Joe McLatchie has been with Expedia Group for five years, starting as a Program Manager in the People team and later advancing to a Senior Business Program Manager within the Global Talent Acquisition team. Earlier this year, Joe embraced a new opportunity when he joined a secondment with EG’s Private Label Solutions (PLS) Program Management team, before transitioning to the team permanently in August 2024. PLS is one of EG’s fastest growing divisions, supplying innovative travel technology solutions to businesses across the world. Read more about Joe’s journey, below.

Joe McLatchie, Program Manager III, London, UK

Tell us about your career journey at Expedia Group so far.

I have been working at Expedia Group for nearly five years as a Program Manager (PM). I spent the first 4.5 years working as a PM in the People team, with my most recent role working as a Senior Business Program Manager within the Global Talent Acquisition team. Earlier this year I decided to take up a secondment in the Private Label Solution, Demand Partner Solutions Program Management team.

The PLS DPS Program Management team manage programs across our three B2B products (RAPID, White Label Template and TAAP), we work with teams across EG to change, simplify and improve our B2B products for our partners.

What was your motivation to move take up this role in Private Label Solutions?

I wanted to learn more about our technology solutions and discover how other teams across EG manage their business programs. I saw the role in PLS as a great opportunity for me to learn and improve in my specialty as a Program Manager. I’ve always believed that the best way to learn and improve your current skill set is to learn from others and look for variations in ways of working. 

Opportunities like this are a great way for everyone involved to learn. The person joining the new internal team can learn more about Expedia Group as a business, as well as different skills and ways of working, whilst the team offering the secondment may be able to learn from the new person joining their team, who may bring in new ways of working, or techniques that could benefit the team.

How has your experience been stepping into a new business area as a Program Manager? 

I’ve learned so much about how our commercial division operates, how we support partners and how we generate revenue. There are clear defined roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders on the program, this makes it easier to run programs and enables efficient decision making. Forcing simplicity is a big value in my new team; identify the issue, break it down and figure out what needs to be solved before you go out to stakeholders. It is really important to also lean on others to help you solve questions.

The highlight of my experience has definitely been meeting new people at EG and working on programs that have a direct impact on our partners’, and EG’s, success.

My biggest learning has been how differently people work across our organization, I have always known that EG is a huge company but it has been very enlightening to see how different people approach work in order to get the job done. What’s also refreshing to see is how others trust each other, and colleagues’ expertise, in order to accomplish the same goal.

What skills have you developed and how will this help you to further your EG career?

I think this has to be my improved ability to communicate with senior stakeholders, ensuring that they are up to date and have all the details on the program to make decisions in a timely manner. I believe the development of my communication skills, stakeholder management and general program management have allowed me to manage programs of high importance and report on them accurately to senior stakeholders. Going forward, I believe I will be able to facilitate key decision-making to ensure programs move forward in line with timelines. This is an important skill to have as a program manager and I believe the exposure that this role has given me to senior stakeholders has allowed me to develop this skill, enabling me to move into a more senior program manager role.

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