No holiday for new Thomas Cook CFO

Paul Hollingworth might struggle taking a summer holiday next year in his new role as Thomas Cook CFO. The tour operator’s €1.8bn (£1.6bn) banking facility is due to expire in May 2011, with chief exec Manny Fontenla-Novoa saying it planned to complete the refinancing arrangement next summer.

Most recently, Hollingworth was CFO of international packaging company Mondi Group. He has also served as FD at both money printers De La Rue and manufacturers of building materials BPB.

Hollingworth replaces acting CFO Ludger Heuberg who returns to his operational role. The CFO position was vacated by Jurgen Bueser who stepped down earlier this year due to a period of ill health. He will now stay on with the company as group strategy director.

New Zealander Chris Liddell steps down from his role as group CFO of Microsoft to seek new challenges next year. Microsoft made $3bn (£1.8bn) worth of cuts earlier this year, including its first company-wide redundancies. Liddell told the New Zealand Herald he had achieved everything he wanted to at Microsoft and his time at the company had come to a natural conclusion. He is succeeded by divisional CFO Peter Klein, current CFO of the IT giant’s business sector.

Adrian Owen is welcomed as partner at Blake Lapthorn in the insolvency and business recovery team. Owen is responsible for developing the client base and, in particular, building extra services for banks and asset-based lenders. He was previously at accountants Lamb Brooks, where he was head of business recovery and insolvency.

Another insolvency move sees Tom Atkinson take on the role of business development manager at restructuring firm Refresh. He joins from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he worked in its Leeds office. He has previously worked in the insolvency divisions at both KPMG and Coopers & Lybrand.