Jeannette Linfoot has decided to leave Saga after two years heading up the group’s tour operating division.
Saga will now bring the tour operating division together with the cruise division under Saga Cruises chief executive Robin Shaw.
Linfoot’s five direct reports will now report directly to Shaw. These are Saga Holidays managing director Maria Whiteman, Titan managing director Andy Squirrell, Destinology managing director Debbie Windle, Richard Pickering, head of Saga’s VIP chauffeur business and Simon Talbot, transformation and change director.
It is Linfoot’s decision to leave after leading a significant transformation of the tour operating division, driving 11% growth in top line revenue, almost doubling the division’s profits, relaunching the Saga Holidays brand, significantly increasing Saga’s share of digital business, and growing trade sales to 11% for Saga Holidays and over 30% for Titan.
But the announcement of her departure comes after the Saga share price fell nearly 25% last week and 100 redundancies were announced across the wider group.
Before joining Saga in December 2015, Linfoot was managing director – emerging markets at Tui.
She started at Thomson in 1995 where she stayed for seven years before moving to Barcelona to lead Tui Espana between 2002-2003.
Linfoot then joined Thomas Cook as head of product and was named Young Manager of the Year at the British Travel Industry Hall of Fame.
She was subsequently head-hunted in 2006 to join First Choice as product director before moving to the emerging markets division as business development director in 2008 following the company’s merger with Thomson.
Linfoot was unavailable for comment on her departure from Saga.