Venere.com Announces new Senior Management Hires

ROME - Venere.com, the European online hotel reservations specialist, recently acquired by Expedia Inc., has today announced the appointment of Mirko Behnert to lead its Commercial department and Mark Brophy to lead its E-Commerce department. This announcement follows the recent important appointment of Arthur Hoffman as new Managing Director and Philippe Vimard as new Chief Technology Officer.

Mirko Behnert will be responsible for the company’s marketing and corporate strategy, and in his role as Director of Marketing, Analytics and Corporate Development will build and drive forward the strategic development of Venere.com on a global level.

Mark Brophy will take on the role of E-Commerce Director. In this role he will be responsible for managing the consumer facing elements of the site, working to maximise the experience of those booking on Venere.com. He will also take on responsibility for increasing the number of visitors to the site as well as ensuring its optimisation and visibility.

“I am pleased to welcome Mirko and Mark to the senior management team at Venere.com. Their intimate knowledge of Expedia brands and extensive online travel industry experience will serve the needs of Venere.com and those of our clients and partners”, comments Emmanuel De Rycker - Managing Director at Venere.com.

Mirko brings with him over a decade of experience in e-commerce, marketing and strategy development. Prior to joining Venere.com, he spent almost four years with Expedia, Inc., most recently as Head of Strategy for Expedia EMEA and before this as Head of Marketing Germany, Austria and Switzerland for Hotels.com. He held similar positions at Avis Europe and ebookers.com, where he was responsible for the launch of the ebookers.com site in the UK, as well as the launch of localized sites across 10 European countries. Mirko has a degree in Business Administration from Stuttgart State University.

Mark is an internet specialist with over 10 years experience. He has had a six year tenure at Expedia which included a number of roles such as IT Project Manager, Call Centre Director and latterly Retail Director for Hotels.com. In this role he was responsible for overseeing the usability of the Hotels.com site and managing the successful role out of new local language sites across the EMEA region. Before joining Expedia he spent a number of years in Sweden working for an internet management Consultancy. Mark studied Industrial Design in NCAD in Dublin, which he followed with a Masters in Computing and Design before embarking on his technology-based career path.

For additional information visit:

www.venere.com

www.expediainc.com/ (NASDAQ: EXPE)

For further press information please contact: Micaela Zanarini PR & Communications Manager Venere.com Mail to press@venere.com Tel. +39-06-361-92322

Source: Venere.com

For further press information please contact: Micaela Zanarini, PR & Communications Manager Venere.com, Mail to press at venere.com, Tel. +39-06-361-92322