With 26 years of experience Rothwell in the tourist industry Peter Rothwell will take up the position of CEO at Kuoni starting 1 January 2009. Until the end of 2007 he served as the Deputy Chief Executive of TUI Travel Ltd. and as a Member of the Board of Directors at TUI AG.

After studying French and German at Oxford University, Peter Rothwell began his career in the tourist industry in 1982 when he joined the trainee programme at Thomson Holidays. After six years working in the product, marketing and advertising departments, he moved to Jetset as the Director for Europe. A year later he rejoined Thomson Holidays as the General Manager for the Worldwide and City Breaks products, and then he worked as the Marketing Director from 1989 to 1993, Sales Director from 1993 and later as Purchasing Director.

In 1995 he took up the post of Managing Director at Airtours Holidays and was later appointed to the Board of Airtours PLC as the Chief Executive of the UK Leisure Group. In March 2001, Rothwell returned to the Thomson Travel Group, initially as Chief Operating Officer in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia. Following a restructuring of the Thomson Travel Group, in October 2002 Rothwell became the Chief Executive of TUI Northern Europe, and from 2004 he was in addition Managing Director of marketleader TUI UK. From 2006, as COO and board director of TUI AG he was responsible for all touristic activities with direct responsibility for UK and Northern Europe. As the Deputy Chief Executive of TUI Travel PLC he played a leading role in bringing about the merger of TUI and First Choice in 2007.

For Henning Boysen, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Kuoni, Peter Rothwell is the very best among all the possible candidates that had been considered for the CEO position at Kuoni: “We are very pleased to have Peter Rothwell, a recognized professional in our industry, commit himself to this top position at Kuoni; he knows Kuoni and his broad international experience matches perfectly with Kuonis market ambitions.” For his part, Peter Rothwell says, “Kuoni is well positioned as upmarket specialist. To further advance Kuoni at the top of the market for premium and specialised travel for me is as much a logical as a fascinating challenge that I shall accept with great commitment”.
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