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Opodo Announces Appointment of Independent Chairman
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London, 26th June 2002. Opodo, a leading pan-European online travel portal has today announced that David Coltman is to become its independent Chairman. Coltman has an impressive travel and aviation record allied to broad experience as a non-executive director or chairman with both private and public companies. After 14 years at British Airways he moved to British Caledonian where he became CEO. After its acquisition by BA he moved to United Airlines, where from 1995 to 2001 he was Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Officer of the UAL Corporation, based in Chicago. Coltman is currently a director of John Menzies Plc, The Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, The Trinity House Lighthouse Board and several private companies. Commenting on his appointment Coltman said: "I am delighted to have the opportunity of working within the travel industry again. I believe that Opodo is uniquely placed to deliver a low cost travel distribution service, which will benefit both the product providers and consumers. I will work closely with the new CEO, when the appointment has been made, and the Board to ensure Opodo achieves its vision of becoming "the European travel agent of choice for customers and product providers". Coltman will take up his Chairman role Opodo from 24 June 2002. Opodo launched its first site (www.opodo.de) in Germany in December 2001, its UK site (www.opodo.co.uk) in January and its French site (www.opodo.fr) in April 2002. Notes to editors About David Coltman After Eton he attended Edinburgh University where he read Chemical Technology, working for British Airways and predecessor companies between 1967 and 1980, ending as General Manager Market Development. He then moved to British Caledonian Airways as Chief Marketing Officer, and served as CEO between 1985 and 1988. Following its acquisition by BA, he moved to United Airlines initially serving as Vice President EMEA, based in London, before his promotion to Senior Vice President for Marketing and Executive Officer for UAL Corporation. He also served as a member of the Board of the Star Alliance from launch. Coltman is 59, married with one daughter and divides his time between Scotland, where he has a farm, and London. About Opodo Opodo is an online travel service created by nine of Europe's leading airlines - Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa and Amadeus. Opodo addresses the real needs of today's traveller by offering an unbiased and competitively priced online travel service for world travel, with access to flights from over 480 airlines, 30,000 hotel properties and a worldwide fleet of over 750,000 hire cars, as well as travel insurance. Opodo will launch throughout Europe during 2002 and beyond. Further information about Opodo is available at www.opodo.com Media contact:
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