Harriet Green to give chunk of Thomas Cook bonus to charity
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Harriet Green has promised to give a third of her bonus to charity following a public backlash against Thomas Cook’s handling of the deaths of Bobby and Christi Shepherd while on one of its holidays in Corfu.
Green, who quit her job as Thomas Cook chief executive last November, is set to receive a £10 million bonus from the tour operator in July.
She was not in charge of the tour operator when the children died or during the inquest into their deaths earlier this month, when the company was slammed for refusing to apologise to their parents for their deaths.
However, she told news organisation Reuters yesterday that she intends to give around £3 million to a charity of the parents’ choice.
Thomas Cook agreed last week to donate the £1.5 million compensation it received from the Corfu hotel where the children died in 2006 to Unicef, and it later a promised Bobby and Christi’s parents to make further donations to other charities on their behalf.
However, there was a further outcry against the tour operator this week when it emerged that Green, who was in charge of Thomas Cook for two years from 2012, was to receive such a large bonus.
Thomas Cook had been roundly criticised for refusing to public apologising to the children’s family for their deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning while they slept in a holiday bungalow at the Louis Corcyra hotel.
The operators was cleared of blame by an investigation in Greece in 2010, but a coroner leading the inquest into the children’s deaths this month said Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care.
Peter Fankhauser, who took the helm of Thomas Cook following Green’s departure, made a public apology to their father Neil and mother Sharon Wood following the inquest earlier this month. He also met with both parents last week.
Green has denied reports that she had refused to meet Mr Shepherd and Mrs Wood while she was in charge at Thomas Cook, and also that she had started the process to claim compensation for Thomas Cook, but she told news organisation Reuters yesterday that she will donated a third of her bonus to charity.
"I believe that these assertions that have been made are false but I am a great believer in corporate social responsibility, in how businesses and people act, and this feels right to me," she told Reuters.
"I have now reached out to the parents of Bobby and Christi Shepherd. On the basis that Thomas Cook are due to give me 7 million shares in July, I have told the parents that I will donate one third of that 7 million to a charity of their choice.
She added: "This terrible tragedy did not happen on my watch … All of my actions were to make Thomas Cook strong so that this did not happen again.
"I hold my head incredibly high about the work I did to save Thomas Cook, the work I did to put health and safety at the centre of the agenda … My regret is that we didn’t meet (the family) before the inquest and that I didn’t handle the inquest."
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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