Thomas Cook appoints Marco Ryan as chief innovation officer

Thomas Cook Group is further emphasising the importance of digital technology by appointing a chief innovation officer.

Thomas Cook Group is further emphasising the importance of digital technology by appointing a chief innovation officer.

Marco Ryan will move on Janaury 1 from his role leading digital transformation in central Europe as head of omni-channel digital marketing and e-commerce to take up the new position.

Ryan will join the executive committee, reporting to Harriet Green, group chief executive. He joined Thomas Cook Germany a year ago having previously worked for Cap Gemini, Accenture and others in the US, Europe and Asia.

At the same time, the company announced that John Straw, the digital advisory board chairman, would be stepping down at the end of January to launch and promote a new book.

Kate Smaje, digital advisor from McKinsey, will assume the leadership of the digital advisory board.

Green said: “I am delighted to congratulate Marco on his new role, and look forward to working with him to further differentiate Thomas Cook in the online space and improve the digital customer experience through innovation, content and conversion.

“His appointment will see him support the markets in achieving their web penetration targets with the creation and delivery of a leading product proposition.

“This will ensure that our work on digital innovation and transformation is at the heart of every discussion throughout the company.

“The industry-leading engagement and innovation scores we achieved in our recent employee survey show that our people embrace our strategy, and we can build on a strong foundation to drive the digitisation of our business.”

She added: “John has gone to extraordinary lengths to spiritualise digitisation at Thomas Cook.

“His training programmes are legendary and he played a critical role in the development of tools such as our award-winning ‘Wish List’ and in challenging colleagues at all levels across the business to think digitally.

“I can’t thank him enough for what he has done to drive the digital transformation of Thomas Cook.”