Ian Burnley, former Expotel CEO, who left the travel management company on 25 May following a management restructure, has joined Berd-based venue-sourcing and event management consultancy Vfi 360 as Chairman. His new remit is to target growth in the international conference and congress markets.
At Expotel, Burnley led the business to a top 10 listing in the UK travel management sector in 2011 following its acquisition by Phoenix Equity Partners in 2008. He also led the successful acquisition of the event management business, Venues Event Management in late 2010.
Charlie Brunsden-Parsons, Managing Director of Vfi 360 said: “I am very pleased that Ian has agreed to join the Board as Chairman. We are focussed on growing the Vfi 360 business in the UK and international congress and conference markets and it is great to have Ian’s experience available to us.
“Vfi 360 launched earlier this year and we have ambitious plans for the business. We are well placed to achieve significant growth with a strong forward congress pipeline to 2015,” said Brunsden-Parsons.
The company traded as Créme Conferences until the beginning of this year and has handled 19 congresses and 15,000 delegates, business valued at US$30m in recent years, according to Brunsden-Parsons.
“Charlie has established an excellent team at Vfi 360 with some very exciting opportunities for growth, particularly in the congress market. The Vfi 360 team has significant international experience and it is great to become involved with a business with such high potential. Both the conference and the congress markets offer interesting opportunities for Vfi 360 and we will continue to develop our online solutions alongside the more traditional consultancy service for our customers,” said Burnley.
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