Frank, Gladstone Place Partners, Reichman Jorgensen Lehman Feldberg LLP, AlixPartners and our knowledge partner, McKinsey & Company.
