Senior technology leadership for travel and hospitality companies between £2m and £100m turnover - without the overhead of a full-time hire. Twenty years leading technology through platform rebuilds, PE investment rounds and acquisitions, now working on a fractional and project basis.
Growing, private equity-backed travel businesses often reach a point where technology stops helping the business grow and starts holding it back: old booking and reservation systems, data that doesn't join up, extra risk when acquisitions are bolted on, or a technology plan that hasn't kept pace with with investors expectations. Left unaddressed, these problems tend to surface at the worst time, during due diligence, in a stalled acquisition, or when the board loses confidence in the growth plan. A full-time CTO isn't always the right answer at this stage, and getting that hire wrong is expensive and hard to undo. Often what's needed instead is a technology partner who can focus on the problem at hand: someone with real experience running technology in travel businesses, who's comfortable setting strategy in the boardroom one day and getting hands-on with the detail the next. That includes being honest about where AI can actually help, whether that's saving time, improving the customer experience or helping people make faster decisions, rather than adding it to the plan just because everyone else is. The approach is practical and straightforward: listen to business leaders, understand what's really holding them back, and work with them to fix it at pace.
Ongoing part-time technology leadership, covering strategy, team management, vendor and budget oversight, and board reporting. Typically one to three days a week, remote-first, with time on-site when it's useful, for board meetings, key planning sessions or when the team needs someone in the room.
Practical, board-level guidance on where AI actually earns its place in a travel business, whether that's customer service, personalisation, pricing or operations, and just as importantly, where it doesn't. This includes vendor evaluation, an honest look at data readiness, and phased adoption plans that avoid expensive, hype-driven false starts. Where it's useful, that strategy work can flex into rapid prototyping and hands-on idea development, testing a concept quickly before committing real budget to it.
Pre-investment or pre-acquisition reviews for PE firms and their portfolio companies - technical risk, scalability, team capability, and cost of remediation. Fast turnaround, clear written findings.
Practical, board-ready technology strategy aligned to commercial goals - data consolidation, reporting, and reducing wasted marketing spend through better attribution.
Roadmaps and delivery oversight for legacy modernisation, ecommerce replatforming and systems consolidation - built from doing this three times over, in businesses from £50m to £600m turnover.
Engagements are typically structured as a day-rate or monthly retainer, scoped to the number of days a week and the mix of strategic and hands-on work needed. Get in touch for a conversation about your specific situation.
An interim CTO usually steps in full-time to cover a gap or lead through a specific transition. A fractional CTO works part-time on an ongoing basis, giving senior technology leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
Most clients are PE-backed travel and hospitality businesses, but the same experience applies to privately owned or founder-led travel businesses facing similar technology challenges.
Mostly travel and hospitality businesses between £2m and £100m turnover, though this varies depending on the complexity of the technology challenge.
It depends on current commitments, but get in touch and I'll be upfront about availability.
Based in Sardinia, working with UK and European travel businesses remotely and on-site. Currently taking on a small number of fractional and advisory clients.