Cendant has appointed IT industry veteran Jeff Clarke as the new CEO and president of its travel distribution business.

Clarke takes the reigns from 1 May 2006. The appointment completes TDS's senior management - Gordon Bethune replaced Henry Silverman as chairman last month, Myra Biblowit is president and Ronald Nelson is CFO.

In an oddly equivocal statement Silverman said: "Jeff Clarke has been a rising star in the technology sector for many years...As head of global operations at Hewlett-Packard following its merger with Compaq Computer Corporation, he helped to facilitate one of the largest and most successful merger integrations within the technology sector." Silverman said Clarke's skills were perfect as TDS moves from "acquisiton phase" to "execution phase".

Clarke has been at Computer Associates since 2004 but has also served time at HP and Compaq.

TDS is rebranding itself Travelport Inc. The company owns various firms including Cheaptickets, ebookers, Galileo and Orbitz.

More from the press release here.®

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