Priceline.com Incorporated’s board of directors said Jeffery Boyd, president and CEO, will assume the additional role of chairman of the board effective Jan. 1, 2013. Boyd will succeed Ralph Bahna, who will retire as chairman on Jan. 1, 2013, and intends to retire from the board in June 2013, when his current term ends.

Bahna, who participated in the formation of priceline.com and has served as chairman since April 2004 is a longtime executive veteran of the travel industry. In addition to priceline.com, he has served as chairman of Masterworks Development Corp., a company he founded in 1992 that developed the Club Quarters hotel group. He also served as the CEO of Cunard Lines, Ltd., and the Cunard Group of Companies. Prior to Cunard, Bahna served with Trans World Airlines, Inc., where he developed and launched its Ambassador Service.

The board also named current director James Guyette to serve in the newly created role of lead independent director effective Jan. 1, 2013. Guyette has been a director of priceline.com since November 2003, and is currently a member of the Compensation Committee and chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. He is currently chairman, president and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America Inc.  Before joining Rolls-Royce, he served as executive vice president-marketing and planning for United Airlines.

Priceline’s board said it combined the roles of chairman and CEO as an interim structure that best accomplished continuity of leadership in view of Bahna's upcoming retirement from the board and its long-term succession planning.  At the same time, the board ensured the appropriate exercise of independent judgment by the board through the appointment of a lead independent director

The board also named Thomas Rothman, departing chairman and CEO of News Corporation's Fox Filmed Entertainment Group, Inc. as Priceline.com's newest director, effective Jan. 1, 2013. Before joining Fox Filmed, which he served for 18 years, Rothman served as president of worldwide production for the Samuel Goldwyn Company, and executive vice president, production of Sony Corporation's Columbia Pictures.