The Travel Foundation

About us

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Our Board

Our board of trustees represents every aspect of the travel business, working in and alongside travel organisations, NGOs, government and the charity sector.


Special Advisors

Debbie Hindle - Special Advisor on PR & Communications
Hugh Somerville - Special Advisor on Climate Change

 


Jimmy Skinner -  Founder

One of the founders of Action for Conservation through Tourism (ACT- the charity that played a leading role in the development of The Travel Foundation), Jimmy is also trustee of the New Economics Foundation and the Organic Research Centre at Elm Farm. His company Sustraco (the Sustainable Transport Company) is promoting the development and introduction of low-cost trams, known as Ultra Light Rail.



Noel Josephides - Chairman

Noel is the founding partner and Managing Director of Sunvil Holidays, since 1973. He is a board member of AITO and the Chairman of AITO Trust as well as a board member of ABTA. Noel is the Chairman of AGTA (Association of Greek Cypriot Travel Agents and Tour Operators) and deputy chairman of ATOP (Association of Tour Operators to Portugal).



Ian Ailles - Treasurer

Ian is now Chief Executive Officer, Mainstream UK, Thomas Cook. Prior to this role, he was Chief Operating and Finance Officer for RCI GVN, part of Wyndham Worldwide. Ian previously worked at Thomas Cook, was appointed to the board from 2001 until 2007. His previous roles included Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer. He has also had a number of international roles including non-executive Director of Thomas Cook India. Ian is also Chairman of the UK's Federation of Tour Operators (FTO).

 

Mike Greenacre - Vice Chairman

Following a 25 year career in the Travel Industry, Mike stood down from his role as Managing Director, The Co-operative Travel in December 2011, following the formation of a new Joint Venture with Thomas Cook, which Mike was involved in creating. Mike is a passionate supporter of the Foundation and its sustainability credentials, which have great synergy with the Co-operative Groups values and principals. On a wider front Mike undertakes a significant amount of Charity work with ABTA Lifeline, Just a Drop and the Co-operative Group. He is also Chair of the Governing Body of The Co-operative Academy of Stoke-on-Trent, which opens a brand new 25million pound new school in September 2012.



Fiona Jeffery

Fiona was for many years Chief Executive of World Travel Market and now acts as Chairman. In 1998 she founded and is now Chairman of Just a Drop; the international travel and tourism industry charity striving to deliver clean water to over 1.1 billion people worldwide. Fiona created and launched World Responsible Tourism Day in association with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, which is a global tourism initiative to highlight the issues and contributions travel and tourism companies can, and should, make to managing tourism responsibly.



Guyonne James

Guyonne has an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice and another in International Politics. As Senior Project Manager for Tourism Concern, Guyonne worked with industry partners to develop their CSR understanding and practice, including a labour audit for hotels, a social impact assessment tool for tour operators, a very successful campaign highlighting the effects of exploitative working conditions suffered by tourism workers and an international project with communities in India and Sri Lanka focusing on tourism and land issues.



John de Vial

John is a Director of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO). John was until April 2009 Group Director of Quality and Safety, Corporate Social Responsibility and External Affairs at the Thomas Cook Group plc. , and previously Holiday Services Director at Thomson Holidays/TUI UK, Managing Director of European Quality Assurance Services and The European Consultancy Limited and Consumer Affairs Director at ILG/Air Europe. John first joined the travel industry in 1980.


Mark Tanzer

Mark took over as Chief Executive of ABTA in September 2005. His background is in the private sector, where he held senior positions in strategy and corporate finance in a number of industry sectors. Prior to joining ABTA, Mark was Group Strategy Director of Centrica plc, Strategy Director of the Automobile Association and spent 18 months on secondment to the Home Office as Senior Director of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate responsible for a wide-ranging programme of change and reform.

 

Stephanie Draper

Stephanie is Deputy Director of Forum for the Future's Business Programme. With over ten years experience working on sustainability and corporate social responsibility, she leads Forum's work on leadership and change, and transport and tourism. Stephanie was previously Head of CSR at the Work Foundation (formerly The Industrial Society), is a tutor at University of Cambridge, a visiting lecturer at London Business School, Chair of Fairtrade Farnham Action Network and has written and presented extensively on sustainable development.



Steve Allen

Steve is an experienced travel professional, who has worked in the industry since 1980. He spent his first 16 years with the Thomson Travel Group, including eight years as Director in both tour operating and airline businesses, latterly as Commercial Director Thomson Holidays. Previously, Steve held various director-level roles within VC-backed travel companies and Cendant, and a number of non-executive roles within the travel sector. He was appointed Managing Director WEXAS (the Independent Traveller's Club) in 2004.

 

Rodney Anderson

Rodney has 40 years’ Central and Local Government experience, latterly as Director, Marine and Fisheries in Defra.  Having retired from the Civil Service, he holds various voluntary, advisory and non-executive posts.   Rodney was part of the UK team at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, as Head of Water Supply and Regulation in England, and developed and launched the UK Prime Ministerial initiative ‘Partners for Water and Sanitation’ (PFWS), a tri-sector programme which currently assists four African countries to improve the provision of clean drinking water and safe sanitation.

 

Andrew Cooper

Andrew is Director of Government and External Affairs of Thomas Cook Group.  Before that he was Director General of the Federation of Tour Operators, representing the major UK tour operators (and of the IFTO, its International counterpart), and previously was Head of Legal Services for MyTravel Group plc.  He is a highly experienced lobbyist at the UK, destination Government and European level.  Andrew qualified as a solicitor in 1985.

 

Peter Shanks

Peter is President and Managing Director for Cunard Line and UK Director for Princess Cruises - both divisions of Carnival UK. Peter has been with Carnival for 8 years. Prior to that Peter had roles as Managing Director of Going Places and Commercial Director of Thomas Cook. Peter is also Chairman of the Passenger Shipping Association Cruise Section, and has had two stints as a Director of ABTA and sits on the Board of Advisors of Southampton University School of Management.

 

Dr Peter Davis

Dr Peter Davis works with companies and governments to help them understand and manage complex societal, political and ethical challenges. With the private sector,  he has worked with Anglo American on their long-term sustainability policy; with Lafarge on managing corruption in Nigeria; and with Rexam on managing labour conditions in their businesses in China. In the government sphere, between 2006-2009, Dr Davis co-chaired David Cameron’s Working Group on Responsible Business Practice, and he is currently working as political economy advisor to the British Department of International Development on a business environment reform project in Nigeria. Dr Davis also researches and teaches in these areas.