Mark Warner head of sales and marketing Tim Locke (pictured) is to leave the snow and beach resort operator next month to head up a travel portfolio owned by the Porter family – founders of Tesco.
Locke will leave on May 23 after three-and-a-half-years at the all-inclusive operator, immediately after delivering the Advantage Travel Partnership conference at Mark Warner’s resort in Turkey.
He will become managing director of the John Porter Travel Portfolio – a collection of hotels, chateaux and chalets worldwide, which Locke has been charged with growing rapidly.
He told Travel Weekly: “John wants me to build a travel group of real significance over time with the UK travel trade firmly in our sights as a distribution channel.
“We will be launching several consumer brands over the next couple of months that will be sold both direct and by travel agents.”
John Porter, 62, is described on Wikipedia as “an English billionaire businessman and philanthropist best known as the grandson of Sir Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco, and son of Dame Shirley Porter”.
He used to own Go Travel, one of the biggest tour operators in New Zealand, and still owns bedbank to Fiji. He also used to be a majority shareholder in Cheapflights.
Locke said: “I actually think my job at Mark Warner was one of the best in the travel industry, if not the whole world. But when you get a great opportunity to move on, you have to go for it.”
Locke was previously head of marketing and IT at Dertour.