Stephen Kaufer

President and CEO, TripAdvisor
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Kaufer co-founded TripAdvisor in 2000 with the mission to help travelers around the world plan and have the perfect trip. Under Kaufer’s leadership, TripAdvisor has grown into the largest Web 2.0 company in the northeast and the world’s largest travel community, with more than 25 million monthly visitors, five million registered members and 15 million reviews and opinions. Kaufer has also built the TripAdvisor Media Network, acquiring eight leading travel companies, and expanding the TripAdvisor brand into France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the U.K. Kaufer and his co-founders sold TripAdvisor to InterActive Corporation in 2004, which later spun off its travel businesses to Expedia, Inc., and Kaufer has continued to run day-to-day operations. Prior to co-founding TripAdvisor, Kaufer was president of CDS, Inc., a successful independent software vendor specializing in programming and testing tools. Previously, Kaufer was co-founder and vice president of engineering of CenterLine Software, where he led the development of several award-winning programming environments. Kaufer, winner of the 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, holds several software patents and has spoken at dozens of travel and high-tech conferences worldwide. He is on the board of directors at Glassdoor (www.glassdoor.com), a job review site; CarGurus (www.cargurus.com), an online automotive community; and the Caring For Carcinoid Foundation (http://www.caringforcarcinoid.org), a non-profit charity dedicated to finding a cure for Carcinoid and Neuroendocrine cancers. He has a B.S. in computer science from Harvard University.