CHICAGO—Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) has added members to its board of governors, the key direction-setting body for the organization. Todd Davis and Wendy Mertz have been elected as governors and John Burns as an executive advisor.
Davis is chief information officer for Choice Hotels International. In this position, he establishes and oversees the company’s global information systems strategy on operations, information security and data privacy, global infrastructure, corporate systems and business intelligence solutions. He has been with Choice Hotels for 20 years and, immediately prior to joining Choice, he was an engineer for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Cendant Corporation. Davis is a graduate of Northern Arizona University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration with emphasis in hotel and restaurant management. He currently serves on the Northern Arizona University School of Hotel and Restaurant Management and Computer Information Systems Advisory Boards.
Mertz has more than 25 years in the hospitality industry in a variety of positions and companies, including Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Marriott and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She joined Hard Rock in 2000, where she directed the implementation of a variety of systems and created the system standards for Hard Rock Hotels. In her current role, she co-heads the IT department where she has financial and overall responsibility of both long and short term application strategies associated with the selection, implementation and support of restaurants and hotels. Mertz holds a bachelor of science degree from Rochester Institute of Technology in hotel and resort management.
In addition to the new governors elected, the board also appointed Burns as an executive advisor. Executive advisors attend board meetings, serve on many board-appointed committees, and may act as board liaisons for HTNG workgroups. Burns established Hospitality Technology Consulting to help hotels and other travel companies deal successfully with electronic travel distribution in 1992. He is a cofounder of HTNG. In 2006, he was inducted into the HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame. That year, he also received the International Society of Hospitality Consultants’ Pinnacle Award. Burns began his hotel management career at university conference centers before he moved to Hyatt as a director of sales in Vancouver and then at Hyatt HQ in Chicago. From there, he moved to THISCO (now Pegasus Solutions) as its VP, product development, and then moved to technology innovator INTRICO. He also worked as director of reservations at Ramada, Inc., then later became director of property systems support.