John takes active part at the acquisition of Astir Palace Project as member of the AGC team. He currently obtains the position of Country Head & Consultant- Greece

FTI acquires a majority stake in Youtravel.com

John becomes an Advisory Board member at Encore Capital LLC providing strategic insight and operational oversight in the travel industry

John Kent has been honored with a Doctorate of Business Administration Bournemouth University, Doctorate of Business Administration

New phase of development for youtravel.com - Buy Out of BARCLAYS PLC shareholding in Youtravel.com

John Kent was named as a BU Visiting Fellow. School of Services Management University of Bournemouth, Visiting Fellow.

"The John Kent Institute in Tourism" The University of Bournemouth honors John Kent by naming the new Research Center for Tourism "The John Kent Institute in Tourism".John supports this internationally significant programme of tourism research within BU’s School of Services Management, 'namely The John Kent Institute in Tourism'. This new BU-based Institute will support a considerable number of PhD studentships in tourism research. This is a major initiative in tourism research that has been made possible by John's vision.

John Kent nominated for "MEN OF THE YEAR 2008", Entrepreneur STATUS MAGAZINE AWARDS

Aquis Hotels and Resorts John has recently invested in Aquis Hotels and Resorts www.aquisresorts.com which aims to built a portfolio of wholly owned hotels and hotels under management in the mediterannean area. Aquis portfolio included 10 properties in Greece, in its first year of operation.

School of Management University of Surrey, Visiting Senior Fellow. John was honorary appointed Visiting Senior Fellow.

Youtravel.com, CEO John founds youtravel.com and in October 2006, Barclays Ventures invests in the business. On the day of investment the valuation of the company was over GBP15m. The business reached over €70m in its first year of operations.

Lastminute UK, Managing Director, John stays with lastminute.com as a Global Hotel Director in LM group. In 2004 John took also the position of the UK MD following his active participation in the team that led a series of mergers & acquisitions for the Group. In 2005 Sabre Holdings, US acquires lastminute.com. John is involved in the negotiation process. Lastminute.com was delisted by the FTSE & was acquired for 1.1b USD. After the acquisition, John stays with lastminute.com as a consultant for the transitional period.

Barclays Venture Capitalists invest £5.5 m in Medhotels.com

John sets up Medhotels.com With Medhotels.com, John actually changes the business model upon which UK and most of the large European holiday makers had been operating till then. “Unpack the package” came to brake the classic holiday package to its components; flight, hotel and transfer. The whole industry has been moving since then towards this direction. Note that in the first 4 years of operations MedHotels.com had EBITDA of £0.6m, £1.6m, £8m and £15m respectively for each year.

John decides to be an entrepreneur and sets up Travelbargains.co.uk

John was acquired by Richard Branson himself to set up call centres for the travel sector, a brand new venture for virgin.com. This sector generated about €100m in its first year.

Until John’s arrival GT was a three-branch UK call centre in the flights industry. John arrived to develop the package holiday department. In the first year of operations, under John Kent, the company ranked 2nd in the travel industry and 16th in all industries in the UK Sunday Times, “Fastrack1-100” (most growing businesses in UK). In the second year of operations, it ranked 2nd in travel and 23rd in all businesses. It is rare that a single company features two years in a row in the “Fastrack1-100” index. John has acquired Gemstone at a later stage (via his tenure at Lastminute.com)

One of the first online bookable websites worldwide. GFC was the first online agency in the UK to have online capability via GTS. GFC was sold to Manos Holidays in 1997.