TravelAI, the Travel Memory Company pioneering AI infrastructure for the travel industry, is announcing the appointment of Eugenia Dunaeva as an independent board director. In the role, Dunaeva will bring her expertise in AI strategy, governance and digital transformation to guide TravelAI’s growth and the governance structures surrounding Traveler.md, its traveler-owned memory portal.
Dunaeva brings to TravelAI more than fifteen yearsas a senior commercial operator and investor. She spent eleven years at Expedia Group across both the buy and sell sides of the business, led partnerships, adtech and new product development at Meta, and served as Chief Revenue Officer of a hotel group with full P&L ownership across sales, marketing and partnerships. She is currently a Partner at DVC, a a San Francisco AI/ML fund with 120+ portfolio companies, including Etched, Perplexity AI and Higgsfield AI. , and advises scaleup CEOs as a board director and advisorShe is a frequent speaker and thought leader on artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and the future of travel, with a particular focus on responsible AI governance and consumer data ownership.
“TravelAI is solving one of the most important problems in travel technology – how to give travelers real ownership over their own data and preferences,” said Dunaeva. “From my experience at both Meta and Expedia, I’ve seen first-hand the challenges of owning and harnessing data. TravelAI’s approach to building Traveler.md – a portable, consented memory layer that travels with the user – is a model more platforms should follow. I’m excited to join the board and help guide TravelAI as it scales this infrastructure for the industry.”
John Lyotier, CEO and co-founder of TravelAI, said Dunaeva’s appointment reflects the company’s commitment to building governance structures and board expertise that match the scale of the opportunity in traveler memory and AI infrastructure.
“Eugenia has spent her career at the intersection of travel and technology,” said Lyotier. “She has led digital transformation at companies where data ownership and consumer trust are everything, and she understands the infrastructure choices that matter when you’re building systems that travel with the user. As we expand Traveler.md and grow the network of travel brands and AI agents that connect to it, having someone with Eugenia’s experience in governance and responsible AI will be invaluable.”
Dunaeva holds an MBAfrom Alliance Manchester Business School and is based in Madrid, Spain. She advises scaleup CEOs as a board director and advisor, writes ‘Your Money Your AI’, a newsletter on AI and investing for women and is an internationally reknown speaker on artificial intelligence and investment trends in travel tech, data and agentic economy. The appointment follows a period of rapid momentum for TravelAI, which recently unveiled Traveler.md at Phocuswright Europe in Barcelona, acquired the Sonder brand and relaunched it as a design-led accommodation guide built on memory infrastructure, and announced the appointment of Dan Godsell to lead the development of the company’s memory infrastructure. TravelAI continues to expand its board and leadership team as it scales its AI infrastructure offering across the travel industry.
