Travel Tech Blog

Travel Rockstar Interview - Paul Tilstone

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 10:09:24 GMT

Paul Tilstone, Ideas Guy at Temoji Consulting

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

My entry into travel wasn’t planned. It started with a suggestion from my mum, who encouraged me to become a tour rep for Thomson, now part of TUI. I spent three years working abroad in destinations like Greece, Thailand, and Cyprus as a tour guide.

Meet Helmut Pilz

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:38:32 GMT

Chief Business Development Officer Midoco Group

First something about you

Who is Helmut?

I grew up in a small mountain town in central Austria. As beautiful as it was, I always wanted to see more of the world. My parents weren’t really into travelling—vacation for them was basically “let’s climb the next mountain.” So while others went away, I spent my time with atlases and maps and just got hungrier and hungrier to explore.

I studied business administration in Austria and then—without much of a better idea—started an ostrich farm in Portugal with a few friends. We had absolutely no idea how to raise ostriches, but we had the confidence and naivety of 24- and 25-year-olds. It was great fun for a while, but after two years I realised living in a remote Portuguese country town wasn’t really an upgrade from a tiny Austrian mountain village.

So I quit and joined Andersen Consulting (which is Accenture today). I worked for five or six years as a consultant in SAP implementations. I’ll be honest: I’m not an IT freak—I find technology useful, but I’m not passionately technical. What I did discover was that I had the social skills and enough IT understanding to move into sales and business development.

On the personal side: I met my wife during my Accenture years—she’s a much more talented IT manager than I am. We have two daughters (27 and 17), and they’re both keen travelers too. It seems they’ve inherited our passion for adventure.

MIDOCO announces partnership with prime numbers technology

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:12:49 GMT

Hamburg, Germany / Marlborough, MA [03-25-2026] – Midoco Group, a leading provider of Travel ERP Software and Prime Numbers Technology, Corporate travel data analytics and benchmarking experts, are excited to announce a new data integration partnership. This connection enables travel data to be automated from MIDOCO to Prime Analytics, Prime’s market leading travel spend management platform.

Travel Rockstar Interview - Jim Davidson

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 15:51:33 GMT

Jim Davidson, Vice Chairman at Accelya

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

Well, I’ll give you the abbreviated version — because I’m old and I don’t want to spend all the time talking about myself.

In a previous career, I was actually a counselor and a guidance counselor, and I taught at a university. During that time, I did my MBA. I’ve always loved airline travel, and I wrote my MBA thesis on the hub-and-spoke system — which probably dates me a little bit — focusing on Piedmont Airlines.

I had the privilege of going to the Piedmont Airlines corporate headquarters in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to present my thesis. That experience really sparked a passion for the airline industry.

I thought about actually working for an airline, but at that time you kind of started by throwing bags and working your way up. I was a little impatient. What I really loved was the technology side of airlines.

So I went to work for Official Airline Guides (OAG). A group of us there started a company doing corporate travel bookings. This was back in the days when every month we published an eight-inch floppy disk with airline schedules on it. Corporations could use it to make bookings and put rules into the system.

So I’ve had a long history with corporate travel. That company was sold to System One. Ultimately, I became the CEO of System One North America and then Amadeus North America.

I left the industry for a little bit to work in supply chain, but then I came back and founded Farelogix. I ran Farelogix for about 15 years, and we sold it to Accelya during COVID.

Really, I’ve been in travel technology pretty much my whole career. I love NDC. I love airline reservation systems. I’ve worked for GDSs and learned a lot from them — they’re very solid companies — but I’ve also always felt they were a little slow on innovation. So we thought we could be more disruptive.

Over time, we worked with TMCs, airlines, and focused heavily on airline distribution. It was “Direct Connect” before it was NDC. Now it’s NDC globally, and we’re looking at One Order and what airlines do next to better engage with customers.

Throughout all of that, corporate travel has remained a focus for me. That’s where the complexity is — and that’s where the opportunity is — to really streamline and create value between the corporate traveler, the corporate travel manager, the TMC, and the airline.

Midoco Tech-News February 2026

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:04:04 GMT

Midoco expands platform with global payment, AI, analytics and integration solutions

Business Travel Rockstar Interview - Steve Reynolds

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:43:17 GMT

Steve Reynolds - CEO at CorpTravelTech

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

My entry into travel was actually quite accidental. I began my career as a consultant at Ernst & Young, and my very first assignment was with a travel agency in Houston, Texas, called LifeGo Travel. At the time, I wasn’t planning a career in travel at all — it just happened to be the project I was staffed on.

Along with a few colleagues, I started developing software to help the agency operate more efficiently. That software really took off. LifeGo grew rapidly — from roughly 300 million $ in sales to nearly 3 billion $ in about four years. Early on, the agency owner, Barney Cogan, told us he was tired of paying consulting fees and asked if we wanted to become employees. That didn’t excite us much — but when the conversation turned into starting a company together, everything changed.

That’s how Competitive Technologies (CTI) was born. We grew to around 20–25 people and eventually sold the company to American Express when LifeGo itself was acquired. That was the early 1990s — and ever since then, I’ve been deeply embedded in travel technology. I’ve tried more than once to leave the industry, but somehow I always get pulled back in.

