Thomas Cook boss reveals how she got the job
Thomas Cook chief executive Harriet Green has revealed she got the top job after she cold-called the chairman and told him "you need me".
Green, who had no previous experience of running a travel business, said she emailed Frank Meysman twice with her CV and her turnaround plan for the business.
Speaking at Fortune’s Powerful Women conference in London, Green said: "When I took the role at Thomas Cook, I wasn’t head-hunted, no one approached me. I contacted the chairman and said I think you need me."
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Green told the conference she had no connections Meysman. "I had never met him in my life," she said. And she had no assistance from the firm handling the search. "In fact the headhunter involved was unbelievably unhelpful," she added
The headhunters wouldn’t have chosen her, Green admitted, because they were looking for someone with experience of the travel industry. "I hadn’t done travel. But I had done other transformations," she said.
Green, who was the former head of Premier Farnell, the electrical distribution group, was appointed chief executive of Thomas Cook last July.
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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