Hotels.com has appointed Nigel Pocklington as its new Europe, Middle East and Africa managing director.  Nigel will take overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the business across EMEA.

Hotels.com has outpaced the market with its phenomenal growth throughout the EMEA region since launching in May 2003.  European sites now include UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. There are now 22 local sites in the EMEA region from Finland and Russia down to South Africa in more than 13 different languages.

David Roche, senior vice president of Hotels.com EMEA to whom Nigel reports said: “Nigel will bring substantial expertise in business development and strategic planning, as well as expertise in the day-to-day running of a high-growth online business.  He takes the reins at an exciting time for Hotels.com as we look to combine continued growth with an increase in our share of the online accommodation market.”

Nigel was most recently chief executive of Horsesmouth.co.uk, an online social and e-mentoring network.  He led the development of the soon-to-launch site and built up its partnership programme and initial business model.

Prior to this, he was director of online publishing at the Financial Times, where he sat on the board and was responsible for all online activities, from FT.com to content licensing and mobile content development.

Before moving across to Financial Times ltd, he worked on strategy and development at the business’ holding company, Pearson plc, where he was strategy and development director.
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