The HRS Management

Tobias Ragge, CEO HRS Group

 
Tobias Ragge has been CEO of the family-owned company since 2008. His father, Robert Ragge, founded HRS in 1972.

He joined HRS as Executive Assistant in 2004 and became Head of Marketing in 2005.

Tobias Ragge has gradually shaped the HRS Group to become the global market leader for business travel and is strategically developing the company’s different business units:

• The HRS portal is among the top three European hotel booking portals.
   
• Ragge established an additional business unit, HRS Global Hotel Solutions, which offers large corporations a holistic business process outsourcing approach to managing worldwide hotel programs. HRS today serves more than 2,500 multinational clients, including Google, Alibaba, Huawei, Toyota, Siemens and VW.
   
• The third business unit, HRS Destination Solutions, launched in 2013 and is the market leading technology expert in German speaking countries for destination management solutions.

Since becoming CEO in 2008, Tobias Ragge transformed the HRS Group into a global company with more than 1,500 employees working in more than 35 offices worldwide. The HRS Group’s headquarters is located in Cologne, Germany.

Tobias Ragge studied International Business Administration at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany. After successfully completing his studies and receiving his degree in Business Administration, he started his professional career in 2002 at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe’s leading airline. He worked for the airline Lufthansa Passage in the units CRM and Corporate Strategy, as well as for the subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo in the area of alliance management in Atlanta, USA. He is a well-recognized speaker at global conferences and was awarded with the “Travel Industry Manager 2012” title by the Travel Industry Club Germany. In 2014, 2016 and 2018, Tobias Ragge was recognized by the BTN Group as one of the 25 most influential executives in the business travel industry. The BTN Group is the leading provider of news and information serving the business travel industry. Also in 2018, HSMAI Europe (Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International) recognized Tobias Ragge as one of the “Top 20” achievers in Europe.
  

Members of the board

Timo Beyer

As Senior Vice President, Timo Beyer is responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises. Beyer has many years of experience in eCommerce and travel, and carries a high profile in the industry. Among several career highlights, he was CEO of Comvel GmbH and responsible for the online travel portal weg.de. While studying business administration in Mannheim, Beyer began his career at neckermann.de in the field of eCommerce. In 2014, he was named Sales & Retail Manager of the Year by the Travel Industry Club (TIC). After weg.de, he dedicated two years to setting up a start-up in the FMCG environment.

Alexandra Barth

Alexandra Barth is responsible for marketing the portal business of the HRS Group (I believe Alex’s responsibilities are larger now). Previously, she was Vice President of Marketing. She joined the HRS Group in 2011 and has held various executive positions in strategic brand management, corporate marketing and communications. As an e-commerce executive, Alexandra has extensive experience as an executive, as well as in marketing strategy, online marketing, communications and sales. Prior to HRS, Alexandra held various management positions, including product & brand marketing at L'Oréal. She studied business administration, marketing & entrepreneurship at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany.

Lukasz Dabrowski

Lukasz Dabrowski heads the global business unit of Hotel Solutions. He is responsible for HRS Group's global hotel offering, including direct relationships with hotels and related partnerships. He is also responsible for the Global Intelligent Sourcing programs. (I believe Lukasz’s title and position have changed with his move to APAC)
Lukasz joined the GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) Industry Advisory Council in 2016 and is active with that organization. A reknown speaker and panelist, he has appeared at business travel trade shows such as the Global Lodging Forum, ACTE, GBTA, Corporate Travel Forums and other industry events worldwide. An international expert, Lukasz has more than 20 years of experience in the travel and hotel industry. He started his joined the HRS Group in 2010 as General Director for the Warsaw office, where he was responsible for Central and Eastern Europe. Between 1997 and 2010, he worked for Marriott International as Director of Sales and Marketing, serving with Marriott management teams in many European destinations.

Philipp Morawietz

Philipp Morawietz, Vice President Strategy, joined HRS in mid-2012, where he was responsible for the post-merger integration of Hotel.de before taking over as Head of Strategy in 2015. His overall responsibility includes the strategic planning process of the HRS Group for the next 3-5 years, the realization of strategic core projects and visions across all business units, and the entire value chain. This includes commercial M&A activities, as well as strategic partnerships and oversight of budgeting processes, target setting and OKR definition across all business units. Prior to HRS, he worked for five years in strategy consulting at Roland Berger. He studied business administration at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, specializing in controlling, international corporate finance and strategy.

