chief executive Jamie Pherous allocated $16 million of his personal shareholding in the listed travel agency to long-time lieutenant Laura Ruffles, who left the business citing health-related reasons this year.
Ms Ruffles had joined the company in 2010, acting as chief operating officer. She joined the board in late 2015 and has steered it through the coronavirus pandemic and as it refuted critiques from short-sellers,She most recently had oversight of the Australian, Asian and Europe divisions and will remain affiliated professionally with the company to help with “customer-facing technology”.She declined to comment on Monday.
The changes filed on Friday stated Mr Pherous had formerly been a director and shareholder of private company LJP2, which was registered in April 2020 and held 1 million of his own Corporate Travel shares. Filings lodged with the corporate regulator showed Ms Ruffles earlier this month replaced him as director of LJP2, and is also the ultimate holder.He still retains an interest in 16.587 million shares, worth almost $265 million.