Organizational changes afoot at Thomas Cook
Charmaine Pang

Michael Friisdahl, CEO My Travel Canada

Changes are taking place at Thomas Cook North America, formerly known as MyTravel North America. The merger between MyTravel Group plc and Thomas Cook AG in Europe has resulted in company reorganization and streamlining in Canada.

Lars Lofgren, President and Chief Operating Officer, recently conducted a review of Thomas Cook North America operations. In a media release sent out this morning, Thomas Cook North America CEO Michael Friisdahl announced that the new company will no longer have company presidents, but instead will appoint Commercial Brand Managers, who will be supported by streamlined central services support units.

The changes at Thomas Cook North America:

-Sarah Chatburn will become Sr. VP Commercial, Sunquest and ALBATours, reporting to Lars, responsible for the Commercial, Air and Yield team at Sunquest and Alba. 

-Ron Heuer is Sr. VP Commercial for The Holiday Network, with responsibility for Holiday House, Network, Encore Cruise Escapes and Specialty Brands.

-Jill Wykes will become Senior VP Operations, with responsibility for all Call Centres, Operations, Resort Management and Customer Service, reporting to Lars.  

-John Kirk will become Sr. VP, Retail, with responsibility for all our retail brands. 

-Manon Blouin, VP and General Manager, Quebec operations will now report directly to Lars.  Manon will take on responsibility for the performance of the Quebec division for all brands, in support of our growth strategies for Quebec.

-Flemming Friisdahl continues as VP Sales but will now report to Lars Lofgren.

These changes take place with immediate effect.

The merger positions Thomas Cook North America as the 2nd largest leisure travel group in the world, serving 19 million passengers.