J.D. O'Hara

J.D. O’Hara serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Travel Leaders Group, one of the largest vacation, corporate and entertainment travel companies in North America and the UK, with sales of over $20 billion. With more than 4,000 employees, Travel Leaders Group is comprised of over 6,000 travel agency locations with over 52,000 travel advisors. Mr. O’Hara became CEO of the company in January 2020 after serving as President.

Mr. O’Hara’s key tenets for Travel Leaders Group’s success is to provide impeccable service to its travelers, the highest quality support and tools to its travel advisors, and unsurpassed value to its preferred supplier partners.

Prior to rejoining the company as President in 2018, Mr. O’Hara was Senior Partner at Certares Management, LLC., the company owner. Mr. O’Hara serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Travel Leaders Group.

Mr. O’Hara has played a key role in the growth and evolution of Travel Leaders Group since its inception in 2008. He was part of the original management buyout of Carlson Leisure Group from Carlson Companies in January 2008 that eventually led to the formation of Travel Leaders Group. The company most recently ranked 7th among Travel Weekly’s 2019 Power List of the largest travel agencies and ranked 8th among the top 50 travel management companies in the UK by Buying Business Travel.

In his various operating roles within Travel Leaders Group and as a member of the company’s Board of Directors, O’Hara has had direct oversight of Travel Leaders Group’s vast investment activity, including the mergers and acquisitions of Tzell Travel Group, Nexion Travel Group, Vacation.com, Protravel International, Andrew Harper Travel and Altour. As the company sought to expand beyond its core U.S. footprint, O’Hara led Travel Leaders Group’s international growth strategy with the acquisitions of Mexico-based Corporate Travel Services, and UK-based agencies Colletts Travel and Barrhead Travel, as well as event services company YES.

Prior to joining Travel Leaders Group, Mr. O’Hara served in the investment banking industry at Lehman Brothers in New York. He received a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.