Karen Hutchings joins Silverdoor following a recent appointment as HeadBox board director
Serviced apartment booking specialist SilverDoor has appointed EY’s former global head of travel, meetings and events, Karen Hutchings, as strategic advisor, effective immediately.
Hutchings will work with SilverDoor’s senior leadership team to support the company’s international expansion following the establishment of her new consultancy, Cobb & Hutch, earlier this year.
This is the second consulting appointment for Hutchings, who is also a board director at UK-based event tech company HeadBox.
Hutchings formally announced the launch of her consultancy in January 2024 after serving more than 10 years at the helm of EY’s global travel and meetings programme.
In 2023 Hutchings received a Lifetime Achievement Award at GBTA's WINiT awards and was named on Business Travel News' 2023 Most Influential list in recognition of her work developing EY's Sustainable Travel Approval Tool (STAT) in collaboration with IBM. She was also inducted into BTN's Business Travel Hall of Fame in 2022 and served as chair of the UK's Institute of Travel Management from 2017 to 2020.
SilverDoor CEO Stuart Winstone described Hutchings as “a trusted and practiced industry colleague who can offer a new perspective” and said she will play "an invaluable role" in supporting how clients can diversify their accommodation strategies and capitalise on the opportunities presented by new technologies entering the market.
Hutchings added that she was first introduced to SilverDoor 15 years ago and is now “relishing” the opportunity to work with Winstone and his team.