Flight Centre’s EMEA chief Chris Galanty has been promoted to the role of corporate chief executive as part of a major global restructure.
Steve Norris, who was corporate managing director, has been appointed EMEA managing director. He will be supported by managing director Europe, Andrew Boxall, and managing director of Middle East and Africa, Andrew Stark.
Retail managing director Alison Zacher has been made corporate UK managing director.
The changes have opened up a position as leisure UK managing director role which will be filled shortly, according to Flight Centre.
More: Flight Centre unveils ‘multimillion-pound investment’
Key senior management changes at FCM Travel Solutions
Chief marketing officer Frits de Kok has been made global corporate chief marketing officer based in London. A new EMEA corporate marketing leader will be appointed.
Galanty explained that the business had previously been run under a regional structure but had grown so big in recent years that a Global structure now made more sense, in order to support even further growth.
He will be based in the UK, while his counterpart, new leisure chief executive Mel Waters-Ryan, will operate out of Brisbane.
Galanty said Flight Centre’s corporate travel brand FCM now operated in 100 countries and that it would keep making “strategic investments in different geographies and in technology”.
“We are still winning record amounts of new business, and we need to continue to support that,” he said.
Galanty said the leisure side of the business was “really big for us” and presented a big opportunity for growth as well – in traditional retail and online.
“There is a lot of activity happening there too,” he said.
He added: “We have a really strong, stable and experienced management team – I think everyone who has been promoted in this restructure has at least 15 years’ experience at Flight Centre, if not 20.”