Former Hotwire President Neha Parikh Assumes CEO Role at Navigation App Waze

Indian American Neha Parikh is the new CEO of the crowdsourced navigation app Waze. “Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a (vocal!) Waze superfan both because it 100 percent helps me outsmart traffic but also because at its core, Waze is about people helping other people,” she wrote in a post on her LinkedIn page. (Twitter photo@neha_parikh)

India-West Staff Reporter

Neha Parikh, the former Indian American president of Hotwire, has been appointed as the new CEO of the crowdsourced traffic and navigation app Waze.

Parikh, 41, replaces Noam Bardin, who stepped down in November after a 12-year stint at the Israeli company which is a subsidiary of Google.

“As Neha leads Waze into the future, she will remain hyper-focused on our passionate community, beloved brand, and best-in-class products,” a spokesperson for the company said.

A month before assuming her new role at Waze in June, Parikh shared a post on her LinkedIn account that detailed her inclination for the brand.

“Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a (vocal!) Waze superfan both because it 100 percent helps me outsmart traffic but also because at its core, Waze is about people helping other people,” she wrote.

The San Francisco, Calif.-based executive is a veteran of the online hospitality brand Expedia, and has served in a variety of positions at two of the corporation’s subsidiaries: Hotels.com and as Hotwire’s youngest and first female president, according to PTI.

Waze, according to the agency, currently has over 140 million active monthly users in more than 185 countries who drive more than 40 billion kilometers every month. The app can give out directions in 56 different languages and employs over 500 people, a significant number of which are based out of Israel.

Parikh first started with Expedia Group in 2008 with Hotels.com, where her responsibilities and expertise spanned product development, customer relationship marketing, pricing and strategy, culminating in her role as senior vice president of global brands for Hotels.com before assuming the role of president of Hotwire in 2017.

In addition, Parikh has held marketing and product development roles at Dade Behring (a Siemens healthcare company) and worked as a management consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, LLP.

Parikh was also appointed to the board of Carvana, the online car marketplace, in April 2019.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.