How Did I Get Here?

Darren Huston

President and chief executive officer, Priceline Group
  • Education
  • Revelstoke Secondary School, Revelstoke, B.C., class of 1983
  • Trent University, Peterborough, Ont., class of 1989
  • Harvard Business School, class of 1994
  • Work Experience
  • 1990–92
    Policy adviser on the environment, Department of Finance Canada
  • 1994–98
    Engagement manager, McKinsey
  • 1998–2003
    Senior vice president for branded products and new ventures, Starbucks
  • 2003–05
    Corporate vice president, Microsoft U.S.
  • 2005–08
    President and CEO, Microsoft Japan
  • 2008–11
    Corporate VP, Microsoft
  • 2011–14
    CEO, Booking.com
  • 2014–Present
    President and CEO, Priceline Group
  • Life Lessons
  • “You have to wake up early every morning and milk the cows to move things forward.”
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  • “Running a smaller organization, you need to know everyone and everything. Larger is easier.”
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  • “I managed the college pub, which in Canada is like being big man on campus. It was one of my best jobs ever.”
  • During college, 1988
  • “Everyone was jumping to the Internet, and I chose coffee.”
  • “At Starbucks, [CEO] Howard Schultz asked me, ‘Can we do Internet access without cords?’ because cords are dangerous around coffee shops. So I met people like Steve Ballmer, and he recruited me.”
  • With Ballmer, 2011
  • “We have six brands, including Priceline, Booking.com, and OpenTable. My challenge is to continue growing—we’re the third-largest e-commerce company in the world after Alibaba and Amazon.”
  • In Robson, B.C., 1977
  • “I helped negotiate the climate change agreement that led to the Kyoto Protocol.”
  • “I learned how valuable attention to detail is. The Japanese just do things better—they really think of everything.”
  • With fellow Microsoft Japan execs Nobuyoshi Yokoi (left) and Jay Jamison (right) at a Microsoft event in Tokyo, 2007