Industry legend Katrina Barry has returned to the travel industry, joining Webjet’s board today.
Barry joins the board as an independent non-executive director with 15 years’ experience as a non-executive director across the tourism, fintech and financial services sectors, including serving on the board of the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) until March 2022.
Barry is currently the Global CEO of me&u, a global leader in smartphone at-table ordering technology, and a non-executive director of Australia’s leading pet insurance company, PetSure.
Commenting on her appointment, Barry said: “I am delighted to join the Board of Webjet, a company I have admired for a long time. I look forward to working with the Board and management team and re-engaging with the travel industry during this exciting rebound time.”
Barry’s appointment has been welcomed by the staff at Webjet, with the OTA’s chair, Roger Sharp, adding: “Webjet has been considering adding an additional non-executive director with deep travel experience for some time as part of its succession planning process.
“With recovery in the global travel sector well advanced, we are delighted to welcome Katrina to the Board. I am confident that she will bring considerable value to the business.”
Her previous executive roles include managing director of Contiki Holidays and Trafalgar Tours across Australia, New Zealand and Asia from 2014 to 2022, head of digital & direct businesses and dead of customer experience at BT Financial Group from 2011 to 2014, and various strategy and investment roles with the Virgin Group from 2004 to 2011, including co-founder of the gym chain, Virgin Active.
In her early career, Barry was a law clerk before joining McKinsey & Company as a management consultant, working with Fortune 500 and ASX100 companies in retail, telecommunications, FMCG and financial services.
Barry topped Travel Weekly’s 2019 Women In Media awards power list, beating out hundreds of nominations to take the top spot. This followed her coming fifth in 2018.
