Robless’ thoughts on such matters carry great weight because he is an active participant in the Travel Alliance, an industry-led group helping develop a common XML standard for communications, and in the Liberty Alliance, the organization formed by national companies such as United Air Lines, American Express, and others to develop authentication standards for Web services. And while Robless led the charge for Web services standardization, he also retooled United Air Lines Loyalty Services, the airline’s ecommerce subsidiary. His leadership has helped bring widespread awareness of the need for standards. Robless sees all the work at standardization paying off with services that link partners seamlessly around Internet-based technologies. “United Air Lines claims to be global and we are,” Robless says. “The problem is we have partnerships with airlines with different systems. To become a true global presence, you have to be able to allow these different systems to talk to each other.” — J.M. Return to InfoWorld’s 25 Most Influential CTOs 2002 Software DevelopmentTechnology Industry