Utell HOTELS & RESORTS

Management team

Expand all Collapse all

• Mike Kistner - Pegasus Solutions Chief Executive Officer

  Mike Kistner is the chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions, a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors. In his position, he is responsible for the company’s daily operations, technology and shared services as well as the company’s reservation and distribution service line.

  Kistner joined Pegasus from Best Western International, Inc., where he was chief information officer and senior vice president of distribution, responsible for worldwide systems development and management. Before joining Best Western, Kistner was a senior vice president at Cendant Corp., where he implemented the largest-ever hotel technology roll-out. Previously, Kistner worked for Super 8 Motels where he was executive vice president of operations, heading IT, reservations, corporate travel, guest service, convention planning, corporate and franchise insurance and facilities management. He also was vice president for management information systems and reservations at HFS Inc.

  Kistner holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting and information systems from Northern State University, Aberdeen, S.D., and a master of science degree in information systems from Colorado State University. He is the past chairman and current member of the e-commerce committee of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. From 2000 to 2005, he served as chairman of the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) and has been recognized as one of the leading CIOs in the hospitality industry.

• Mark S. Dubrow - Chief Financial Officer

  Mark S. Dubrow serves as the executive vice-president and CFO for Dallas-based Pegasus, Solutions, a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors. With more than 15 years of accounting and finance experience, Mr. Dubrow leads the teams responsible for the company’s global financial planning, treasury, tax, and strategic and profitability planning. Additionally, Mr. Dubrow leads the financial services team which includes commission processing and electronic reconciliation services. Before assuming his current role, Mr. Dubrow had responsibility for all financial related activity for the Utell by Pegasus service offering including General Accounting, Financial Planning & Analysis, Treasury Management, Contract Administration and Financial Services.

  Mr. Dubrow joined Pegasus Solutions in 2000 after nearly five years with the Atlanta, Georgia based Homestead Village extended-stay hospitality chain, where he served as Vice President of Accounting and Financial Systems. In this capacity, Mr. Dubrow was responsible for Operations and Development Accounting, Financial Systems and Internal Reporting.

  Prior to joining Homestead Village, Mr. Dubrow worked nearly eight years in various financial positions with Marriott International. Located at Marriott’s international headquarters in Washington D.C., Mr. Dubrow was responsible for financial reporting, regional operations accounting and financial operations training. Mr. Dubrow’s experience includes Marriott Hotels, Resorts and Suites and Residence Inn by Marriott.

  Mr. Dubrow holds a bachelor degree in Accounting from the University of Maryland and he received his M.B.A. with high honors from the University of Texas- El Paso. Mr. Dubrow currently resides in Dallas, Texas, with his wife and three children.

• Ric Leutwyler - Chief Marketing Officer Pegasus Solutions and President of Utell

  Ric Leutwyler serves as the Chief Marketing Officer of Pegasus Solutions, a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors; as well as President of Utell Hotels and Resorts, the hotel representation division of Pegasus Solutions.

  Leutwyler joined Pegasus after serving six years with Best Western International, Inc. where he served in a number of senior executive positions. While at Best Western, Leutwyler worked with more than 4,100 hotels in 80 countries and territories worldwide overseeing areas of brand quality, member services, eCommerce and field marketing, and much more.

  Prior to joining Best Western in 2002, Leutwyler held various leadership positions with Cendant, including Executive Vice President and General Manager within the membership services division. While in this role, he had responsibility for running a leading U.S. travel agency, which had more than $750 million in annual sales, 12 call centers and more than 2,500 employees at the time. Before his 11 years at Cendant, he also held several leadership positions with AT&T.

  Leutwyler holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing, industrial relations and human resources from the University of Iowa. He also served for three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he left active duty as a sergeant.

• Christopher Klimko - Senior Vice President & General Counsel Pegasus Solutions, Inc.

  Chris Klimko serves as senior vice president and general counsel of Pegasus Solutions, Inc., a global leader in providing technology and services to hotels and travel distributors.

