Travel Counsellors has appointed a technology heavyweight as its new CTO.
David Jack has joined the technology platform for travel entrepreneurs with immediate effect. He was most recently CTO at Tunstall Healthcare, where he led a programme of major technology transformation – including AI adoption across manufacturing, supply chain, product development and security.
Earlier in his career he served as the CIO of Trainline, while he has also held CTO and CIO roles at collapsed transport data firm wejo, eCommerce delivery management software company MetaPack, data science firm dunnhumby and insurer Howden.
The technology features he will assume responsibility for developing include TC CoPilot, an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance productivity, deepen customer personalisation and streamline everyday tasks, alongside continued investment in booking platforms and cruise technology.
Jack succeeds Jon Bauer, who joined as CTO during COVID and left the business earlier this month.
“I take a huge amount of satisfaction from what we built across technology, product, data and AI, but more than anything I’ll remember the people,” Bauer wrote on LinkedIn. “TC is a rare and special business, and there aren’t many organisations quite like it.
“What makes it special is the people and the care they have for each other, the business and their customers. I’ve been lucky to work with some brilliant people over the last six years and I leave with a lot of friendships as well as professional relationships.”
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Steve Byrne, CEO of Travel Counsellors – a BusinessCloud Northern Leader – commented: “I would like to begin by thanking Jon for his significant contribution to Travel Counsellors over the last six years and wish him every success for the future.
“He has played an important role in leading our technology function through a period of significant investment and development. He leaves Travel Counsellors with a truly world-class and scalable technology platform which is driving the continued success of our travel counsellors across a range of international markets.
“At the same time, I am delighted to welcome David to Travel Counsellors. He brings extensive experience leading technology, product and data teams in high-growth, customer-centric global businesses.
“His appointment will help us build on our outstanding technology platform as we continue to expand the business, develop our use of data and AI to support our travel counsellors’ ongoing success, and deliver against our very exciting long-term growth plans.”
Jack said: “I am delighted to be joining Travel Counsellors at such an exciting time for the business.
“Travel Counsellors is already world-class when it comes to its technology and track record of unrivalled customer care. It has built a fantastic proposition, combining technology with an incredibly passionate community of travel entrepreneurs I believe we have a unique insight to both global trends and customer sentiment – we have the data, the incredible community of Travel Counsellors and the AI to help us provide the best possible experience for our customers.
“I am looking forward to working with the wider team and supporting the business as it continues to scale both in the UK and internationally.”