Board

Richard Pennycook joined the On the Beach Group plc Board as Chair of the Board and Chair of the Nomination Committee on 1st April 2019.

Richard brings extensive experience in both private and public retail and consumer businesses, including within fast-growing online businesses.

Richard was previously Non-Executive Chairman of The Hut Group from 2012 to 2018, having worked with this fast-growing technology unicorn in an advisory capacity since 2008.

Prior to his Non-Executive career, Richard was CEO of The Co-operative Group from 2013 to 2017, and before this held main Board roles at a number of public companies, including Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, RAC plc, HP Bulmer Holdings plc, Laura Ashley Holdings plc and J D Wetherspoon PLC.

Shaun is the Chief Executive Officer of the On the Beach Group plc. He joined On the Beach as Director of Finance in February 2018 and in this role played a key part in dealing with the failure of Thomas Cook and the acquisition of Classic Collection Holidays. Shaun was appointed to the Board as Chief Financial Officer in July 2020 and was instrumental in helping the Group navigate through the pandemic. Prior to On the Beach, Shaun held senior finance roles at Deloitte, Asda and ghd hair. Shaun is a qualified Chartered Accountant and trained with Deloitte LLP.

Jon is the Chief Financial Officer for the On the Beach Group plc and is a member of the Board as a Director. He joined On the Beach in June 2023 from THG PLC, a global e-commerce technology group and brand owner where he was CFO of THG Nutrition. Prior to THG, Jon spent 11 years at the Co-operative Group Limited, holding a number of senior roles including Director of M&A, Programme Director and leading the Group's Finance department.

Simon Cooper is the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of On the Beach. Simon transitioned to Founder Director NED in June 2023. Simon began his career in the travel industry while attending university when he founded ski holiday company On the Piste Travel Limited in 1996, which went on to be purchased by Thomson (now TUI) in 2008. On the Beach was created in 2004 as a sister company, specialising in beach holidays and running on a platform operated by Teletext Holidays, with bookings taken via a call centre. The Company launched its first website in 2004 and expanded rapidly, securing private equity investment from Livingbridge in 2007 and going on to secure further investment from Inflexion private equity in 2013. Simon led the business through its IPO in 2015 and its entry into the FTSE 250 in 2018. Simon is also a Non-Executive Director of CurrentBody.com Limited

David Kelly is a longest-serving Non-Executive Director on the Board, having served nine years by September 2024. He was previously as Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee.

David was previously the Operations Director at Amazon from 1998 to 2000, the Chief Operating Officer at Lastminute.com from 2000 to 2003 the Vice President, Operations/Chief Operating Officer at eBay from 2003 to 2007, and Senior Vice President of International at Rackspace from 2010 to 2012.

In 2007, David co-founded mydeco.com and, more recently, has built a wide portfolio of non-executive and advisory positions – including Chairman/Non-Executive Director of Love Home Swap, Pure 360 and Car Loan 4U.

Elaine joined the company in July 2018 and as of January 2023 is the Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Audit Committee. Elaine is also Chair of Games Workshop Group Plc and with effect from 1 October 2022, will be appointed to the Board of SThree plc as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. Elaine’s previous appointments include Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair of Studio Retail Group plc and Chair of the Board of Alliance Fund Managers (AFM), a wholly owned subsidiary of MSIF.

Prior to that Elaine was a Partner at Ernst & Young LLP where she specialised in Corporate Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions. Elaine is a Chartered Accountant and holds a B.A. (Joint Hons) in Accountancy and Law.

Justine joined the On the Beach Group in March 2021 and is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee. Justine was a Member of Parliament for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields from 2005 – 2019 and spent eight years as a Minister, including six in Cabinet. After leaving Government in 2018, Justine founded the Social Mobility Pledge campaign to drive grass roots change through business and higher education.

Prior to Justine’s political career, she trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in the UK and Switzerland before taking a finance role at SmithKline Beecham followed by a strategy role at GlaxoSmithKline. Justine completed an MBA at the London Business School in 2000 and joined AA/Centrica as Head of Sales and Marketing Finance for three years before becoming a Member of Parliament in 2005.

Zoe Harris is Chief Marketing Officer at On the Beach, having joined the business in January 2021.

A Marketing expert with more than 20 years’ experience across some of the UK’s biggest brands, Zoe was most recently part of the GoCo Group’s Executive team, firstly as Go Compare Chief Marketing Officer and latterly as CEO of the Group’s Look After My Bills business.

Prior to this, Zoe was Group Marketing Director at Trinity Mirror Group and Marketing Director at MTV, and has a proven background in leading transformational Marketing divisions focused on delivering growth and driving performance. 

Veronica joined On the Beach in September 2023 as a Non-Executive Director, also serving as a member of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees.

Veronica was Group Chief People Officer at online car retailer Cazoo Group Ltd, where she led its people and engagement strategy as the company grew from a UK only organisation into a European business across five markets. Prior to this, Veronica founded a talent advisory and organisational change consultancy to private equity, venture capital and other growth-focused organisations, specialising in technology businesses. Veronica was also Group Chief People Officer at Photobox & Moonpig Group plc where she led a large-scale cultural transformation across Europe and has also worked in a variety of roles at organisations including eBay, Laing O'Rourke and BAA Heathrow Terminal 5.