Thomas Cook plays down wave of departures
Thomas Cook has played down a series of high profile departures within the group’s UK management team saying it’s all part of the normal process.
In the last week, it has confirmed that five senior managers and directors are leaving or transferring to other roles within Europe.
"In such a big organisation like our UK business and in times of transformation it is a normal process that people and roles change from time to time," said the spokesman.
"This is nothing unusual and offers new opportunities for people from within the organisation. We have a lot of talent in our UK business and we constantly looking for chances to promote these."
The statement was issued after it was confirmed that Thomas Cook UK finance director Nigel Arthur has left the company with immediate effect.
He took the role in February 2013, just a month after joining the group as director of shared services UK & Ireland. Before that, he worked at Heineken and Diageo.
A Thomas Cook spokesman said Arthur had been replaced by commercial director Paul Hemingway, who was previously finance director for travel at The Co-operative Group before becoming chief finance officer for the joint venture.
Meanwhile, head of supplier relations Deborah Aylward has also left the company and her role has been split between other managers in the short term.
The wave of departures began last week when it was announced that managing director UK and Ireland Reto Wilhelm had left to go back to Switzerland for personal reasons.
He has reverted to his former role as managing director East/West Europe.
His departure meant chief operating officer Peter Fankhauser has taken overall responsibility for the UK, supported by Salman Syed, who has been appointed UK managing director of commercialisation.
Syed joined Thomas Cook in December from electronics firm Premier Farnell, where Thomas Cook CEO Harriet Green was chief executive.
Last Thursday it was confirmed that UK sales, marketing and ecommerce director Mike Hoban was leaving to "pursue other opportunities". He joined Cook in November 2012 from Confused.com.
And on Friday, director of government and external affairs Andy Cooper, who worked at Thomas Cook for five years after joining from the Federation of Tour Operators, also announced he was leaving.
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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