EX-TUI director joins Thomas Cook in key role
TUI Travel's former strategic planning director Neil Morris has joined Thomas Cook as its UK chief commercial officer following a restructure of the mainstream board.
Morris, whose role at TUI was scrapped last October, will be responsible for developing a strategy for all Thomas Cook's commercial activity, including yield management, revenue management, sales forecasting and capacity management.
The company said he would "lead the drive to improve trading performance". CEO Ian Ailles said: “We are delighted to welcome Neil to Thomas Cook. Neil will bring to bear his extensive knowledge and leadership in shaping our business systems strategy, focusing particularly on our tour operator systems.”
As part of the restructure, Thomas Cook has appointed a customer director at board level for the first time with Tony Hopkins, who has been with the company for seven years, taking up the role.
"This dedicated customer role recognises the importance the company places on putting the customer at the heart of the decisions and actions taken," said Thomas Cook.
Anna Heather becomes multi-channel director, managing the relationships between the UK mainstream business and the online travel agency and working alongside the new joint venture retail business.
Thomas Cook is also searching for a director of product and purchasing to include in the new board structure.
Other new positions in the mainstream board are interim marketing director Michael Johnson and customer services and operations director Kathy Winter
The roles of the other board members responsible for the Retail Joint Venture (Simon Robinson), Thomas Cook Airlines (Frank Pullman), Aviation (Rob Thompson), Sales Centre (Paul Wood) and the Transformation team (David Taylor) remain unchanged.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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