Our team

We, at Citadel, are proud of our Group Executive team which is comprised of  highly respected industry professionals, who are widely recognized in the holiday ownership industry for their wealth of experience and knowledge. It’s always good to know a little more about the team so below you will find details of our Board of Directors and Regional Directors.

The board

Peter Hutchinson Company Chairman

Peter graduated from York University with a degree in Economics and Social Statistics and is a Qualified Chartered Accountant, being a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountant since 1982.

Peter founded the Group in 1985, forming Hutchinson & Co as a Collection Agency for a resort in Portugal, however, on seeing  the potential for business growth and utilizing his experience and specialist knowledge, he went on to form Hutchinson & Co Ltd in 1987, which was followed in 1992 with the formation of Hutchinson & Co Trust Company Ltd. As the shared leisure industry has developed, so has the Group, and, in 2007, Citadel Trustees Ltd was formed in response to an increased demand for a Trustee service for specialized products such as Fractional Resorts, Hotel Room buy-to-let schemes and Land Investment schemes – products which require a much more bespoke and individual service.

Pivotal to the company's success has been Peter's drive and enthusiasm and he has been an active advocate of good practice in the industry; indeed Peter was one of the founding Board Members of the Organization for Timeshare in Europe (OTE), now known as the Resort Development Organisation (RDO), and holding also a key position on the Ethics Council. Outside of the UK, Peter has also advised several government Ministers in various countries on the development of the shared leisure industry and related legislation.

In order to pursue new opportunities for the Company, with the objective of extending the range of services it offers through its UK and international offices, Peter relinquished his role as Managing Director in 1999 and now holds the position of Non Executive Company Chairman.

Veranne Wilkinson Managing Director

Veranne was born and educated in France where she graduated from the Université de Franche-Comté with a Masters Degree in Modern Languages and Business in 1995 and earlier in her career, spent some time with Clifford Chance in Paris.

She joined the company in 1996 as a Customer Relations Advisor in the very busy Operations Department. It was there that she gained her wealth of knowledge and experience in the dealing with the day-to-day business of a Trustee, both from a B2B and B2C perspective. This hands-on operations experience would come to serve her well when she was appointed to the Board in 2005 and later in 2006 when the scope of her responsibilities was expanded to the Legal Services Department. Veranne is also actively involved in the shared leisure industry body, RDO, where she sits on the RDO Fractional Committee and the RDO Resale Working Group.

On the 1st July 2009, Veranne became Managing Director of both Hutchinson and Citadel together with all other European Group companies.

Joy Pope Director

Joy joined the Group at its inception in 1985 when Hutchinson & Co was formed, playing a key role in the company’s early success as a Collection Agency. Since 1992, Joy has held the position of Director for Hutchinson & Co Trust Co Ltd and was instrumental in setting up its successful modus operandi, being fully responsible for the Company’s administrative operations procedures. As are the rest of the Board members, Joy is actively involved in all facets of the company’s business development programme, playing a key role in the planning of the Trustee or Stakeholder structure for new business clients. Joy has been actively involved in the shared leisure industry body for many years and has held a position on the RDO Membership Council as well as the Board of RDO since 2003.

Anna Rickard Legal Services Director

Anna joined the Group in 1998 as a Customer Relations Advisor and soon became Resort and Overseas Office Co-ordinator, a post she held until 2004. She was subsequently promoted to Legal Services Manager, working very closely with the Group’s Board members, and became an Associate Director in 2007. Anna has an in depth knowledge of the company operations and plays a key role in the set-up of new projects and schemes. She joined the Board as Legal Services Director in July 2009

Raquel Gonzalez Pan Group Operations Director

Raquel joined the Group in 2001 in the busy Operations Department in the UK Head Office and, in the same year, transferred to Spain, to assist in the set-up of our branch office dealing with local developer clients. Raquel´s skills grew rapidly as the Spanish branch office expanded business and, in recognition for her drive and enthusiasm, she was made an Associate Director in 2007. In 2009, Raquel was promoted to the position of Group Operations Director and now oversees all operations being carried out in Spain, UK, India, Thailand and China. Raquel is bilingual in Spanish and English and also speaks Galician; she holds a Degree in Business Studies from the University of La Coruña, Spain, and is currently studying for an MBA in Business Administration and Management. Raquel has many years experience in the hospitality world (her family has a small hotel in Galicia, Northern Spain), so she fully appreciates the importance of giving a highly professional service to clients.

Christopher Allen Client Services and Business Development Director

Chris joined the Group in 2008 as Associate Director, becoming a member of the Board in July 2009. Chris brings more than twenty years experience with him from the Tour Operating and Timeshare industries where he has held numerous senior management positions in Operations and Sales and Marketing. Chris, who holds a Bachelors Degree (Hons) in European Studies and speaks three European languages, and is a fully qualified Quality Systems Manager, oversees Client Services and Business Development for the Group, being responsible for new business opportunities for the Company not only in Europe, but worldwide.

Lisa Best Director Legal Services & Operations Liaison

Lisa Best joined the Group as an Associate Director in April 2009, becoming a full member of the Board in September 2009. Prior to joining the Group, Lisa spent many years contributing impressively to the growth of the RMI Consortium and, after its amalgamation with Petchey Leisure, in Gibraltar, Spain and Ireland. Lisa, who is based in our UK Head Office, has the important role of coordinating activities in our two key Departments, Operations & Legal Services and brings to the Group a wealth of operational experience in the shared leisure industry.

Regional Directors

Daniel Chou Asia and Pacific Region

Based in our Bangkok office and responsible for the Shanghai office too, Daniel who joined the Company in 1998, heads up the Hutchinson Asia Pacific Operations. Daniel, who speaks fluent Thai, English, Mandarin and Cantonese, has built-up a thriving member service department working on behalf of several resorts in the Asia Region and he and his team have been also been responsible for bringing on-board several new resorts in Thailand, China, the Philippines and India .

Yang Chen China

Yang first joined the Hutchinson Group in 2001, based in Bangkok, Thailand, where he played a key role in the set up and operation of the member services departments for several resorts & clubs in the Asia Pacific region and especially for the Asian Chinese market.

In 2005, the Hutchinson Group set up Pacific Sunrise Business Consultants (Shanghai) Co., Ltd in China, which is a Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise (WOFE) and Yang Chen was appointed as Director responsible for all Hutchinson business in this region. Under Yang’s leadership, the Company has been involved in the development and management of a number of Vacation Ownership products in China, which have added new vitality to the industry. Yang is also actively involved in China in the set up of an industry association and, in 2008, was appointed as Vice Chairman of the China Oriental Vacation Association (COVA). Prior to his role in COVA, Yang held the position of Secretary General in the Thai Vacation Ownership Association (TVOA).

Yang holds a University Law degree, as well as an M.A. in Communication Arts (MACA) from Bangkok University of Thailand. Yang speaks fluent English, Mandarin and Thai.

Prakash Balachandran India

Joining the Company in 1996, Prakash heads up our Bangalore office in India where he oversees all Sales and Operations matters for the region. Our Bangalore office plays a key role in the success of the Company operations and acts as the back-office for many of our international clients. Bangalore also covers a large portion of the Company´s data processing and financial transaction functions and Prakash played a key role in the successful transfer of these functions to the India office. Prakash, who is an Accountant by profession and holds a Bachelors Degree in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai (Madras), is fluent in English and four other Indian languages.