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Simon Beeching

Visiting Professor

MA (Oxon) FInstTT FRGS

In October 2010 I was asked by Regent's Business School London to chair the away day ‘think-tank’ which initiated this innovative new MA programme.

As senior travel industry professional, I have subsequently remained involved directly in the programme’s development as well as fostering additional industry links, so that this Masters Degree can genuinely be said to have been created ‘with and for the industry’.  As a result, it has already been warmly endorsed by major industry bodies such as the ITT (Institute of Travel and Tourism), ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents) and CIMTIG (the Chartered Institute of Marketing Travel Industry Group).

After studying Modern Languages at Oxford, I rose from graduate trainee to the board of Thomson Holidays Group, sponsored along the way to attend INSEAD Business School in France and Henley Management College.  This allowed me to take a step back to study broader business disciplines mid-career, which is something I can highly recommend. Companies tend to train you up in one particular department, but to progress into general management it is important to understand how all the functions fit together.  To be able to do this on a modern business school course, relating directly to the issues and operations of travel & tourism, will be invaluable to participants on this programme.

I went on to run three major privately-owned travel companies and in the early 1990s, as Managing Director of one luxury tailor-made travel organisation, I used the government’s new Investors in People programme as a training and development vehicle to launch a period of significant and sustained business growth and profitability. Some of the managers who were trained up over this period are still running this successful business, and this is where I learned that investing in your staff is a direct way of investing in the success of your business.

I was recently made Visiting Industry Professor of Regent's Business School London and I am a non-executive Director of luxury tour operator, Steppes Travel; a Director of Syntec Ltd., providing Telecoms & Call Centre Management software to the travel industry and other sectors; I have been Chairman of a travel industry e-learning company for the last three years; and a Board Director and Fellow of the Institute of Travel & Tourism as well as  a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.