This is a roundup of announcements related to people moves and business expansions in travel in August 2018.
30 August 2018
Hotelbeds names Americas sourcing director
- The B2B/wholesaler giant has named Matias Elisavetsky as regional director of sourcing for the Americas. Elisavetsky had been with Tourico Holidays, which became a part of Hotelbeds Group last summer, where he held the role of executive vice-president of global product development.
22 August 2018Uber appoints CFO
- Nelson J Chai has been named as the new CFO for Uber. He joins from Chicago-based insurance and warranty provider, Warranty group. In a statement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said that Chai "will be a great partner for me and the entire management team as we move towards becoming a public company."
21 August 2018
Swaffield returns to loyalty sector
- Andrew Swaffield, former CEO of UK airline Monarch which collapsed in October 2017, has been named as the CEO for Virgin Group Loyalty Company. The new unit integrates Virgin Atlantic’s FlyingClub with the Virgin Red loyalty platform and will be jointly owned by Virgin Group and Delta Air Lines. Swaffield's loyalty experience covers time at IAG's loyalty play Avios from 2006 and 2014.
20 August 2018Traveltek adds another VP
- Cressida Sergeant is the latest high-profile addition to Traveltek's senior management line-up, joining the Edinburgh-based business as its senior vice-president of sales for EMEA. Her CV includes time spent with Expedia, TravelSupermarket.com, lastminute.com and The Global Travel Group, giving her an insight into "B2B, B2C, online, metasearch and more. Her most recent role was with collaborative commerce platform Kognitiv.
9 August 2018HRS names EMEA VP
- The hotel solutions specialist has named Chris Crowley as Vice President for EMEA. He is a former president of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) and recently joined the board of the Institute of Travel Management (ITM) as a supplier director. He joins from BCD Travel and will work out of HRS' London office.
Booking to move in Manchester
- Booking Holdings is investing £100 million in a new tech hub in Manchester and will move staff from four different locations in the city to the new 220,000 sq ft base, Manchester Goods Yard, which is due to be finished in 2020. The campus will be the base for its global transport business following its $500 million investment in China's mobility giant Didi.
2 August 2018GetYourGuide strengthens engineering team
- GetYourGuide has announced three new appointments to its tech line-up, with Udi Nir named as its chief technology officer. He has 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley, most recently as VP of engineering at online groceries marketplace Instacart. He was co-founder of a unified communication platform Threadsy, which was bought by Facebook in 2012, and has also been a senior engineer at eBay. Elsewhere, Simone Basso and Roman Fuchs have joined his team. Basso joins as director of engineering after six years with LSE-listed food delivery marketplace JustEat. Fuchs will be engineering manager and joins GetYourGuide from Airbnb in San Francisco, where his most recent role was with its corporate travel arm, Airbnb For Work.
Shiji opens new office in Australia
- Beijing-based hospitality tech provider Shiji is opening a new office in Sydney Australia as part of its ongoing global expansion. The office will be headed up by Anthony Stevens. Shiji has more than 50 subsidiaries around the globe, including ReviewPro and Snapshot. Earlier this year an investment arm of Chinese online giant Alibaba Group put $468 million dollars into Shiji.
See also:
Our round-up of senior appointments made in July, featuring Sabre, OTA Insight, Avvio, TravelStart, ETTSA, CWT and more