Two key Thomas Cook executives are to leave the company, the operator has confirmed.
Chief digital and marketing officer Gilles Despas will go at the end of the year “to move on to other projects”, while commercial director Bjorn Sandstrom will also depart.
Despas has been with the operator for less than two years and helped develop the single web platform OneWeb and the alliance with Expedia as well as working on brand campaigns.
Cook chief executive Peter Fankhauser said: “Having successfully led the team to agree our new alliance with Expedia, an agreement which has the potential to transform our business and the way in which we sell holidays to our customers, Gilles has decided that now is the right time to move on to other projects.”
Despas’ role will not be replaced and his responsibilities will instead be split with other members of the management team, among them Magnus Wikner, who takes on the group marketing job, adding this to his chief of Nordics source market role.
The role of commercial director Bjorne Sandstrom will also disappear and he will also leave the company, Cook said. Thomas Hohn, chief of continental Europe source market and group complementary product, will take on some of his duties and Chris Mottershead, chief of UK source market and group differentiated product, others.
The changes follow the appointment of Andrew Flintham as managing director of Cook’s UK business and the promotion of Mottershead at the brand, which recently lost its status as second-biggest licensed operator to Jet2holidays.