The shareholders of Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. will be asked to elect three new members to the company’s Board of Directors at their Annual General Meeting on April 18, 2007. In Wolfgang Beeser, who was CEO of Thomas Cook AG until the end of 2005 and member of their Supervisory Board till March 2007, Heinz Karrer, CEO of Axpo Holding AG and John Lindquist, Senior Advisor Boston Consulting Group, Kuoni is nominating three highly qualified and experienced executives who ideally complement the present Board of Directors. Current Board member Pierre Boppe has announced that he will step down from the Board of Directors on the date of this year’s General Meeting of Shareholders.
The Board of Directors of Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. wishes to return itself to full strength at the General Meeting of Shareholders on April 18, 2007 and thereby create an optimum foundation for the Kuoni Group’s further successful development. The Board therefore recommends to the company’s shareholders the election of Wolfgang Beeser, Heinz Karrer and John Lindquist to its ranks.
“In Wolfgang Beeser, Heinz Karrer and John Lindquist we are nominating three individuals who will excellently complement the present Board in both professional and personal terms,” says Henning Boysen, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Not only do our three nominees possess extensive management skills and experience; they will also contribute in invaluable expertise to the strategic management of the Kuoni Group. And with tourism specialist Wolfgang Beeser and John Lindquist, we are adding comprehensive knowledge of the tourist travel industry.”
Wolfgang Beeser, who is 64 and a German national, is an acknowledged tourism specialist who was CEO of Thomas Cook AG from January 2004 to the end of 2005. Following this, he served as member of the Thomas Cook AG supervisory board till March 2007. Beeser can draw on 40 years of experience in the tourism sector. An industrial economist, he embarked on his tourism career with Neckermann Reisen in 1967. Ten years later he assumed responsibility for Neckermann’s global procurement of hotel capacities. In 1994 he was named CEO of the company, now renamed NUR Touristic. From 1997 to 1999 he headed the Thomas Cook group, which was then still known as C & N Touristic, as a member of group executive management. He was elected to the Kuoni Board of Directors in 2002, but stepped down at the end of 2003 after being appointed CEO of Thomas Cook AG.
Heinz Karrer, who is 48 and a Swiss national, has been CEO of Axpo Holding AG, one of Switzerland’s leading energy companies, since 2002. After studying economics at St. Gallen University, he began his career in 1985 when he was appointed general manager of the Association of Swiss Manufacturers, Suppliers and Agents for Sports Goods. He went on to serve as managing director of Intersport Schweiz AG from 1987 to 1992, and as CEO of Intersport Holding AG from 1992 to 1995. He then moved to the Ringier publishing house, where he remained until 1997 and rose to become CEO of Ringier Switzerland and a member of Ringier Ltd. group executive management. From 1998 to 2002 he was a member of the Swisscom group executive management and head of the group’s marketing & sales division.
John Lindquist, who is 57 and a US citizen and permanent resident of the UK, can also contribute extensive expertise in the international tourism sector to the Kuoni Board of Directors. After gaining an MBA from Harvard University, he joined the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant in 1974. He was elected a partner in 1981 and Senior Vice President and Director in 1993. He was active as a head of the global travel and tourism practice for over 20 years, advising airlines, tour operators and travel agents, hotel chains, rental car companies and governments on strategy and transformation programmes in over 30 countries. Parallel to this he started and headed the Boston Consulting Group’s practice in Eastern Europe and Russia. He has been a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group and Advisor to the World Bank in Washington, DC since 2004.
Current Board member Pierre Boppe has announced that he will step down from the Board of Directors on the date of this year’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The Board has acknowledged Pierre Boppe’s decision, and offers him its thanks for all his collaboration. Current Board members Annette Schömmel and Raymond D. Webster have been proposed for re-election to the Board of Directors by this year’s Annual General Meeting; the present terms of office of Henning Boysen and David Schnell expire in 2009.