Former Gold Medal chief executive Terry Fisher is to head a restructured scheduled services division within Thomas Cook from Monday.
Fisher’s new title will be chief executive of scheduled businesses and he will oversee its Signature, Pure Luxury, Gold Medal, Cresta, Netflights.com, Thomas Cook Tours and Elegant Resorts brands.
He told Travel Weekly he will be dividing his time between Thomas Cook headquarters in Peterborough and the Gold Medal head office in Preston.
Fisher said: “The scheduled brands have been underperforming and have underachieved for a number of years and we are really excited about the opportunity to develop and grow them, as well as to reinforce Gold Medal’s position as the number one long-haul tour operator to the trade.
“Gold Medal has lost a little bit of its shine over the last few months but it will soon be back.”
Former Gold Medal finance director Steve Bacon will become chief financial officer for the scheduled group. More announcements about the senior structure will be made in the near future.
“There won’t be brand MDs; there will be group directors covering sales, marketing, distribution, product, operations and commercial,” Fisher added.
He said he was very mindful of the ongoing restructure programme under which 70 roles will be made redundant.
Gold Medal marketing director Ruth Connor is leaving to become managing director at Shearings.
Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa admitted at the ITT conference that the retailer was underperforming in the luxury sector.
He announced Fisher’s new role at Thomas Cook in an interview with TWgroup chief executive Simon Ferguson.