SynXis Director Recognized by HTNG with the Directors' Leadership Award

CHICAGO (March 23) - At the annual awards ceremony at its Members' Meeting and Conference in Dallas earlier this month, Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) recognized ten individuals for major contributions to advancing the state of hotel technology during 2008. 

The top annual award, the HTNG Directors' Leadership Award, is bestowed annually by the HTNG board of directors. The HTNG board consists of Chief Information Officers and other top IT executives from 13 hotel companies from around the world, including most of the major brands. Each year, one or two HTNG members are recognized for their outstanding contributions to advancing the state of hospitality technology, typically through extensive and effective volunteer efforts within HTNG's focused workgroups.

For 2008, the Directors' Leadership Award was presented to Lew J. Harasymiw, Esq., Director of Interface Solutions at SynXis; and to Christopher M. Laffoon, Software Engineer at IBM Corporation. 

Lew Harasymiw was recognized for his technical leadership of HTNG's distribution efforts. This standardized approach to implementing OpenTravel Alliance specifications on a nearly plug-and-play basis has now been deployed, or is in the process of being implemented, by nearly 20 major vendors across the spectrum of Property Management, Central Reservations, Yield Management, Group Booking, and Channel Management systems, and is now starting to be deployed in online travel agencies as well. Harasymiw also played a key role in the establishment during 2008 of HTNG's Governance Council, which is designed to ensure maximum reuse and minimal overlap of HTNG's standards development efforts. He now chairs both the HTNG Property/Distribution Workgroup and the HTNG Governance Council, in addition to serving as chair of the OpenTravel Alliance's Hospitality Work Group.

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