Pictured: (l-r) John Donnelly with UGroup's chief executive
Suresh Bawa
Midlands businessman and travel industry entrepreneur John
Donnelly has been appointed to the board of Wolverhampton based
UGroup.
Mr Donnelly's appointment as a non executive director will see
him working alongside UGroup's chief executive Suresh Bawa and
managing director Karen Chilton to drive the company's expansion
into the travel sector.
An inspirational force behind the launch of the Holiday
Hypermarket in the late 1990s, Mr Donnelly has held a number of
senior posts in the travel industry including managing director of
First Choice Retail and managing director of Harvey World Travel
UK, where he formed a partnership to bring Virgin Holidays to the
High Street.
Since forming JDA, his own travel distribution company John has
worked with a number of companies in developing travel and affinity
reward schemes. He is currently chairman of Active4, a leading ABTA
bonded school tours programme operator, and a non executive
director of Affordable Car Hire.
Commenting on his appointment to UGroup's board John said:
"Since its formation just 20 months ago UGroup has developed a
number of consumer facing financial products and solutions through
a customer contact centre which now employs around 200 people. The
way people purchase holidays is changing rapidly and through the
relationships we have developed with millions of customers there is
an opportunity to now offer them a range of holidays by working on
an affinity basis with tour operators and suppliers.
"By utilising the same data management and sales processes that
UGroup has successfully developed around financial services, we can
work with travel industry partners to provide a number of exciting
holiday products."
Suresh Bawa, chief executive of UGroup said: "John is a
tremendous asset to the UGroup board who will further develop our
leisure and travel offering to our customers. He is an exceptional
entrepreneur who has a proven track record at the most senior level
in this sector.
"We look forward to an exciting 2012 as we build our senior
executive team for further growth and expansion in other
markets."
Outside of work John Donnelly is chairman of Chasetown FC and
Aston Villa Former Players Association.