Steve Murch

Steve's been interested in computers since Christmas of 1978, when he ripped open the box to an Apple ][+ and spent the next 48 hours sleeplessly typing away.

His first job in computing was as an instructor at Atari Computer Camp in San Diego, CA in 1983 while in college. Summer stints at IBM Boca Raton and a NYC design firm followed. After graduation from college, Steve was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Communication Research (Bellcore), working on ISDN planning, Enhanced 911 and Virtual Private Networks.

After getting his masters in computer science at Stanford and MBA at Harvard, Steve joined Microsoft as one of the first product managers on "Cirrus", which was to launch the following year as Microsoft Access 1.0. With Microsoft's acquisition of Fox Software, Steve moved to manage marketing for the Fox Software line, then moved to the Consumer Division, working on multimedia products, games, and ultimately leading the first internet gaming effort for Microsoft.

In 1997, he left Microsoft to become founder, President, CEO and Chairman of VacationSpot.com, a pioneer in the online reservation of vacation rentals, which was sold to Expedia in January 2000 for approximately $87M.

Steve is currently serving as Chairman of Escapia Inc., a leader in vacation rental software. Escapia's ultimate mission is to make vacation rentals as easy for consumers to find and book online as hotels, and for property managers to manage more bookings, more easily.

He's also president & CEO of Lakefront Software, Inc., makers of BigOven recipe software and sharing network (www.bigoven.com).

At Expedia Inc., Steve led the vacation package and destination services team, creating two patents on the first dynamic vacation packaging system on the Internet, which now represents over $2 billion in annual transactions.

Steve has keynoted multiple times at the Vacation Rental Managers Association (VRMA) annual conference since 1998.

Steve worked for Microsoft Corporation in a variety of senior marketing and executive positions from 1991-1997, and led the creation of the MSN Gaming Zone, with several patents related to online multiplayer gaming.

He holds a dual BS in Applied Mathematics / Computer Science and Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University, an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a George F. Baker Scholar.