CarTrawler in management buy-out
Private equity firm ECI Partners has helped fund a management buy-out of CarTrawler.
The Dublin-based company specialises in providing technology and a car hire booking system to the travel trade.
Mike McGearty, the former COO of CarTrawler, has been announced as the new chief executive who will lead the next stage of the business’s development.
Bobby Healy will continue as the company’s CTO and Niall Turley will remain director of supply.
A statement said the new funding will help support the continued growth of CarTrawler "organically and through acquisition".
Chris Watt, director at ECI, will join the board and Richard Prosser, formerly MD of the specialist and emerging markets division of TUI Travel Plc, will become chairman.
CarTrawler was founded in 2004 by Greg and Niall Turley in Dublin, who will retain non-
executive director and executive director roles respectively in the business and remain as
significant investors.
The company currently employs 90 people, mainly based in Dublin with an overseas office in Seattle.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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