Travelport’s UK boss Simon Ferguson has seen his role expanded to include more of Northern Europe as part of a wave of promotions at the firm.
The business said it has “heightened its leadership focus” with expanded roles for its EMEA agency-facing teams.
With immediate effect Ferguson’s role as managing director for Travelport UK, Ireland and Nordics, will be expanded to include the Benelux region, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Prior to joining Travelport, Ferguson spent 20 years in business, consumer and technology media, including two years as chief executive of Travel Weekly Group.
With Ferguson’s promotion, Paul Broughton will now head up the UK and Ireland, and Peter Cramon will head up the Nordic countries.
Rabih Saab, formerly leader for Africa, Middle East and South Asia, expands his responsibilities to include Europe and is charged with further accelerating Travelport’s recent growth in the region.
Saab joined the company in 2005 and led the set-up of Travelport’s new direct operations for travel agents across the Middle East.
Marcin Pilarski, who formerly led Travelport’s Eastern European region, moves to head up product and marketing on a global basis for agency-facing teams.
Pilarski joined Travelport in 2003 and before then held a number of senior roles in the travel industry.
Damiano Sabatino, who joined Travelport in 2008 and previously headed up Western Europe, now leads the newly created region of Southern Europe and North Africa, and has responsibility for driving the firm’s growth and expansion into these “strategically important” territories.
Other recent appointments include Scott Hyden becoming head of Travelport’s newly established Enterprise Customer Group and Bret Kidd in Hyden’s former role of managing director for the Americas.
Ferguson said: “I am delighted to be leading the Northern European territory for Travelport, a region with a dynamic mix of retailers, and one that holds great potential for our travel commerce platform.
“We already have a strong track record of diversified content and technology and I look forward to accelerating this in the countries in the region.
“With this newly-created position we can better serve our customers in the region with more dedicated resource and ultimately grow our business further.”
Travelport said the appointments are aimed at responding to the growth opportunities the firm has identified in certain key locations and customer segments, and “more tightly aligning its commercial leadership around them”.