Sam Gilliland was elected to the board of directors for Sabre Holdings and named the company’s president and CEO in December 2003. Less than one year later, in November 2004, he was named chairman of the board.

Prior to these roles, he served in several senior leadership positions including president and CEO of Travelocity and executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Sabre Holdings. As CMO, he was responsible for corporate strategy and for driving enterprise-wide alignment with Sabre’s business strategy.

Previous roles have included group president of the company’s Airline Solutions business and senior vice president and general manager of product marketing, where he managed the company’s global product and service portfolio for the travel industry. Gilliland also served as senior vice president and general manager of Sabre Business Travel Solutions and as a board member for Travelocity while it was a publicly traded company.

Before joining Sabre Holdings in 1988, Gilliland worked for Lockheed Missiles and Space in Austin, Texas, developing hardware and software for land- and air-based defense systems.

Gilliland holds an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Dallas and earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas.