How often do you hear about someone who has revolutionized an entire industry? Not very often in my book. There was Steve Jobs and Larry Page and Sergey Brin. There was Larry Ellison. There was Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Rockefeller, too. But there is one name you probably have never heard of.
The August 22, 1988 issue of Computerworld carried an article about the disastrous CONFIRM reservation project.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the World Wide Web changed everything, there was a revolution in computing that thoroughly reimagined air travel and hospitality for everyone. The driving force behind this wave of change was Nicholas Bredimus. An IT professional, Bredimus rose up through the ranks at various airline and hospitality companies until he oversaw one of the largest failed projects in computing history.
You’d think with a failure like the disastrous CONFIRM project under his belt a guy like Nicholas Bredimus would be all washed up. What happened was American Airlines, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott Hotels, and Budget Rent-A-Car spent over $100 million in 2-3 years trying to develop a joint reservation system. The system never got off the ground and American Airlines ended up suing the other companies.
Bredimus, President of American subsidiary AMR Travel Services, was one of the project leaders. But instead of letting the failure hold him back he went on to start his own company, Bredimus Systems, that succeeded in designing the revolutionary QuikTix system — which did what the CONFIRM system was supposed to do.
Nicholas Bredimus did not grow up in a wealthy family. He did attend good schools but his family came over to the US in the 1900s. The Bredimus family line traces its antecedents back to the time of ancient Rome and can boast of a varied background. His maternal family mingles Scottish and German ancestry. By the time he was ready to retire for a second time, Nicholas Bredimus had won the respect and admiration of many of his industry peers and former co-workers.
Nicholas, who would grow up with his four sisters and two brothers, was born to a father who worked as an engineer; their mother was a practicing nurse. After completing his education, Nick Bredimus found himself taking on quite a few high-powered posts with several of the strongest and most acclaimed airline companies. He rose to the rank of vice president with businesses like Republic Airlines, Trans World Airlines (TWA), and Hughes Airwest respectively. Most prominent, even considering this, is his prowess as an inspired software designer for the airline industry.
His insight into airplane maintenance management programs, typical now in the entire air travel business while initially produced for US Airways, ultimately resulted in what is even now his most popular program. Of course, this stands as just one of his significant innovations for the hotel business and for airlines. His flight reservation software is on its way to becoming as commonly used as the airplane maintenance software, while his room booking system created the possibility for many major sectors of the hotel industry to deploy the first PC client based architecture.
Pushing on into an alternate territory, he developed a networking program to assist in selling tickets — another groundbreaking masterpiece. Nicholas employed these successes to advance into capacities unconnected to software design, and went on to augment reputation. Key jobs with American Airlines and American Express were to come, and of course he launched his own firm seventeen years ago.
Since retiring from the software industry for good, Nick Bredimus has been designing homes and condos, applying his restless spirit to new endeavors that are sure to establish a lasting legacy for himself and his family.
