
Joao Gonzaga has been appointed Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of DER Travel and Tourism Group with effect from 16 May 2022. As CDO, Joao Gonzaga will be responsible for the digitalisation of the European travel group, which currently operates in 16 countries, across all countries.
He succeeds Dr Dirk Tietz, who left the company at his own request at the end of September 2020. In his role as CDO, Joao Gonzaga leads an international team of experts and is also a member of the Group's International Management Board. As CDO, Gonzaga will report to Sören Hartmann, CEO of DER Travel and Tourism Group.
"We are delighted to have gained an extremely experienced digitalisation expert in Joao Gonzaga. After two years of the pandemic, we can see that the travel market is picking up strongly again. We want to use this momentum to further advance the Group's digital transformation. With his international profile and many years of experience in developing digital strategies, Joao Gonzaga will help to make the Group much more agile and customer-centric in the future and drive forward digital innovations," emphasises Sören Hartmann.
Focus on Group-wide digitalisation
Gonzaga's tasks as CDO include harmonising the Group-wide IT infrastructures in order to make the best possible use of synergies within the Group. At the same time, the booking systems are to be optimally interlinked with the processes of the service providers and new digital service offerings are to be developed for partners and travellers. "Digitalisation is one of the most important drivers of innovation in the company and I am delighted to be driving this development forward at DER Travel and Tourism Group. As a strong team of international technology and digital experts, we will interlink digitalisation in the regions even more closely and jointly launch new customer-friendly solutions," says Joao Gonzaga.
As an internationally experienced technology manager and founder, Gonzaga can look back on many years of professional experience in the telecommunications and travel industry. The graduate engineer in information and communications technology is experienced in the development and management of digital transformation projects. After three years as Chief Product and Technology Officer for the software specialist Peakwork, Gonzaga most recently worked for the customer engagement platform Braze in EMEA.
Gonzaga began his career as a System & Solution Specialist at Vodafone D2 in Germany. He later worked as Business Solutions Manager for Ericsson in Sweden before moving into the tech start-up scene in 2000. As co-founder of conVISUAL (now mVise) and later Kyntal, he worked in the USA for a total of seven years. in 2014, Gonzaga returned to Germany as Chief Technology Officer for Swyx Solutions AG (now Enreach), where he headed up software development and established agile development processes. From 2016, he served as Chief Product and Innovation Officer (CPO) for Swyx Solutions before joining Peakwork as Chief Product and Technology Officer in 2017. During his time at Peakwork, Joao Gonzaga successfully developed the product strategy and led the agile transformation of the software company, which specialises in solutions for customers in the travel industry.
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Effective as of 16 May, 2022, Joao Gonzaga, will be appointed Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of DER Travel and Tourism Group. As CDO, Joao Gonzaga will be responsible for Group-wide digitalisation of the European travel company, now operating in 16 countries.
He succeeds Dr Dirk Tietz, who left the company at his own request in late September 2020. In his role as CDO, Joao Gonzaga heads an international team of experts and is member of the Group's International Management Board. Gonzaga will report to Sören Hartmann, CEO DER Travel and Tourism Group.
"We are delighted about having been able to recruit Joao Gonzaga, a highly experienced digitalisation expert. Following two years of pandemic, we see the travel market rising strongly. We want to harness this momentum to drive the Group's digital transformation. With his international profile and longstanding experience in developing digital strategies, Joao Gonzaga will help DER Travel and Tourism Group to become more agile and customer-centric in the future and to drive digital innovation" says Sören Hartmann.
Group-wide digitalisation in focus
Gonzaga's responsibilities as CDO include harmonising the Group-wide IT infrastructures to make optimum use of synergies within the Group. At the same time, the Group-wide booking systems will be closely linked with the processes of the service providers and new digital service offers for partners and travellers are to be developed. "Digitalisation has become one of the most important innovation drivers for companies and I very much look forward to spearheading this effort at DER Travel and Tourism Group. As a strong team of international experts in technology and digitalisation, we will dovetail digitalisation across regions and will jointly launch new customer-friendly solutions," says Joao Gonzaga.
As an internationally experienced technology manager and founder, Joao Gonzaga can look back on many years of professional experience in the telecommunications and travel industry. Gonzaga graduated in information and communications engineering and is experienced in developing and managing digital transformation projects. After three years as Chief Product and Technology Officer for the software specialist Peakwork, Gonzaga most recently worked for the customer engagement platform Braze in EMEA.
Gonzaga began his career as a System & Solution Specialist at Vodafone D2 in Germany. He later worked as Business Solutions Manager for Ericsson in Sweden before moving on to the tech startup scene in 2000. As co-founder of conVISUAL (renamed mVise) and later Kyntal, he worked in the US for a total of seven years. In 2014, Gonzaga returned to Germany as Chief Technology Officer for Swyx Solutions AG (renamed Enreach) where he led the company's software development and established agile development processes. From 2016, he served as Chief Product and Innovation Officer (CPO) for Swyx Solutions before joining Peakwork as Chief Product and Technology Officer in 2017. During his time at Peakwork, Joao Gonzaga successfully developed among others the product strategy and led the agile transformation of the software company, which specialises in solutions for customers in the travel industry.