Business Travel Rockstar Interview - Patrick Diemer

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 10:39:18 GMT

Patrick Diemer - Chair of the Board
European Network of Business Travel Associations

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

When I first entered the travel industry, it felt like stepping into completely new territory. My move from Visa to Lufthansa AirPlus marked a shift from being a service provider to becoming the client. That’s when I truly realized how much I had yet to learn—suddenly I was asking, what exactly does a travel agency do? What is a GDS, or a PNR? There was a whole new world of industry knowledge to discover.

Midoco and SQUAKE enable comprehensive carbon footprint reporting

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 10:11:42 GMT

Hilden/Berlin, December 16, 2025 - The connection between SQUAKE and Midoco Midoffice is now live. Thanks to the integration, anonymized order data from travel companies that use Midoco can be transmitted directly to SQUAKE. On this basis, the CO₂ values of all travel components booked and processed in Midoco can be analyzed and evaluated across all sales channels.

Meet Sheila Thorp

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 08:57:55 GMT

Regional Manager North America, Umbrella Faces

First something about you

Who is Sheila?

Well, personally, I’m someone with a husband and two grown boys—always my children, no matter how old they get. I’ve been in the travel industry for over 30 years. I like to say I started when I was five.

I grew up on a farm in Minnesota, the middle of three girls. Middle children are known as the peacemakers, and that carried into my adult life—I tend to keep the peace, sometimes even when I shouldn’t.

My boys now both work in aviation—one already for a major airline, the other training to be an aviation mechanic. I guess travel is in our blood.

Growing up, I never knew what I wanted to be. I went to university to become a teacher and changed my major about 16 times. Eventually, I discovered travel business as a degree. Looking back, it makes perfect sense: I was the one planning our family road trips with a paper map, figuring out routes and timelines. My parents later said, “We should’ve known!”

I’ve always been a planner—I love calendars and order. It drives my husband crazy.

Goway Goes Live with Midoco Travel ERP

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:10:34 GMT

Hamburg, Germany / United States , Canada [2025-11-12] – Midoco Group, a leading provider of Travel ERP Software, today announced that Goway, one of North America’s most established travel companies, has successfully implemented the Midoco Travel ERP platform, with the system now fully live. Midocos’ Travel ERP aims to improve post-booking workflows in travel companies through automation ranging from automated invoicing, calculation of transaction fees to preparing accounting workflows.

Meet Yvonne Rascan

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:48:12 GMT

Director of Implementation, Midoco Mid- & Backoffice

First something about you

Who is Yvonne?

... a very multi-faceted person: I do things my way, I'm determined and strong-willed, but I also like to laugh a lot. In my immediate environment, I'm often referred to as a stickler for principles - which (unfortunately) actually describes me pretty well, because I always have to be fair and honest and keep my word. I don't like dishonesty and unreliability at all, almost less than beet or tomatoes.

I am particularly grateful for my ruthlessly honest mirror - my 9-year-old son - because there are so many situations that can be abstracted from dealing with children, the lessons of which can help you in your professional life. I'm interested in so many things, but especially psychology and spirituality, I don't believe in coincidences but in destiny and I'm a music fan of all styles through all eras, so the adjective I started with fits again: multifaceted.

Business Travel Rockstar Interview - Eric-Jan Krausch

mkunhardt@midoco.de (Magnus Kunhardt) — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 10:08:36 GMT

Eric-Jan Krausch- Founder & CEO at 1-CP

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

My journey into the world of business travel began rather unusually: through my flatmate at the time. He ran an agency for business flats in 2013, while I worked as a consultant for online products, especially marketplaces.

At some point, we came up with the idea of creating a digital booking channel for flats - "Acomodeo" was born. We founded the company in 2015 and quickly achieved success. In 2019, we had over 40 major customers and a global inventory of business flats.

The highlight was the global order from Siemens in the same year to handle all bookings of 7 nights or more via Acomodeo. That was our accolade and confirmed us in our path!
This experience shaped me and laid the foundation for 1-CP. After I sold Acomodeo in 2021, we are now developing solutions that make B2B transactions as easy and efficient as online shopping in the B2C sector. A kind of "corporate PayPal" for the business world.

Our journey starts again in corporate travel, where we use our many years of experience and deep understanding of the industry to make life easier for companies and travellers.

Travel Tech Blog

Travel Rockstar Interview - Paul Tilstone

Paul Tilstone, Ideas Guy at Temoji Consulting

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

Meet Helmut Pilz

Chief Business Development Officer Midoco Group

First something about you

MIDOCO announces partnership with prime numbers technology

Travel Rockstar Interview - Jim Davidson

Jim Davidson, Vice Chairman at Accelya

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

Midoco Tech-News February 2026

Business Travel Rockstar Interview - Steve Reynolds

Steve Reynolds - CEO at CorpTravelTech

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

Business Travel Rockstar Interview - Patrick Diemer

Patrick Diemer - Chair of the BoardEuropean Network of Business Travel Associations

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

Midoco and SQUAKE enable comprehensive carbon footprint reporting

Meet Sheila Thorp

Regional Manager North America, Umbrella Faces

First something about you

Goway Goes Live with Midoco Travel ERP

Meet Yvonne Rascan

Director of Implementation, Midoco Mid- & Backoffice

First something about you

Business Travel Rockstar Interview - Eric-Jan Krausch

Eric-Jan Krausch- Founder & CEO at 1-CP

Let's start with something about you. How did you start your professional career and how did you get into the travel industry?

Patrick Diemer - Chair of the Board
European Network of Business Travel Associations