A year into her role as vice president, product and marketing for Trip, and Lynn Qu is taking her experience working for brands such as Microsoft, Expedia and HomeAway (now Vrbo) to take the Ctrip group brand global and using the Chinese edge in native app development to build a super travel app.

Qu, born in Shanghai but left for the US when she was nine years old, made the decision to move back to her home country “because I have always felt the pull of Asia”.

Lynn Qu: “It’s always been on my bucket list to work and live in Asia.”

She started her career with Microsoft during the first round of the dot.com rush, after which she went to a startup “but it didn’t make it”. From there, she went to Expedia and so began her career in the OTA world.

She worked her way up in a tech role and after 10 years of working, decided to take a break when she went to study French. “I wanted to experience living in France and also to do a reset, to clear my head.”

But the call of travel was strong and she took on a product role in Expedia’s London office where she got to work on the HomeAway brand after its acquisition by Expedia. It was in London when she got the call from Ctrip. “It’s always been on my bucket list to work and live in Asia – Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai – so sooner or later, I knew I’d make my way back to Asia. When Ctrip found me, it was hard to resist.”

The challenge was also hard to resist. “Ctrip is a very powerful company in China, yet it’s a relatively unknown brand worldwide. It has huge ambitions to scale globally and is trying to find its way. There haven’t been many super successful software companies from China that has had an impact on a global scale.

“Trip.com is a nascent brand and it is super exciting to ride on a giant that is as yet unknown outside China.”

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