August 15, 2024 (ALPHARETTA, Ga.) – Agilysys, Inc. (Nasdaq: AGYS), a leading global provider of hospitality software solutions and services, today announced Joe Youssef – who has led multiple functions, solution verticals and regional markets during his 18-year career at global travel and tourism technology innovator Amadeus – will join the Company as Senior Vice President, Sales, Americas and EMEA and Chief Commercial Officer.
Joe Youssef’s extensive career in the travel and hospitality industry has established him as a visionary executive and a key market influencer for pioneering technology. Mr. Youssef joined Amadeus in 2006 as Managing Director for Egypt, shaping strategies that enabled Amadeus to become the market leader there in less than two years. In Dubai, he executed growth strategies that established Amadeus as a market leader in the Middle East and North Africa. After moving to Amadeus’ Hospitality Division in 2013, Mr. Youssef played a critical role in defining and executing the Company’s inorganic growth strategy. He also led Amadeus’ Business Intelligence (BI) solution vertical, solidifying the Company’s position as the hospitality industry’s most respected BI player. In his most recent role as Executive Vice President, Sales, he created a highly effective sales structure that drove double-digit growth and deep customer engagement. Earlier in his hospitality and travel career, Mr. Youssef held management positions at Kanoo Travel and American Express Travel Services.
Mr. Youssef is stepping into the executive role held by Don DeMarinis since January 2018.
Agilysys President and CEO Ramesh Srinivasan commented, “For six-plus years Don DeMarinis has served an instrumental role as part of the management team that has taken Agilysys annual revenue from $127.4 million in FY2018 to $237.5 million during FY2024 ending March 2024. Under Don’s leadership, Agilysys has delivered record revenue growth for the past 10 consecutive quarters.”
Mr. Srinivasan continued, “Impressively, this growth was achieved against the backdrop of quite challenging circumstances: Navigating customer relationships and prospect sales cycles as we re-engineered and created ground-up more than 30 hospitality core and new add-on software solutions to be cloud-native and world-class; managing through a global pandemic that meaningfully impacted the hospitality industry, on which Agilysys is solely focused; and evolving our business model from selling primarily perpetual license software to one driving growth through cloud-based subscription software revenue.”
“Throughout every step of our enormous progress during the past years, we have benefitted from Don’s steadfast commitment to our customers, internal teams and business. The knowledge and skills he gained over 30 years leading high-performing teams in hospitality, including at multi-billion-dollar global brands such as Oracle, have been invaluable to our business. We will miss his leadership and his friendship, even as we welcome another impressive senior hospitality executive, Joe Youssef, to our team in Don’s role. We wish Don great health and happiness in his retirement and the best of everything in all his future endeavors,” Mr. Srinivasan concluded.
Mr. Youssef will officially begin his tenure at Agilysys on August 19, 2024.
Mr. Srinivasan commented, “The variety of leadership skills and experiences achieving hospitality market successes across the globe that have highlighted Joe’s extraordinary career thus far will play a big role in helping Agilysys achieve the next level of business performance. His proven ability to establish impactful relationships with customers, his ability to lead dynamic sales teams and his insights on accelerating market adoption of hospitality innovations align perfectly with our goals. Joe has been a disciplined growth leader all through his career and is the perfect leader joining Agilysys at the perfect time. We are thrilled to welcome Joe Youssef to our leadership team.”
Mr. Youssef said, “Being instrumental in helping a technology innovator such as Agilysys reach its next level of performance is highly appealing. Throughout my career I have been most proud of the teams I have built and coached, the solution innovations I have helped establish as market leaders in hospitality and the supportive cultures I have helped to shape. This role at Agilysys presents each of these development opportunities and more.”
