HRS CEO Tobias Ragge to be inducted into business travel hall of fame

Executive Honored for Pioneering Travel Tech Vision

Trailblazing Executive Honored for Visionary Approach to Developing Pioneering Travel Technology

Cologne, Germany – 6 August 2025 – The Northstar Travel Group and its subsidiary Business Travel News (BTN Group) announced that they will induct HRS Group CEO Tobias Ragge into their Business Travel Hall of Fame later this year. BTN credited Ragge’s contributions to the global managed travel community across his 17 years leading the HRS Group, highlighted by his inclusion among BTN’s annual “25 Most Influential Executives” compilation four times since 2014, more than any European executive.

Tobias Ragge has redefined the role of the travel technology company in a rapidly evolving ecosystem. Since assuming leadership of the privately held business in 2008, he has transformed Germany-based HRS from a local hotel booking portal into a global AI-powered platform serving multi-national corporate lodging and meetings programs. His entrepreneurial mindset has consistently placed HRS at the forefront of industry innovation—from early investments in mobile and automation to recent advances in AI-powered solutions that drive cost efficiency, sustainability, and improved traveler experience at scale.

Under his leadership, HRS’ client roster has grown to 35 percent of the global Fortune 500, along with working relationships with hotels in 180+ countries. The company’s groundbreaking technology – featuring platforms covering lodging and meetings from the entire procure-to-pay journey on a global scope – has won awards on multiple continents.

Tobias Ragge made his mark in the corporate travel industry by anticipating the needs of modern programs and driving the development of automation to bring new efficiencies into play. HRS pioneered the automation of hotel procurement, introduced sustainable hotel standards long before ESG became a boardroom priority, and most recently launched Copilot, an AI-driven travel assistant that redefines how global enterprises manage lodging and meetings programs.

As he looks ahead, Tobias Ragge sees an industry at a crossroad. “Managed travel is transitioning from service operator models to technology companies offering open platform models. Best-in-class data is paramount; it’s required to maximize the benefits of AI and AI-generative capabilities.” Accordingly, he has led the transformation of HRS’ workforce, which now has more than 60 percent working in software designing and engineering roles.

Beyond HRS, Tobias Ragge is an active voice shaping the broader industry, contributing to global forums, government organizations and fostering open innovation with partners and clients. His work inspires the latest generation of corporate travel CEOs, who deploy next-level technologies to solve today’s problems.

Tobias Ragge will be formally inducted into the Business Travel Hall of Fame during a gala event at New York’s Plaza Hotel on Wednesday, December 3^rd. He is the eighth European to be inducted into the Business Travel Hall of Fame, and the first to hail from Germany. He is also among the youngest still-working executives to be honored with this distinction by Business Travel News.

“I share this honor with the talented team at HRS that relentlessly strives to improve the status quo, as well as our visionary clients who challenge legacy processes and expand their use of smarter platform solutions every day,” said Ragge. “AI is transforming the way businesses work and travel, and HRS will be a driving force in its adoption. We pledge to continue innovating and pushing boundaries for a better, more sustainable business travel industry. The best is yet to come.”

About HRS

HRS is a global technology company focused on leveraging Artificial Intelligence to create fully digital lodging and meetings experiences for corporations and their travelers. The company’s platform-based solutions are reinventing end-to-end travel management and the traveler experience for transient, meetings and workforce segments for large enterprises worldwide. HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative enables lodging suppliers and meetings venues to showcase their sustainable attributes while helping companies on their quest towards NetZero travel. HRS has an unsurpassed network of ecosystem relationships, with secure API integrations to hotel suppliers, digital payment facilitators and booking solutions. More information at https://www.hrs.com/enterprise/homepage/ and on LinkedIn.

About BTN Group

For over 40 years, BTN Group has been at the forefront of the business travel industry, engaging corporate travel buyers and organizing more than 50 events annually worldwide. The Business Travel Show America is the latest addition to the group’s growing portfolio of world-class events.

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