Cornerstone announced the creation of their new Innovation Group. The division will be led by Cornerstone Founder Mat Orrego along with a group of dedicated innovators, developers, and analysts that includes Senior Vice Presidents Rock Blanco and Aaron Hosey. The Innovation Group will focus on the development of new products and integration with a variety of technologies that will help broaden the value of Cornerstone platforms and introduce new products to expand its portfolio.

Cornerstone’s operations and product platforms—iBank and iQCX—will be led by Ron Childress, who was named President and Chief Operating Officer. Ron has been with Cornerstone since 1999 and will directly manage the operational aspects of the company including development, systems, support, facilities, and training. Shaun McDermott, Cornerstone’s CFO, will continue to manage the financial components of the organization. Alan Minton, Cornerstone’s SVP of Sales & Marketing, will lead the sales, account management, marketing, and product teams. The leadership team will continue to work with Mat Orrego as CEO.

“The consolidation in our industry is creating some real opportunities for us to take a leadership position in driving efficient travel process and decision making for our customers. In order for us to deliver on these opportunities, we need to focus our efforts on growing and scaling our core operations while building new functionality that allows Cornerstone to be better prepared for how agencies and corporations are going to work in the future. I am thrilled to be working with Ron Childress as our President and am thankful for his leadership in helping to drive the success of our company,” said Orrego.

“I am very excited to lead the business of Cornerstone as we focus on improving the value our technology provides our customers. Having resources dedicated to new product innovation enables us to focus on a multifaceted agenda of expanding important features and functionality of our current application platforms for our existing customers while exploring new opportunities, customers, and markets through dedicated research and development,” said Ron Childress, Cornerstone’s President and COO.

Cornerstone announced these changes at its Customer and User Conference in Indianapolis last week, and the team is already excited about the new changes. “As someone who believes that there are no old roads to new directions, I am thrilled to be part of a company that truly understands the best way to predict the future is to invent it,” said Rock Blanco about the change. “Innovation has long been a part of Cornerstone’s history, and innovation will continue to be the rallying cry behind our current and future product initiatives in the months and years ahead.”