Our Leadership
Simon Palethorpe
Chief Executive Officer
Simon is CEO of Haven Holidays. Simon has more than 30 years’ experience in general management, private equity, management consulting, marketing and sales across a variety of consumer sectors.
Prior to joining Haven four years ago, Simon was President of Carnival UK, operator of Cunard Line and P&O Cruises. Previous companies include PepsiCo, Terra Firma Capital Partners, John Lewis and Avis Europe. Simon holds an MA in Engineering, Economics and Management from Pembroke College, Oxford University.
Mila Sythes
Chief Financial Officer
Mila joined Haven in 2023 as Chief Financial Officer, steering Haven’s Executive Team across its financial decision-making both centrally and across the 39 parks. She works closely with the investment team at Blackstone and reports to Simon Palethorpe, Haven CEO. Prior to Haven Mila held finance roles with Primark, Tesco and Pearson.
Sermet Baykaner
Director of Procurement and Sustainability
Sermet is responsible for all suppliers, supply chains and third party spend across the business as well as leading on the business' sustainability strategy. He joined in 2018, before which he was Vice President of Procurement and Supply Chain at Carnival UK and held multiple roles across Unilever.
Peter Blake
Chief Operating Officer
Peter has been COO of Haven since 2018 and has over 20 years of leadership experience in some of the UK’s most well-known hospitality and leisure brands. Previously he held positions including Managing Director at Greene King, Managing Director at Casual Dining Group and COO at Whitbread Plc.
James Bromley
Chief Product and Technology Officer
James is responsible for all product, technology and engineering at Haven including high-volume ecommerce platforms, consumer and team mobile applications, cyber, application of AI and traditional enterprise technologies. James was previously Managing Director of Dailymail.com and Director at Autotrader. He joined Haven in 2019.
Giles Croot
Director of Communications
Giles is an experienced communications professional with over 30 years' experience. He started his career at the BBC, GMTV and ITN before joining Brunswick, the leading corporate communications agency where he advised many of the the UK most high profile companies. He subsequently held senior communications roles at Barclays, Balfour Beatty, Blackstone and Hipgnosis Song Management (latterly Recognition Music Group). He joined Haven in 2025 to lead PR and Communications.
Rambaut Fairley
Chief Commercial Officer
Rambaut joined Haven in November 2018 and is responsible for revenue and profit growth across both our Holidays and Ownership businesses. An experienced strategist, prior to joining Haven Rambaut led the Global Leisure & Hospitality practice at OC&C Strategy Consultants specialising in Commercial Growth Strategy and M&A.
Helen Hayes
General Legal Counsel
Helen is General Counsel for Haven and leads the team responsible for all legal, compliance, data privacy and health & safety matters. She joined the business from Uber and before this, DLA Piper.
Lou Thomas
Chief People Officer
Lou joined Haven in 2015 from Boots UK , where she held roles in Operations and HR, latterly as Head of Learning and Development.
Lou is driven by her core principle of continuous learning and ensuring teams have the opportunity to develop to deliver exceptional performance. Lou navigated Haven through Covid and later its growth strategy across 39 UK sites, she is a passionate supporter of inclusion and diversity in the workplace.