  Klimko’s responsibilities as senior vice president include participation on the executive management team developing strategies and overseeing Pegasus’ operations. As general counsel, Klimko oversees all legal aspects of the company’s operations. Specific areas of involvement include mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, employment law, intellectual property, legal counsel on internal and external communications, litigation management and oversight, creation of and compliance with policies (domestic and international), contracts and other transactional review.

  Klimko joined Pegasus in 2001 as associate general counsel, and was promoted in 2003 to senior associate counsel. Before joining Pegasus, Klimko served as general counsel for start-up Go Figure Technology, and before that as regional general counsel for Banc One Corporation. He began his career as an associate with Jenkens & Gilchrist and later with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

  Klimko holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Ohio University and earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas.

• Steve Lapekas - Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer & Corporate Business Development

  Stephen J. “Steve” Lapekas is the chief technology officer and senior vice president, corporate business development within the Information Technology and Corporate organizations of Pegasus. His responsibilities include enterprise application and maintenance, portfolio management, professional services, product management and corporate business development. During Steve’s tenure, Pegasus has gone through multiple information technology transformations; most notably new cost-efficient technologies such as data center automation and multi-core processing.

  Prior to Pegasus, Steve served as the vice president of client services and practice director of Entessa’s Automation Integration practice. After leaving EDS in December 2003, Steve and Entessa, leveraging industry and technical expertise, established an industry first Automation Integration practice. The practice consulted and integrated industry best data center automation software throughout North America, Asia Pacific and EMEA.

  While at EDS, Steve served as the client executive and business administrator of the Loudcloud Managed Hosting Business acquisition ($63.5M). Responsibilities included managing the transition as well as the profit and loss ($45M) of 45 clients that included USAToday.com, News Corp, Nike, Blockbuster, Fandango, Adidas and Brocade Communications. Additional responsibilities included the Business Operations and Project Management Office of the Web and Application Hosting Service Offerings.

  Prior to the Loudcloud acquisition, Lapekas was the global service executive of Web hosting and enterprise application hosting within the EDS Hosting Services group and Operations Solutions. He and his group were responsible for the profitability, planning, directing, and developing the overall portfolio strategy for the Web and Application Hosting Service Offerings.

  Lapekas joined EDS in 2000 as a member of the Marketing and Portfolio Management organization to evaluate and manage new technologies in the Web hosting offering. He became the global offering manager of Web hosting in 2001, the same year EDS Web Hosting received Network Computing’s Editor’s Choice Award. In early 2002, the offering was also named a market leader in Business 2.0’s “Who’s Who of E-Business”.

  Before joining EDS, Lapekas served as a product manger for Global One Communications within the Internet Application Services organization. He transitioned to Global One from Perot Systems where he held various positions working for accounts such as National Rental Car and PSINet. Lapekas also spent five years of active military duty as an officer in the US Army, Field Artillery. During this time, he served in multiple leadership positions while attaining the rank of Captain. His military qualifications include Airborne, Air Assault as well as the coveted Ranger tab.

  Lapekas received a B.S. in general engineering from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. He was also a three-year letter winner on the varsity baseball team.

  In his spare time, he enjoys watching and participating in all sports. Steve Lapekas lives in McKinney, TX, with his wife, Tracey, and sons Reid and Ty.

• Andrew Stringer - Senior Vice President, Human Resources

  Andrew Stringer, senior vice president of human resources, is responsible for the company’s worldwide human resources.

  Stringer joined Utell in 1996 as corporate human resources manager, based in Kew, U.K. Utell later merged with Anasazi to form REZsolutions, which was later acquired by Pegasus. Stringer moved to the United States in 1998, on assignment to work on the implementation of SAP across the company. He assumed the role of human resources director in 1999, responsible for the Americas region outside the Dallas headquarters. Stringer was named to his current position in January 2004.

  Before joining Utell, Stringer worked for 10 years with Forte Hotels in the U.K., where he held a variety of positions in operations and human resources.

  Stringer attended college in the U.K. and earned a diploma in hotel, catering and institutional operations. He was recently certified as a senior professional in human resources by the Society for Human Resource Management.