Anthony Drury has been appointed to head up American Express Global Business Travel in the UK.
In his new role, as VP and general manager for the UK, Drury will oversee strategy development and growth for Amex Business Travel.
Drury takes over from from Kaveh Atrak, previously general manager for the UK, Nordics & Central Europe. Atrak will continue as general manager for the Nordics and Central Europe.
Amex saw a 25% growth in travel sales in 2010, compared the previous year, and Drury hopes to see the trend continue.
He said: “We’ve seen companies emerge from the recession and now setting their sights on how to grow their business and capitalise on opportunities in the recovery, with business travel acting as a key means to achieve these objectives.”
Charles Petruccelli, president of American Express Global Business Travel, said the travel management company strives to attract and retain “top talent” to run its business.
“Anthony is a demonstrated leader who has held a range of positions across the globe as part of the Business Travel leadership team, and brings a wealth of experience to pull from in this newly created role,” he said.
“The UK is an important market for us where we have seen strong growth in the past year. I am looking forward to him leading the UK business to increase our growth and market leading position.”
Drury joined Amex in 2002 and has held a variety of sales and leadership positions worldwide in AmEx Global Business Travel and Corporate Services. Before taking on the new role, Drury was VP and head of sales for Europe.