The Vertical Group makes three senior appointments

The Vertical Group makes three senior appointments

Vertical Travel Group has beefed up its senior management team making three new senior appointments.

Pictured: Susan Forsdike

Vertical Travel Group has beefed up its senior management team making three new senior appointments.

The group, which provides technology systems to 10,000 UK travel agents, says the new structure will support current growth.

Chief executive Peter Healey said: “As a Group we’ve always sought to create a team that would share best practice and information, ensure all brands within the group benefitted from the expertise-plus learn from each other as a larger team.

“I am confident that these appointments fill that brief and the dynamics can only improve our group position in the travel industry.”

Vertical says the appointments will “improve leadership and reporting, widen the product range and increase sales and margins”.

Susan Forsdike has joined the Vertical Travel Group from Cruise Village in the new role of group product manager.

She brings 20 years of travel industry experience with 15 years of specialist dynamic packaging in the cruise sector.

Reporting to group membership director Paula Nuttall, Forsdike will develop new cruise product opportunities and create bespoke travel partner deals for the Vertical brand Miss Ellies Travel, Instant Holidays and Your Holiday Booking (Vertical Travel Group homeworking division).

Sarah Hollands has been promoted to product and commercial director. She has 30 years experience in the industry and will take responsibility for Vertical’s accommodation division Bedbank and in-resort transfers specialist Transfers 4 Travel.

Hollands’ key focus will be expansion with hotel contracting, incorporating new product into Bedbank, liaising on growth of the Transfers 4 Travel portfolio and lead commercial development in Eastern Mediterranean. She will report directly into Healey.

Finally, Peter Bentley has been promoted to the new role of group technical director. He joined Vertical Systems in 2002 and as network manager, focussed on the deployment and maintenance of network and server infrastructure.

In addition to this the new role will include managing the support teams and systems in the company, including the entire IT infrastructure that underpins systems and software across The Vertical Group. Bentley will report into operations director, Nyki Dilworth.