Hugo Burge - Cheapflights, Executive Chairman
Hugo Burge became Chairman of Cheapflights in 2009 and serves as an Executive Director. With David Soskin, Hugo co-led Cheapflights’ original management buy-in in March 2000 and has helped grow the company from a three-person attic operation in London into an international leader in travel search. Hugo has held a variety of roles including leading the 2003 launch of Cheapflights US which has become the company’s largest business. Prior to joining Cheapflights, Hugo was an entrepreneur with a background in property investment.

In 2008, Hugo co-founded CheapToday.com with Milenko Beslic and serves as a non-executive Chairman on this now HOWZAT funded business.

Hugo holds a Degree in Geography from Cambridge University, is a member of the Royal Geographical Society and has a passion for travel.

In 2008, Hugo won Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Travel Industry Hall of Fame.

David Soskin
David Soskin is Chairman of www.mySupermarket.co.uk and Executive Chairman and acting CEO of www.swapit.co.uk. He is a non-executive director of Cheapflights which he joined in March 2000 as Chief Executive Officer upon the management buy-in.

He served as Chief Executive Officer of Cheapflights until April 2008. Under his leadership, Cheapflights grew from an attic-based operation into an international leader in online travel search reaching 8.4 million users in January 2008. During this period, Cheapflights won many industry awards and was included in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track of the UK's 100 fastest growing privately-owned technology companies for five years in a row. David was a Finalist for the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2006.

Previously he was Head of Global Media at ABN AMRO Corporate Finance.

His previous entrepreneurial experience was gained at the Asquith Court Schools Group which he founded in 1989 and on whose board he sat until 2001, when the Company was successfully sold to West Private Equity. Asquith is today the UK's leading provider of premium childcare and education for the under-5s (www.asquithnurseries.com). In 1995, David's entrepreneurial achievements were honoured by the European Foundation for Entrepreneurial Research when he was named as one of Europe's 500 most dynamic entrepreneurs.

David also has worked in senior capacities both in industry (Redland Plc where he was Group Director of Corporate Planning) and government (Special Advisor to the Prime Minister, Number 10 Policy Unit).

David graduated from the University of Oxford (First Class Honours in Modern History), where he was President of the Oxford Union, and from the Harvard Business School (MBA) where he was a Harkness Fellow. He appears regularly on TV and radio (Bloomberg, CNBC, Sky, BBC) talking about travel and the internet and is frequently invited as a speaker at travel and e-commerce conferences worldwide. He is a regular columnist in Growing Business Magazine www.growingbusiness.co.uk/david-soskin.

David's book on the internet "Net Profit: How to succeeed in Digital Business" will be published by John Wiley & Sons in September 2010 (www.netprofitbook.com)

Jo Allen
Jo has specialised in the hospitality and travel industries for the last 9 years and in the M&A arena for 12 years. Prior to setting up Stellant Partners, an advisory firm providing M&A and strategic advice to companies in the internet and travel sectors, Jo was retained by WorldRes as an adviser to sell PlacesToStay.com (the B2C hotel platform) and then to sell the whole company, WorldRes.

Jo was previously employed by InterContinental Hotels Group plc, where she was a key member of the Global Mergers and Acquisitions team. Jo gained significant corporate finance experience whilst at Schroders (now Citigroup) in European M&A and at Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in Corporate Finance Deal Advisory. Jo is a Chartered Accountant and has a BSc in Economics and Accounting from Bristol University.

Sascha Hausmann
Sascha is a specialist in online distribution systems in Europe and the US. Prior to establishing StellantPartners, Sascha was CEO of WorldRes, having been appointed by the Board to take the company through the final six months of a complicated and difficult sales process. Previously, he ran the finance, support and HR functions at WorldRes and was instrumental in establishing European offices in key European countries.

Prior to WorldRes, Sascha was an auditor to mid-sized companies with European and international operations. Here he was mainly challenged with audits as well as consulting on corporate tax, company structure, reporting and the implementation of finance systems.

Sascha is a well-recognised figure in the European and US online travel industries, speaking at many high profile events and being a trusted advisor to various companies in the online marketplace.