Travel Inn's Leaver quits to head up the De Vere Group
Carl Leaver, managing director of budget hotel chain Travel Inn, is to take over from Paul Dermody as chief executive of De Vere Group.
Thirty-five-year-old Leaver, who has headed up Whitbread's Travel Inn chain for the past three years, takes over from Dermody when he retires on 1 September.
Leaver said he had decided to leave Whitbread because he had reached the end of a phase with Travel Inn and that it was a natural point to move on.
"I've been managing director of Travel Inn for three years and with the team have achieved a lot over that time. We have grown the brand by more than 5,000 rooms to take us to just under 18,000 rooms, which makes us the largest hotel brand in the UK," said Leaver.
"It feels like that was one phase of Travel Inn completed and time to move on to the next," he added.
Leaver said that becoming chief executive of De Vere was a "fabulous opportunity" for him and that he was looking forward to bringing his experience of branding and growing hotel groups organically to the company.
His time spent as operations director of Marriott Country Clubs, a chain of golf resort hotels operated by Whitbread, would also be useful experience, said Leaver.
Mike Tye, managing director of Whitbread's Costa coffee shops, will take over from Leaver as managing director of Travel Inn, and will himself be replaced by Mark Phillips, currently finance director of Whitbread Restaurants.
Whitbread has also lost its Marriott and former Travel Inn operations director this month. Harry Turner, who worked for Whitbread for 25 years, has moved to budget hotel chain and rival Travelodge to become its chief operating officer.
De Vere Group
Market-listed hotel group De Vere operates 21 hotels and 136 lodges, 14 leisure and fitness-led Village hotels and 15 Greens gyms across the UK.
The group is famed for hosting golf championships at its four-star, 324-bedroom Belfry hotel in Wishaw, Warwickshire, and in the year to 29 September 2002 recorded pre-tax profits of £38.5m on a turnover of almost £300m.
By Sam McClary
