Accelya Names Gilliland CEO

Travel technology supplier Accelya has named former Sabre CEO Sam Gilliland as its new CEO, as current CEO Jim Davidson moves to the role of vice chairman, the company announced.

Gilliland spent 25 years as Sabre, including about a 10-year run as CEO starting in 2003. More recently, he was CEO of workflow automation solutions software provider Cherwell, and he is returning to the travel industry to “drive the next phase of growth” at Accelya, he said in a statement.

Davidson, who joined Accelya after its acquisition of Farelogix in 2020, ascended to the CEO position earlier this year, but he has scaled back his duties for health reasons, BTN sibling The Beat reported. He will continue as an advisor to Accelya’s executive committee and board of directors.

In a statement, Davidson said Gilliland’s “deep industry experience and proven leadership across software speak for themselves and make him the perfect leader to scale Accelya and evolve our strategy to achieve our ambitions.”

Accelya said it hired Gilliland as part of its efforts to recruit “important industry change makers.” The company last week named a new chief product officer, Adrian Nash, who joined from his role as global vice president and head of loyalty and strategy for the SAP Customer Experience portfolio.

Michael B. Baker www.businesstravelnews.com