Boston & London, 10 March 2008: Cheapflights Ltd. (www.Cheapflights.com), a leading UK and North American Internet media travel company, which pioneered online flight price search and comparison in 1996, today announced the restructuring of its Board to better position the company for its next phase of growth and international expansion.
Chris Cuddy, formerly group managing director, will assume the responsibilities of CEO from David Soskin. David will continue his involvement with the company as vice-chairman of the board representing the interests of existing shareholders.
“When bringing Chris on board, it was clear that his technology background, his experience with major Internet brands and leadership abilities would be of enormous benefit to Cheapflights,” said, Soskin. "As an entrepreneur with experience in successfully building early stage businesses, I recognize that Cheapflights has grown into an international business and I am confident in turning over my role - and Cheapflights - into the safest of hands as we enter a new era."
"We now have experienced management teams in North America and London whose technology, Internet media, and travel industry expertise are second to none,” said Cuddy. "During the past eight years, David has built an international company with outstanding technology and a robust financial platform. I am very excited at the prospect of building on his work and creating an expanded and pre-eminent international Internet media brand."
Cuddy has been Cheapflights' group managing director and executive board director since October 2005. He has built top-rated management teams on both sides of the Atlantic, helped drive Cheapflights' ongoing UK growth, and the company's success and profitability in the US. Cuddy has also overseen the technology investment and transformation of the company’s publishing platform. This has radically improved the functionality of the US site which will be introduced to the UK later this year and facilitate further international expansion.
Soskin co-led the management buy-in early in 2000, funded by a small group of private investors. He successfully applied his entrepreneurial skills as CEO to build Cheapflights into one of the UK's and the US's leading online travel media companies. Starting with only three staff members in early 2000, he has built a consistently profitable and leading online media business on both sides of the Atlantic. The Company now includes a highly experienced senior management team with more than 12 years' average experience in their relevant fields.
"David's achievement has been considerable. Not only has Cheapflights grown to become a leading online media company in the UK and North America, it has grown impressively in both its traffic and profitability. It is also at the forefront of product innovation for its users and its advertisers,” said John Clare, non-executive chairman. “Chris takes over a dynamic company where he can continue to contribute to its recent growth on all metrics. With his considerable technology and Internet background, I look forward to Cheapflights' continued success."
Chris Cuddy joined the Board in October 2005 as Group Managing Director. He has 20 years of experience in leading technology driven companies. Chris was previously CEO of the online advertising network, Engage, and has held leadership roles at CMGI, Computer Sciences Corporation and Goldman Sachs. Chris has actively been involved in launching high growth companies as a Screening Committee Member of Launchpad Venture Group, and through his work with MECA software, Bluestreak online marketing, and Yokel product directory. Chris received his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University and his BS in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering from George Washington University. A long time flight enthusiast, Chris has a student pilot's license.
About CheapflightsLtd.
www.cheapflights.co.uk was launched in 1996. It pioneered the concept of online flight price search and comparison and has been consistently profitable since launch. It was the first UK dotcom to introduce pay-per-click in 2000, which helped to transform online advertising. Cheapflights publish flight deals from airlines, budget airlines, online travel agents and the long tail of other specialist flight deal providers. Cheapflights therefore provide consumers with rapid, easy to use comparisons of approximately one million flight deals each day from the broadest online selection of travel operators. The site is valued by travel industry advertisers as a neutral, high-traffic source of quality high-conversion consumer leads. It launched its US site www.cheapflights.com in May 2003, which has rapidly grown and which now provides half of Cheapflights' millions monthly visits by consumers. Its Canadian site www.cheapflights.ca, which was soft launched in April 2007, is already enjoying traffic of over 180,000 monthly visits. Cheapflights' status as an independent online travel price search and comparison and travel news site makes it a natural starting point for finding travel deals and up-to-date travel industry information on both sides of the Atlantic.