Dr. Michael Rademacher

As CHRO, Dr. Michael Rademacher heads the HR department of the HRS Group and ensures that the group's organisation, HR and business strategy are optimally coordinated. Dr. Rademacher has extensive experience as a business coach and executive in the areas of business transformation, organizational development and human resources. Prior to HRS, he worked as Global Head of HR and Organization for the e-commerce company Westwing Home & Living. He also spent several years as a consultant at the management consultancy McKinsey. He studied business administration at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and received his doctorate from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Dirk Stader

Dirk Stader manages the finance department as global CFO. Previously he served as VP Investment Management. He brings a broad range of financial experience from various national and international management positions with the focus on M&A, venture capital, and equity funds. After studying economics at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Dirk Stader took over as Commercial Director of the industrial group GEA Group and was CEO for the Corporate Finance Consultancy, Rölfs CF GmbH in Düsseldorf. As CEO of Media Ventures GmbH, he was responsible for controlling, accounting, tax, legal, finance and human resources and the entire transaction business.
  

Management HRS Global Hotel Solutions

Chris Crowley

Chris Crowley serves as vice president of corporate business for the EMEA region. A former president of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), he is a recognized expert in the corporate travel industry. The British-born executive is based at HRS London and reports directly to Tobias Ragge. Chris Crowley is an accomplished speaker and mentor who has worked in the business travel industry for 25 years. Prior to joining HRS, he served as Senior Vice President EMEA at BCD Travel. Before BCD Travel, Crowley held senior sales positions with various hotel groups.

Suzanne Neufang

Suzanne Neufang's career spans more than 20 years in e-commerce and Software as a Service (SaaS) in the travel, software, telecommunications and media industries. Suzanne Neufang was CMO of Inuit's Professional Tax Group. Prior to this position, she was President of GetThere and Sabre Virtual Meetings, where she spent three years responsible for global business growth, innovation, operations and customer retention in corporate online travel and collaboration arenas. Previously, she served as CMO for GetThere, VP of Corporate Segment Strategy for Sabre Travel Network and VP-Product & Marketing for Travelocity Business. Suzanne also led product management for Travelocity's vacation packages and cruise product lines. She holds a master's degree in communications from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a bachelor's degree in broadcasting and foreign languages from Minot State University in North Dakota.

Kimi Jiang

Kimi Jiang is Vice President of Asia Pacific and Managing Director of HRS China. In China, she is responsible for the market expansion of corporate travel services and the broad coverage of the product distribution network. Ms. Jiang was appointed to the China Travel & Meetings Industry Awards panel of experts by M&C Magazine in 2014. As a member of ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives), Jiang works on the ongoing promotion of travel industry development in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to joining HRS, she worked for leading hotel groups including Hyatt and Four Seasons in Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai. She holds a degree from the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and speaks Chinese, English and Japanese.

Martina Eggler

As Vice President Global Accounts & Partnerships for Central Europe, Martina Eggler supports companies in optimizing their hotel programs.Previously, she was Vice President of Strategic Account Management at Carlson Wagonlit Travel. As a regular speaker and panelist at numerous international business travel events, she is a well-known personality in the industry. Martina Eggler began her career in hotel sales and gained experience in various roles in travel and data management at Kuoni and TRX.

Jason Long

In his role at HRS, Jason Long is responsible for strategic partnerships with indirect partners such as OBT, GDS and TMC. ( I believe Jason’s role has changed, as we are no longer seeking out these partnerships as a priority).

Prior to joining HRS, Jason held various management positions in the travel and technology industries. Before started with HRS in 2012, he worked with the Amadeus IT Group, where he was responsible for the global expansion of Amadeus’ corporate business. In this role, he led an international commercial team overseeing Amadeus' global partnerships with leading global TMCs. He was also responsible for managing Amadeus’ direct sales, account management and business development teams. Jason Long holds a Bachelor's degree in Technical Engineering (BEng in Electronic Engineering) from King's College, University of London, and an MBA from IEDE Business School in Madrid.