John F. Davis III (born 1953) is an entrepreneur, educator, and a member of the

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private research university in Fort Worth, Texas. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison and Randolph Clark as the Add-Ran Male & Female College. It is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciple ...

Board of Trustees. He is a co-founder of

1-800-Flowers 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. is a floral and foods gift retailer and distribution company in the United States. The company's focus, except for Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, is on gift baskets. They also use the name ''1-800-Baskets.com''. Thei ...

and a former CEO of Pegasus Solutions, Birch Street Systems and Room Key.

Early life

Davis was born in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

, where he attended

Broadmoor High School Broadmoor Senior High School (Broadmoor High School or BHS) is an accredited high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It is a part of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. History Broadmoor High School was founded in 1960 and re ...

. He is the oldest of five siblings. Davis graduated from

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

with a bachelor's in business administration. Following his graduation, Davis briefly became involved in politics, serving as U.S. Senator John Tower's campaign director during Tower's successful 1978 reelection bid. Following his work on Tower's campaign, Davis ran for a seat in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...

and lost a close race.

Career

Davis' business career began in 1978, when he became president of Mid-South Drilling Co. In 1982, he co-founded

1-800-FLOWERS 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. is a floral and foods gift retailer and distribution company in the United States. The company's focus, except for Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, is on gift baskets. They also use the name ''1-800-Baskets.com''. Thei ...

, then a toll-free phone ordering system for the floral industry, with business partner Jim Poage. He sold his stake in the company to James McCann in 1984. Davis founded a

telemarketing Telemarketing (sometimes known as inside sales, or telesales in the UK and Ireland) is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequen ...

company, ATC Communications, in 1984. By the time he sold the business in 1989, ATC Communications had 1,200 employees.

Pegasus Solutions (1989–2008)

In 1989, Davis was hired as president and CEO of the Hotel Switch Company (THISCO), which was a consortium of fifteen major hotel chains. At THISCO, Davis created a computer switch that linked the individual chains’ reservations with airline

Global Distribution System A global distribution system (GDS) is a computerised network system owned or operated by a company that enables transactions between travel industry service providers, mainly airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and travel agencies. The GDS ma ...

s. His Pegasus Electronic Distribution Switch technology launched in 1989 and he began selling the technology to hotel chains outside of the consortium. In 1992, Davis led the formation of Hotel Clearing Corporation. In 1994, Davis led the launch of TravelWeb, then an online travel and hotel catalogue. In 1996, TravelWeb became the first website that allowed users to book hotel and airline reservations online. THISCO and the Hotel Clearing Corporation were combined to form Pegasus Systems, Inc. in 1996. Davis was retained as president and CEO of Pegasus. In 1999, Hotel Clearing Corporation was renamed Pegasus Commission Processing and THISCO renamed Pegasus Electronic Distribution. Davis led Pegasus' acquisition of REZsolutions, a hotel marketing and reservation provider in 2000. In 2006, Prides Capital acquired Pegasus solutions for $275 million. Davis retired from Pegasus in July 2008.

Birch Street Systems (2008–2010)

In November 2008, Davis became CEO of Birch Street Systems, an e-procurement and

back office A back office in most corporations is where work that supports ''front office'' work is done. The front office is the "face" of the company and is all the resources of the company that are used to make sales and interact with customers and client ...

automation solutions provider. He left Birch Street in 2010.

Room Key

Davis was the founding CEO of Room Key until September 2014, a startup hotel metasearch engine. Room Key launched in January 2012 and is owned by Choices Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide,

Hyatt Hotels Corporation Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

InterContinental Hotels Group InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), marketed as IHG Hotels & Resorts, is a British multinational hospitality company headquartered in Denham, Buckinghamshire, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the F ...

, Marriott International, and

Wyndham Worldwide Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownershi ...

or their respective affiliates.

Other activities

Davis has served as executive-in-residence at the Neeley School of Business at

since 2008. He is also a member of Texas Christian University's board of trustees. He currently sits on the board of Birch Street and has served on TRX Inc.'s board of directors since 2000. Davis was appointed Honorary Consul of the Principality of Monaco in Dallas by

Prince Rainier III Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Prince of Monaco from 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest-ruling m ...

on June 24, 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, John 1953 births Living people American businesspeople Texas Christian University alumni Travel technology Broadmoor High School alumni People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana