Gerstner Joins Off & Away Board

Brad Gerstner has joined the board of Off & Away, a Seattle-based auction site for travel connoisseurs. Off & Away in October received a $2 million follow-on investment led by Madrona Venture Group, a Seattle VC firm. Gerstner is founder & CEO of Altimeter Capital Management.

PRESS RELEASE

Adding to the company’s growing momentum, Off & Away (www.offandaway.com) announced the addition of travel-industry veteran, Brad Gerstner, to its board of directors. Mr. Gerstner’s joining comes on the heels of the infusion of a $2 million follow-on investment led by Seattle-based venture capital firm, Madrona Venture Group. With Mr. Gerstner’s assistance, the Off & Away board expects to accelerate its positive customer and partner growth and further enhance its product and market strategies. Mr. Gerstner joins the three-person board, including:

* Doug Aley, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Off & Away, and previously entrepreneur-in-residence at Madrona Ventures,
* Matt McIlwain, managing director at Madrona Venture Group.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to recognize outstanding talent and businesses that are poised for exceptional growth,” said Mr. Gerstner. “Off & Away is one of these opportunities and I have great expectations for the future of the company.”

Brad Gerstner is founder & CEO of Altimeter Capital Management. Prior to Altimeter, he worked at PAR Capital where he managed a portfolio of public and private securities including Farecast, Sidestep, ITA Software, Priceline and Expedia. He currently sits on the board or is a board observer to Orbitz Worldwide, Zillow.com, Nor 1, Silver Rail Technologies and Expert Media.

Prior to joining PAR Capital, Mr. Gerstner co-founded Openlist.com – a vertical search and advertising platform that was acquired by Marchex (MCHX – NASDAQ) in 2006. Before Openlist, Mr. Gerstner served as co-CEO of National Leisure Group (NLG), one of the Web’s first and largest sellers of online vacations and cruises. Prior to NLG, he was an analyst at General Catalyst, a Boston venture capital firm.

Mr. Gerstner has a past practice in securities law and served an appointment as Deputy Secretary of State of Indiana. Mr. Gerstner holds degrees from Wabash College, Indiana University School of Law and Harvard Business School.

Off & Away’s business model is to partner with prestigious four and five-star hotels in major cities throughout North America – currently 11 U.S. markets, Canada, The Caribbean and Mexico. Signature rooms and suites, typically reserved for visiting dignitaries and celebrities, are won by travel connoisseurs through competitive online auctions at prices 80-95% off retail prices.

Off & Away auctions are a no-risk, high-reward proposition for consumers. Auction winners get the travel experience of a lifetime and unsuccessful bidders can apply used bid credits towards special deals with the site’s featured auction partners, or on other rooms at over 100,000 hotels globally, at rates guaranteed to match or beat Expedia, Orbitz and other major travel Web sites.

About Off & Away

Off & Away is a new auction site for travel connoisseurs, offering exceptional travel experiences in new, fun and unique ways. The company believes that people deserve to experience more when they travel and when they shop for travel, and it works with its premier hotel partners to provide these experiences. Off & Away was founded by former Amazon.com and travel industry executives, and is backed by Madrona Venture Group, the venture capital firm behind Amazon.com, Farecast.com (now Bing Travel) and VacationSpot (now a part of Expedia). For more information and to see how Off & Away will change how people shop for travel, visit www.offandaway.com or www.blog.offandaway.com. You can also follow the company on Facebook at www.facebook.com/OffAndAway, or Twitter at www.twitter.com/offnaway.