Holmes brings over 20 years’ experience leading the finance teams of some of the biggest travel companies
DUBAI, UAE-: Collinson has today announced the board appointment of Jon Holmes as its new Chief Financial Officer. Jon comes to Collinson with more than 20 years financial and operations experience, including at travel companies such as Avios, TUI and Virgin Holidays.
In his role as Chief Financial Officer, Jon will oversee all of Collinson’s financial teams from across the globe, with the aim of driving better financial global insights. He’ll work closely with, and report into, Joint CEO Christopher Evans, providing the overall financial governance to the group to support rapid growth, increased innovation, and the creation of new commercial models.
Jon brings to Collinson a wealth of experience leading finance teams at some of the travel industry’s biggest companies. His previous roles include Head of Finance at AirMiles (now Avios/IAG Loyalty), Head of Finance at TUI, Finance and Strategy Director at Virgin Holidays and most recently CFO at INTO University Partnerships, a privately owned business recruiting international students globally into the US, UK and Australia. After gaining a First-Class degree in Engineering from the University of Nottingham, Jon trained with PWC and KPMG and has been a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants since 2012.
“Jon’s strong international experience and travel and loyalty experience, coupled with his track record in optimising business performance and platform transformation, means he is ideally placed to lead our finance teams and help deliver our strategic objectives and realise our full potential,” said Christopher Evans, Joint CEO, Collinson. “We know Jon will make a big shift in the way we capture, analyse and use financial information, giving us better insights that will drive faster and enhanced decision making, in what is a very dynamic environment as we accelerate out of the pandemic.”
Over more than seven years with INTO, Jon helped the business to expand globally and triple profitability within five years. He also led the securing of major new bank financing and the group’s Covid-19 financial response planning to safely navigate through the pandemic. During his 10 years with Virgin Holidays, Jon led a number of initiatives which saw the company achieve record profits, launch V-ROOM airport lounges, and open over 100 new retail stores, as well as leading its push to replace all major systems.
“It’s a really exciting time to be joining Collinson. The travel industry is rapidly ramping back up, and now is the time to see what the company can be doing to even further improve travel experiences for its customers,” added Jon. “I’ve always enjoyed working in growing entrepreneurial businesses which have a strong focus both on their clients and their own people. Collinson is truly a people-led business, and I’m looking forward to seeing how we can evolve our propositions to help people really love their journeys again at this time.”