Matt Roberts replaces Eric Breon as interim Vacasa CEO
US: Vacation rental management company Vacasa has announced the appointment of former OpenTable CEO and indepdent Vacasa board director, Matt Roberts, as its interim chief executive officer.
The appointment follows founder Eric Breon’s decision to initiate a search for a CEO to lead the company’s next phase of growth. Breon will remain on Vacasa’s board of directors and continue to guide the company’s vision and strategy.
Vacasa has engaged Russell Reynolds Associates, a leading executive search firm, to assist the company with finding a long-term CEO.
Breon said: “Vacasa has grown from a small team around my dining table to North America’s largest full-service vacation rental management platform.
“After ten years of leading Vacasa, the time was right for me to step away from day-to-day operations and focus on the strategic vision for our business. As we look to the tremendous growth opportunity ahead, we’re seeking the best long-term CEO to lead the large and dynamic organisation that Vacasa has become,” he added.
Since founding Vacasa in 2009, Breon has grown the organisation substantially to more than 25,000 homes under management and 6,000 employees worldwide. On the back of purchasing Wyndham Vacation Rentals, Vacasa is on track to exceed $1 billion in gross bookings and in excess of $500 million in net revenue in 2020.
Breon added: “As a founder-CEO, I’ve been deeply involved with all aspects of the business, which can be a challenging scenario for a new CEO to step into. To facilitate the search for a long-term leader, we’re fortunate to have someone with Matt’s strong operational experience and familiarity with Vacasa assume the role of interim CEO.”
Roberts said: “Eric’s entrepreneurial skill to build Vacasa into North America’s largest vacation rental management platform is incredibly impressive. With the recent acquisition of Wyndham Vacation Rentals and completion of a new round of funding, this is an exciting time in Vacasa’s development and we’re well poised for continued growth into our large market opportunity.
“I look forward to supporting that growth while we search for the best long-term CEO to lead Vacasa into the future,” he added.
An experienced technology executive, Roberts is well recognised for his tenure at restaurant booking service OpenTable, where he served as CFO from 2005 to 2011 and CEO from 2011 to 2015. As CFO, Roberts successfully led OpenTable through an IPO in 2009, and as CEO, he negotiated the sale of the company to the Priceline Group [now Booking Holdings] for $2.6 billion in cash.
He was also CFO of online consumer lending group E-LOAN and a member of the digital money transfer provider XOOM’s board of directors as they transitioned from the private to the public markets.
In addition to Vacasa, Roberts currently serves on the board of Quantcast, a provider of data-driven programmatic and digital advertising, and online staffing platform Snag.
For more information, visit the Vacasa website here.
