Culture Trip bolsters senior management team with two appointments

Chief product officer joins from The Guardian and chief financial officer from Houzz

Travel and media start-up Culture Trip has made two senior appointments as it continues to strengthen its leadership team.

Dr Ana Jakimovska has joined the London-based firm from The Guardian as chief product officer.

Joining her is Nathaly Carvajal, who joins from design unicorn Houzz, as Culture Trip’s chief financial officer.

More: Culture Trip launches OTA platform

Culture Trip appoints new people team headed by Booking.com’s Kesner

Big Interview: Culture Trip sets sights on being king of travel content

The appointments follow the arrival of Karen Kesner from Booking.com in October as Culture Trip’s chief people officer.

Jakimovska joins Culture Trip after two years at The Guardian where she contributed to a business turnaround and led 18 award winning product teams

She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and an MSc in Information Systems, and brings 15 years of product development experience at Which?, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News. Jakimovska will focus on content and product execution and diversification.

Carvajal, who will lead the finance team at Culture Trip, has nearly 20 years in global finance and technology experience.

After assignments at Citibank, Google, NBC Universal and HTC, she most recently served as international finance director at Houzz, the e-commerce home design firm, leading teams across 14 European and Asian countries.

Carvajal has an MBA from the London Business School and holds degrees in engineering and computer science.

Dr Kris Naudts, Culture Trip founder and chief executive said: “Our executive team has been substantially strengthened over the last few months with the hiring of leaders of the caliber of Ana, Nathaly and Karen, who join an amazing group of people who have been here for several years.

“Roughly 60% of Culture Trip’s audience are women, and we are really proud to have built a leadership team that is more than half female. We are super excited about the future and the year ahead.”