23rd Aug 2022 11:55
(Alliance News) - Saga PLC on Tuesday announced three senior appointments, including adding a former investment banker to the board and creating a new chief data officer role, saying the additions will support the company's growth strategy as travel picks up post-pandemic.
Saga provides insurance, cruises and package holidays to people over 50.
Anand Aithal will join the board as an independent non-executive director on September 1.
Saga said that Aithal has non-executive experience from fintech, insurance broking, asset management and accountancy and he also co-founded his own data analytics business. He is currently a non-executive board member for the UK cabinet office, and prior to this he was a managing director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Further, Saga named Michael O'Donohue as chief data officer, a new role to the company. He will join on October 3.
O'Donohue joins from Camelot UK Lotteries Ltd, the operator of the National Lottery, where he is currently chief data officer. Prior to that he held a senior position at Tesco PLC, Saga said.
Finally, Ian Simkins has been appointed as chair of Saga's subsidiary Cruise Board, effective from September 1.
Simkins is currently chair of Thinking Traveller Ltd and Inside Travel Group Ltd, bringing a "wealth of experience" from the travel industry. He was also chief executive of Audley Travel Group Ltd, where he grew turnover fivefold over seven years, Saga said.
Prior to this, Simkins held senior positions at Tesco, holiday operator Tui AG, British Airways, and Thomson Holidays Ltd.
In July, Saga said it expects to return to underlying profit in its current financial year, as holiday demand picks up again.
For the financial year ending January 2023, Saga expects to swing to an underlying pretax profit of around GBP35 million to GBP50 million, from a loss of GBP6.7 million in the last financial year.
This would be higher than the underlying pretax profit of GBP17.1 million Saga reported in its 2021 financial year, but less than half the GBP109.9 million posted for the pre-pandemic 2020 financial year.
Non-Executive Roger De Haan Chair said: "I am delighted to welcome Anand, Michael and Ian to Saga. I look forward to working with them as we focus on delivering the next phase of our growth strategy.
"They each bring extensive and relevant experience and expertise to the group at a time when the business is being reshaped towards a greater focus on marketing, content and distribution," De Haan added.
Shares in Saga were up 0.3% to 163.50 pence each in London on Tuesday near midday.
By Sophie Rose; [email protected]
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