Hegarty spent the vast majority of her 13 years at the travel agency’s Chorley branch working as a Travel Consultant before becoming its Company Trainer in 2019.
She later became a part-time Tourism Management Lecturer at Runshaw College. Hegarty has just spent two weeks onboarding Panache’s US staff.
She joins Alyson Page, who starts as Financial Controller, and Ben Houghton, who has been appointed Data Analyst at Panache.
“These appoints reflect where we are as a business,” said Panache Cruises Chief Executive James Cole. “As we scale, we need specialists.
“Jade’s exceptionally motivated and skilled. As we continue to scale the business, we’re looking for experts in their area and Jade absolutely ticks that box.”
Houghton is a graduate of Loughborough University. He said: “A business like Panache Cruises, with offices around the world, generates a lot of data. My job is to help the management team make more informed decisions from the data.”
Headquartered in Chorley, the company was founded by Cole in 2020 and has grown to more than 100 staff, with international offices in the US and Australia.
Panache recently made a six-figure investment in Chester-based Vedere Travel as part of a wider strategy to expand into other areas of the travel industry.
