Travel, media & entertainment start-up Culture Trip has appointed former Booking.com HR Director, Karen Kesner, as its Chief People Officer and named six other key hires.

A leading light in People Leadership, Karen Kesner launched her HR career at a pivotal time in technology in the Pacific Northwest and Silicon Valley, helping to ready one of the earliest tech start-up IPOs at RealNetworks in 1997, and the sixth-largest IPO at Visa in 2008.

Kesner has also completed stints leading pioneering projects in technology innovation at Microsoft, Washington Mutual (Chase), Apple and Audible.

In addition to Kesner’s appointment, Culture Trip has also secured a further six leading industry figures for its expanding People team, working across the business’

London, New York and Tel Aviv offices, including:

• Faye Towers, former Head of People at Graze.com, joins the business as VP People
• Gemma Jones, a former Head of People for Deliveroo, joins as People Director
• Erika “Riki” Harris, former Google staffer joins as People Director, New York
• Dipo Osho as Recruitment Director, following his previous role as Head of Talent for technology at ASOS
• Sharon Artsi brings over eight years of experience in start up environments and joins Culture Trip as HR Director.
• Sarah Nepomuceno joins Culture Trip from the England & Wales Cricket Board where she was a People Development Project Manager.
  She joins the business as People Coordinator

“Culture Trip has grown exponentially since I founded the business and people are at the core of both who we are and what we do”, Dr Kris Naudts, Founder and CEO, Culture Trip, said.

“It is a hugely significant milestone for us to attract the level of talent embodied inKaren Kesner and this new People Team.

“I’m delighted with the appointments and I look forward to working with each of the People team to champion an ongoing culture of innovation and to attract, develop, and retain world-class talent.”