Leadership
Mike Putman, Rovia President
Mike founded Rovia Travel in 1984, which became one of the largest privately held
travel agencies in the Southeast. He then founded one of the first online travel
agencies, the award winning 11thHourVacations.com, which was ranked #1 on Yahoo
Search for three years. The company was then sold to OneTravel, which Mike helped
grow to a $200 million in annual sales. Mike then created Agenta, one of the fastest-growing
host agencies of all time. He then developed CruiseWiz, one of the first consumer
cruise booking engines in 2002.
He continued his career as a consultant and was
a key developer of the e-commerce strategy for TravelGuard Insurance (now AIG Travel),
and then brokered the sale of Telestial.com, the world’s largest international SIM
card reseller. For three years he served on the Amadeus Travel Advisory Board,
and comes to Rovia with extensive knowledge of the traditional, online and
host travel agency industry.