Alltours, Thomas Cook, TUI, DER Touristik, Sun Express and several other companies have made senior managerial changes in January and early February.
Dieter Zümpel, the well-known sales & marketing director of Alltours, is leaving the company due to differences of opinion with owner Willi Verhuven. His contract was officially terminated with effect from January 31, 2017, meaning he is likely to remain for some time until a replacement is found. Zümpel, who had been in the post since 2012, previously held senior positions with TUI, Karstadt-Quelle and club operator Magic Life.
Thomas Cook Group has appointed Gilles Despas as its new Chief Digital Officer to continue the group’s ‘digital transformation’. The French-born executive is an experienced tourism manager who was previously CEO at Holidaycheck and formerly with Ebookers and STA Travel. The position had been vacant since last July when ‘Mr Digital’ Marco Ryan left the company. Separately, Daniela Hupfeld has been appointed commercial director of Thomas Cook Hotels & Resorts with responsibility for revenue management, sales, marketing and e-commerce for the group’s six hotel brands.
At TUI Germany, Elena Dimitriou is now head of flight procurement, reporting to Olaf Petersenn, director of commercial aviation. The new CEO of TUI China, the group’s destination management company for China, is Guido Brettschneider, who had been CFO since 2003. He replaces Marcel Schneider who has left the company. Andreas Macherey, founder and former managing director of Australia specialist Boomerang Reisen, a 75% TUI subsidiary, has returned to the company as interim managing director. He replaces Thomas Wiedau, head since 2012, who has left the company.
DER Touristik has appointed Svenja Bielinski, previously sales & marketing manager of the Cologne-based package tour operators, as head of central content management. She will be responsible for centralising all holiday content across the group’s brands.
Sun Express has named two senior executives. Peter Glade, formerly with Austrian Airlines, is the new Commercial Director for both the Turkish and German airline units, covering sales & marketing and revenue management as well as customer relationships. Francesco Sciortino, formerly with Lufthansa, has been appointed Operations Director.
Konsti Gaitanides (37) has taken over from owner Selmit Ognjenovic (65) as managing director of Croatia specialist ID Riva Tours in a planned generational handover. Marika Schmidt has taken over product management for Ferien Touristik from Claudia Renner, who is moving to a new job.
Online travel portal Weg.de, part of 7 Travel, owned by TV group ProSiebenSat 1, has named Kai Joachim Boyd as new joint managing director alongside Sven Ahrens. FTI’s destination management company, Meeting Point, has named Charis Papacharalambous as CEO of its new Cyprus subsidiary which will go into operation on April 1.
