THOMAS
Cook chairman and chief executive Stefan Pichler and chief finance officer
Norbert Kickum have resigned following a tough year in which attempts to turn
the group around failed.
Supervisory
board members Peter Gerard, of German retail chain KarstadtQuelle, and Karl-Ludwid
Kley, of Deutsche Lufthansa, have been appointed interim chief executive and
chief finance officer respectively.
They
have both relinquished their positions on the board.
Peter
Fankhauser, on the executive board of Thomas Cook and responsible for product,
will take the post of interim HR director.
The group – controlled by KarstadtQuelle
and Lufthansa – is expected to post a
loss of 80 million euros for its year to October 31 2003, compared to 20
million euros for the same period last year.
Full year results are not due until next March.