Manny Fontenla-Novoa was the Chief Executive of Thomas Cook Group

Thomas Cook Group

Thomas Cook Group plc is a travel company created on 19 June, 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc. At flotation on the London Stock Exchange 52% of the shares in the new company were held by the German mail order and department store corporation Arcandor and 48% owned by...

 until his resignation on 3 August 2011.

Born in Galicia on 13 May 1949, he moved to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 at the age of 11.

Fontenla-Novoa started his career with Thomas Cook in the printing department in 1972 and held a variety of roles until he joined International Leisure Group in 1988. After International Leisure Group collapsed, Fontenla-Novoa cofounded tour operator Sunworld in 1991. He joined Thomas Cook after their acquisition of Sunworld in 1996, and became its chief executive in 2003.

Fontenla-Novoa is also the director of Iberostar, a Spanish hotel chain. He lives in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

with his wife and four children.