CURRICULUM VITAE

August 11, 2000, 12:23

Journal: TWUK	Section:
Title:	Issue Date: 17/04/00
Author:	Page Number: 75
Copyright: Other

This week: William Burton, HolidayExpert.com

Age: 39

I have always loved international travel and aeroplanes, so starting with jet engine design for Rolls-Royce and then travelling the world for Shell International was a dream come true.

My first taste of tour operating was at 19, when at King’s College, London, a group of friends and I set up Kings Ski Tours, which dominated the student ski scene through the 1980s. It was great fun with a family atmosphere – we were all young and made many mistakes that I have learned from with HolidayExpert.com.

On the surface, I might look like a big blue-chip company man: an INSEAD MBA, and a background with Shell, British Airways and Thomson. But for as long as I can remember, I have always had an urge to run my own show.

I was an early adopter of new technology and was behind an attempt to make the Niceday office stationary catalogue bookable on-line before the Internet took off in the mid-1990s.

As sales director at Thomson, I preached the gospel of on-line holiday search, and self-assembly tailor-made holidays for over three years before leaving to set up my own company that does this. The idea is much harder to achieve in practice than it was in concept.

But we are now out there and although there will be continuous development of our first stage site, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Development of our second generation site, an on-line tour operator, is under way and with a more powerful search engine, exhaustive hotel and resort information and images, and access to virtually any type of destination, we will roll out across Europe before the year end.

I started the company because, even as a Thomson director, I could never find a hotel or resort that met my family needs. Traditional brochures sort by destination and 7hrs on the Internet demonstrated that most travel sites are little more than glorified paper brochures or simple booking engines. I wanted something that began with my needs, convinced me it had matched my request, and then allowed me to book everything in a single transaction: this is exactly what HolidayExpert.com does.

It was talking to Esprit Holidays chairman Bob Moore, who convinced me to go it alone. He showed me the downsides, and even his confidential financial statements for the early years to convince me not to do it, before admitting it was the best decision he’d ever made. Sadly, Bob died shortly afterwards from a sudden and tragic illness all of which added poignancy to his plea for me to get the whole work/family balance right when starting your own business.

Looking back I can see all the elements falling into place: the sales, operations and marketing background at Shell; the international MBA training at INSEAD; the travel and tour-operating background at King’s, BA and Thomson; and then new technology falling, largely by accident, into my remit as Thomson’s sales director. None of it was planned, but an interest in marketing, technology and travel seems to be the right combination for the dot-com world.

The key selling point to venture capitalists has been my outstanding team. I’ve been lucky to attract some of the leading marketing, technology, product and purchasing specialists in the country and we have an illustrious selection of advisors from the travel and Internet world.

I see my role as the person who pulls them all together, points them in the right direction, and sorts out any disputes, rather than the great business visionary. I’ve always believed that business success stems from having the right people and empowering them to do the job.

My personal business heroes include Lord Marshall of BA and former Thomson managing director, Charles Newbold. Both have had huge success in developing their companies, yet remain surprisingly humble. Management arrogance is the enemy of all companies – I hope when HolidayExpert.com is a major brand, that I have learned from their example.