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Frederic Lalonde is a Canadian entrepreneur and co-founder of the travel company Hopper, Inc. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Early Life
Frederic Lalonde grew up in Quebec City, Canada. His father is a biologist. Lalonde developed an interest in technology at a young age, describing himself as a hacker. At the age of 19, he left school to pursue entrepreneurship.

Career
In 1993, Lalonde moved to Los Angeles to establish an online airfare-ticketing company called Travel Online. In 1997, he moved to Montreal and later co-founded Newtrade Technologies, where he served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Newtrade Technologies was subsequently acquired by Expedia in 2002. During his tenure at Expedia, Lalonde served as the Vice President of Hotels & Package Product Planning. In this position, he played a significant role in developing the Direct Connect product strategy, which led to the inclusion of major hotel chains such as Marriott and Hilton to the Expedia platform. Lalonde also facilitated several merger and acquisition activities, including those with TripAdvisor and Hotels.com.

In 2007, Lalonde co-founded Hopper, Inc. in Montreal with Joost Ouwerkerk, a former product manager at Expedia. The company utilizes big data analytics to improve the travel planning and booking process. In 2015, Hopper launched an app, offering flight price prediction and real-time monitoring. Lalonde oversaw the expansion of the company's services to include hotel bookings, fintech features, and sustainability initiatives like "Hopper Trees," through which the company funds tree planting activities for every travel booking made. In 2021, Hopper launched its business-to-business initiative, Hopper Cloud, currently known as Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS), providing travel portals for enterprises. Hopper received significant investments, achieving unicorn status, and developed travel booking portals for clients like Capital One.

In September 2022, Lalonde co-founded Deep Sky with Joost Ouwerkerk and former Airbnb CFO Laurence Tosi. He serves as Chairman of the company, which is based in Montreal and focuses on carbon removal projects. Deep Sky aims to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans and permanently store it underground. The company's business model includes selling carbon offset credits to other companies, reducing costs, and maximizing energy efficiency. Damien Steel, formerly of OMERS Ventures, became the CEO in August 2023.

In addition to the companies he founded, Lalonde has also been active on several boards. He is a member of the Board of Directors of MakeMyTrip, a major online travel company in India. Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors for Ixigo and Reseaumentorat.

External Link

 * Hopper Official website

Category:Canadian businesspeople Category:Canadian technology company founders Category:Living people Category:People from Quebec City Category:Expedia Group people