Bob Diener is the co-founder of the company that became hotels.com and the president and co-founder of getaroom.com, which was named the best hotel booking site by frommers.com. After receiving his law degree from Cornell, where he was an editor of the Law Review, Bob practiced securities and corporate law with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Along with his partner, David Litman, he created the merchant model for booking hotel rooms and launched one of the first travel sites on the web. They sold a majority interest in the company to Interactive Corp. and took the company public as CEO and president in early 2000. Their stock price soared from $16 to over $90 in one of the most successful IPOs ever.
As a leading travel industry expert, Bob is a frequent source for many major news organizations, as well as a recurrent guest on many television and radio stations including NBC, CNN, and Fox News. Bob is featured on KGO Radio in San Francisco every Sunday morning, and his articles have been published in journals such as the Harvard Business Review.
Bob has taught business practice at the Cornell Law School and has been a scholar in residence at the University of Florida Entrepreneurship program. He was recently named the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Florida. Bob is the author of The Savvy Traveler 175 Ways to Save and Biblical Secrets to Business Success. Bob lives with his family in Miami, where he is an avid triathlete.
