Duncan

Duncan Chappell

Commercial Director

Tell us a bit about your career and your journey to elina:

My first job in tourism was for Hoseasons, working in the parks and lodges team, back in the call centre and tail end of the brochure days! I was proud to work at Booking.com based in London, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai for 7 years, and am forever indebted to the company for their excellent training, formula and way of working. I then went on to be CEO of STAAH, a channel manager, working from New Zealand and the UK, before joining Christopher and the team at Vestibule Marketing as a co-owner, to grow elina.

What do you like most about working for elina?

I love that everyone really does have freedom to organise and be themselves and we have a bit of a Scandinavian team vibe, where it's fine to say what you really think. Over time I think we've fostered an innovation and ideas culture, from which we've seen some really exciting things happen. Plus, the team, they are all dedicated and brilliant people.

Tell us a bit about your life outside of work....

I live in London with my partner Maria and our daughter Eva, who is a growing up too fast! I play some guitar, mainly blues and rock and really enjoy cooking. I've got a sweet tooth, so need to do balance that with some skipping, boxing and the odd run with our cavalier king charles Leo. I get about London on my Honda CB 500X, which is nimble in and out of traffic!

Have you any funny career incidents that you can't get out of your head?

Fully clothed pool party in Singapore at Centara, which meant trudging around Singapore to get home worse for wear in very heavy jeans. Fortunately it was about 35 degrees, so there was no getting cold!

What is your mantra to success?

"We don't believe in luck, luck is preparation waiting for an opportunity", a great quote from Ross Brawn, the best F1 team manager in my view. He always figured out how to make the rules work in his team's favour. Beyond that, always keep learning and communicating. Look after the people you work with - they are the company!