Speakers

His early career was spent in a variety of International and UK based management roles with the Swiss-owned Globus and Cosmos Group. In 1996 he was recruited as part of a new Senior Management team, to revive the performance of the London Stock Exchange listed travel group, First Choice Holidays PLC.

 

Following three years of significant UK Mainstream growth, Richard was appointed as founding Managing Director of the newly created Specialist Division in 1999, to lead the expansion strategy into new source markets and differentiated sectors of business. Over the next few years under his leadership, the Specialist portfolio grew both by acquisition, and organically, to encompass more than 40 different travel companies, operating from 14 different countries across Europe and North America.

 

In 2007, Richard was part of the team that successfully merged First Choice with TUI Tourism to create the world's leading leisure travel group, TUI Travel PLC, a FSTE 100 listed company, with annual revenues of £14 billion and carrying over 30 million customers on a wide range of holidays around the globe every year. Following the merger, Richard continued as Managing Director of the enlarged Specialist and Emerging Markets Division and was a member of the Group Management Board. In 2010, Richard led the acquisition of 3 prominent  companies in Russia and Ukraine to enable TUI Travel to become the first major international travel group to establish a significant presence in these rapidly growing markets with the creation of TUI Russia & CIS.