Previous managing director Steve Byrne has taken on his official title of chief executive, while Kirsten Hughes has been promoted to managing director for the UK business, alongside her previous commercial director role.
Hughes will focus on the business’s UK Travel Counsellors, with the rest of the team including directors of operations, technology and finance at board level, as well as the most recent appointment of Waseem Haq as director of digital and innovation.
Hughes has been with the business for 22 years, having started out working at David Speakman Travel. She has been commercial director for Travel Counsellors for 12 years.
“I feel very privileged to take on this role having started out all those years ago at Lunn Poly. It goes to show you can achieve anything with hard work, determination and great mentors,” she told TTG.
Byrne added: “We have fantastic leaders in the business and the clarity on the structure optimises the skills in the team, ensuring each part of the business gets the support it needs and supports the company’s growth for the next three to five years.
“Kirsten has always played an integral role in the running of the business so it was a natural progression for her to step up into the role as UK managing director, giving even more focused support and leadership to the UK Travel Counsellors, while continuing to drive the commercial strategy globally.
“This also enables my role to take on a more global and strategic focus as we look to take the company to another level globally.”
He added: “As we are now a large business that is growing quickly, we needed to do this for internal and external stakeholders.”
The business, which has nearly 1,000 Travel Counsellors in the UK and 600 operating in Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Australia and the UAE.
