FC splits leisure, corporate

FLIGHT Centre’s creation of new CEO roles for its global leisure and corporate businesses (TD breaking news) “underlines our global growth ambitions in both sectors,” according to the company’s MD, Graham Turner.

Announcing the reshuffle this morning, he said “more and more of our strategic decisions are being made based on business type, rather than being based on geographic considerations”.

Turner said having dedicated leisure and corporate leaders working alongside regional MDs to drive strategy would give better oversight, improve efficiency, help capture synergies, and “allow us to take better advantage of global growth opportunities across both sectors”.

Melanie Waters-Ryan will move from her current role as Chief Operating Officer to become Flight Centre’s global CEO Leisure, while London-based Chris Galanty will head up corporate operations across the globe.

Waters-Ryan will also be responsible for Flight Centre’s in-destination businesses, as well as working closely with leisure leaders in Australia to improve performance in the Flight Centre, Travel Associates and Universal Traveller businesses.

She will also aim to fast-track growth in online, home-based agents and ready-made packages which are “performing well and driving TTV growth but not yet generating significant profits”.

New appointments on the global leadership team include Steve Norris as EMEA MD, James Kavanagh promoted to Australia MD, and Charlene Leiss become Americas MD, succeeding Dean Smith who is retiring in Jun 2020.

Turner paid tribute to Smith, noting that under his tenure the Americas had become a “major growth driver for the company”.