Gardner joined Cook in 2015 after nearly 15 years with First Choice and then Tui; he remained with Cook after the iconic operator, which collapsed in September 2019, was resurrected and relaunched as an OTA by Chinese tourism giant Fosun in September 2020.
David Scott, Cook’s head of ancillaries and financial services, has been promoted to replace Gardner. Scott joined the business in December 2019 as a founding member of its modern incarnation, and has negotiated Cook’s currency, cards, excursions and events contracts, and introduced its insurance product.
In his new role, Scott will oversee Cook’s commercial and contracting team, building new relationships with hoteliers, DMCs and ancillaries providers to allow the OTA to "take a more active role in managing the holidays and experiences it sells".
Meanwhile, Wendy Shand, who joined the business last September to develop and differentiate Cook’s product for different audience groups, has been promoted to the brand’s management team in recognition of "the importance to the business of attracting new types of holidaymaker and offering a more bespoke holiday experience for its customers".
Shand previously founded and ran Tots To Travel, which specialised in designing holidays for families with young children.
Alan French, Thomas Cook chief executive, said: "For the past 18 months, we’ve been building a successful digital platform that has shown we can trade profitably when consumer confidence is on our side.
"Our focus for this year is accelerating that growth and reaching new holidaymakers who want to try us for the first time or welcome others were loyal devotees of the old business.
"Promoting David into his new role and adding Wendy’s talent to my top team is part of our plan to ensure this new Thomas Cook understands what matters to people and designs holidays, and ways of selling them, that are relevant to today’s consumers."
Addressing Gardner’s departure, French added: "We are sorry to lose Phil who was with us from day one and we thank him for helping us achieve all we have so far."
Fosun, which was the largest single shareholder in Thomas Cook with an 18% stake when the business went under in September 2019, acquired the Cook brand and associated digital assets several months later in November 2019.
