Alexander Brändle will assume the role of Chief Digital & Strategy Officer as of September 2024 and thus also become a member of the Executive Board of Hotelplan Group. He succeeds Adrian Arnold, who is leaving the travel group at the end of September 2024 to travel the world.

Alexander Brändle will assume the role of Chief Digital & Strategy Officer at Hotelplan Group in September 2024 and thus be responsible for the further development and implementation of Group strategy, the digital customer experience, and sustainability initiatives.

Alexander Brändle studied and obtained a PhD in business administration and finance at the University of St. Gallen. He began his professional career at McKinsey & Company before moving to Kuoni Travel Holding. He was then responsible for product strategy, destination services, commercial management and sourcing development at GTA Travel – a bed bank belonging to the Kuoni Group at the time – until he became Senior VP Business Transformation (CTO), where he was in charge of GTA Travel’s integration planning for the merger with Tourico Holidays and the Hotelbeds Group (now HBX Group), among other activities. After the merger, as Global Business Services Director (COO) at Hotelbeds, he built up the newly created centralised corporate services with 2,000 employees worldwide, focussing on transforming and improving the customer experience. Most recently, Alexander Brändle was Managing Director of ZURZACH Care Region Aargau / Northwestern Switzerland, where he managed other rehabilitation clinics and outpatient centres in addition to the main clinic in Bad Zurzach. “With Alexander Brändle, we are gaining a manager with many years of international experience in the travel industry and proven travel tech expertise. I am very much looking forward to working with him in the near future,” says Laura Meyer, CEO of the Hotelplan Group, about the new member of the Executive Board.

Alexander Brändle succeeds Adrian Arnold, who is leaving Hotelplan Group at the end of September 2024 to travel the world. Adrian Arnold joined Hotelplan Group in 2021 and took over the newly created Digital & Strategy division as Chief Digital & Strategy Officer and member of the Executive Board in 2022. Under his leadership, digitalisation expertise was pooled and expanded, and cross-divisional synergies were promoted in order to focus even more strongly on the digital customer experience. In recent years, Adrian Arnold, his team and the business units have developed and improved digital products such as new websites, customer portals and apps, making an important contribution to the further digitalisation of Hotelplan Group. He also built up the sustainability department and was responsible for the Group-wide sustainability initiatives.

“Adrian has successfully built up the Digital & Strategy division, played a key role in shaping Hotelplan Group’s strategy and contributed to its successful implementation. He told me about his personal plans as far back as last year. I am grateful to him for this, as it enabled optimal succession planning. We very much regret his decision. At the same time, we are happy for him, as he will be discovering the most beautiful parts of our world. We wish him all the best for his trip around the world and his future career,” says Laura Meyer, CEO Hotelplan Group.

The portrait of Alexander Brändle can be downloaded here.