Darren R. Huston (born 3 January 1966) is a Canadian businessman. He is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of BlackPines Capital Partners. Huston was previously president and CEO of Priceline and Booking.com.

Early life

Darren R. Huston was born on 3 January 1966 in

Hope, British Columbia Hope is a district municipality at the confluence of the Fraser River, Fraser and Coquihalla River, Coquihalla rivers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Hope is at the eastern end of both the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland regio ...

, Canada. He completed his high school education at the

United World College of the Adriatic The United World College of the Adriatic (also known as ''UWC Adriatic,'' ''UWCAd,'' or in Italian, ''Collegio del Mondo Unito dell'Adriatico)'' is an international school in Italy, and a member of the United World Colleges, a global educationa ...

in Italy, received a BS in economics from Trent University, an MA in economics from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

, and an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

Early career

From 1990 to 1992, Huston was an environmental policy adviser for the Canadian government. From 1994 to 1998 he held an executive position with

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinse ...

. From 1998 to 2003, he was a senior vice president at

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

. During his time with the company, he introduced

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

in physical stores and the development of the Starbucks Card payment system. He joined

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in 2003 and was corporate vice president for the United States until 2005 when he became president and CEO of

Microsoft Japan (also known as MSKK) is a Japanese subsidiary of Microsoft headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. It develops both Computer hardware, hardware and software technologies for consumers and business partners. Microsoft Japan was founded in February 19 ...

. From 2008 to 2011, Huston was corporate vice president of global operations, responsible for its consumer and online business.

Later career

He joined Booking.com as CEO in September 2011, and dually became CEO of its parent company Priceline Group in January 2014. He resigned in April 2016 following an investigation into a relationship with an employee. During his tenure, the company tripled its number of room nights booked and increased its employee base to more than 15,000 people. In May 2016, Huston formed BlackPines Global Advisors, N.V. By January 2017, Huston was appointed executive chairman of Allegro and established a consultancy relationship with BlackPines Capital. He was appointed chairman of Magento. By June 2017, BlackPines Capital Partners, Inc. was reincorporated in Canada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huston, Darren Living people 1966 births People educated at a United World College University of British Columbia alumni Harvard Business School alumni Trent University alumni Canadian chief executives Businesspeople from British Columbia Booking Holdings people