Seattle-based travel giant Expedia Group named Patricia Menendez-Cambo, deputy general counsel of SoftBank Group and general counsel of the SoftBank Latin America Fund and SoftBank Opportunity Fund, to its board of directors.
Menendez-Cambo fills a vacancy created by the resignation in January of longtime board member A. George “Skip” Battle. She joined the board’s audit committee, satisfying a Nasdaq rule requiring three independent directors on the audit committee, Expedia said.
Expedia Group, based in Seattle, includes travel brands such as Vrbo, Orbitz, Hotwire, Trivago, Hotels.com, and Egencia in addition to the flagship Expedia.com. The pandemic took an extraordinary toll on the company’s business amid the massive slowdown in global travel. Annual revenue fell 57% to $5.2 billion in 2020, and gross bookings fell 66% to $36.7 billion.
In a statement released by the company, Menendez-Cambo described travel as “critical to the global economy,” saying that she’s excited to join the Expedia Group board “during an era of recovery and transformation for the travel industry.”
Prior to joining SoftBank, Menendez-Cambo was an executive at Greenberg Traurig, serving in roles including vice chair and member of the law firm’s executive committee. She holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a business degree from the University of Miami.
Expedia’s board has 14 members, including chairman and senior executive Barry Diller; Clinton Foundation vice chair Chelsea Clinton; Uber CEO and former Expedia Group CEO Dara Khosrowshahi; and Open AI CEO Sam Altman; among others. Vice chairman Peter Kern took over last year as Expedia Group CEO following the ouster of previous CEO Mark Okerstrom in December 2019.
