Steve Murch

Steve's been interested in computers since Christmas of 1978, when he ripped open the box to an Apple ][+ and spent the next 48 hours sleeplessly typing away.

His first job in computing was as an instructor at Atari Computer Camp in San Diego, CA in 1983 while in college. Summer stints at IBM Boca Raton and a NYC design firm followed. After graduation from college, Steve was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Communication Research (Bellcore), working on ISDN planning, Enhanced 911 and Virtual Private Networks.

After getting his masters in computer science at Stanford and MBA at Harvard, Steve joined Microsoft as one of the first product managers on "Cirrus", which was to launch the following year as Microsoft Access 1.0. With Microsoft's acquisition of Fox Software, Steve moved to manage marketing for the Fox Software line, then moved to the Consumer Division, working on multimedia products, games, and ultimately leading the first internet gaming effort for Microsoft.

In 1997, he left Microsoft to become founder, President, CEO and Chairman of VacationSpot.com, a pioneer in the online reservation of vacation rentals, which was sold to Expedia in January 2000 for approximately $87M.

Steve served as Chairman of Escapia Inc., a leader in vacation rental software bought by HomeAway (NASDAQ:AWAY) in the months prior to their IPO.

He's also president & CEO of Lakefront Software, Inc., makers of BigOven recipe software and sharing network (www.bigoven.com).

At Expedia Inc., Steve was a vice president, leading the vacation package and destination services team, which launched the first dynamic vacation packaging system on the Internet. Steve and his team helped create the Internet's first "build your own trip" packaging engine, complete with destination add-ons, which now represents billions in annual transaction gross revenues, and remains Expedia's most important product line.

Steve has keynoted multiple times at the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) annual conference since 1998.

Steve worked for Microsoft Corporation in a variety of senior marketing and executive positions from 1991-1997, and led the creation of the MSN Gaming Zone, which helped lay the foundation for many of the multiplayer gaming features seen on Xbox Live.

He holds a dual BS in Applied Mathematics / Computer Science and Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a George F. Baker Scholar. He is a coauthor in several patents in the areas of online travel and gaming.