TripAdvisor CEO: A tech exec with a soft spot for Israel

Though he’s CEO of a major travel company, Stephen Kaufer says he doesn’t really have wanderlust — but he would like to revisit his favorite destination: Jerusalem. (Courtesy TripAdvisor)

NEW YORK (JTA) – When Stephen Kaufer, the CEO of TripAdvisor, an $11 billion company that runs America’s leading user-generated hotel review website, thinks back to all the places he has visited, one stands out as his favorite.
Jerusalem.

“Oh my gosh, looking at all of these amazing structures, the history that you could still visually appreciate from thousands of years ago with modern life going on all around it — I just thought it was magical,” Kaufer said of his 1989 visit to Israel. “It instantly turned into my favorite trip then and ever since.”

The trip is etched in Kaufer’s memory for another reason: It was the honeymoon he took with his young wife, Caroline Lipson Kaufer. She died in 2005 of pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer at age 42, leaving Kaufer with four young kids to raise on his own.

http://www.stljewishlight.com/news/world/article_e14cf07b-014b-5558-8631-e8ffe06862c1.html