Intrepid Travel has appointed Hazel McGuire into the newly created role of chief marketing officer.

Formerly the UK general manager of sales & marketing, McGuire’s internal promotion will see her oversee the global departments of brand and PR with the addition of communications, customer and experiences.

She succeeds former chief customer officer Leigh Barnes who has relocated to the US and is now Intrepid’s president of the Americas. The business has retired the chief customer officer position in favour of having a CMO.

McGuire has 20 years experience in the travel and transport industries. She joined Intrepid Travel in 2022, helping to deliver 60% revenue growth in 2023 compared to 2019, while also leading the UK team to its biggest sales month in January 2025.

Based in London, she commences as CMO on 1 April and will report to Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton.

Thornton says McGuire’s proven success leading its UK business positioned her as the perfect candidate “to realise Intrepid’s global growth ambitions”. In order to realise this goal, Intrepid has been transitioning to brand-led marketing, aiming to grow into a $1bn business by 2030.

Before transitioning to brand-led marketing, Barnes told Marketing Week in June last year that Intrepid was “probably spending around 90% of [its] budget on performance marketing.” He said the split is now closer to 60:40 in favour of brand marketing.

Talking about her job now, McGuire says her goal is to “identify the big opportunities that will help us realise Intrepid’s 2030 strategy”.

Intrepid is now hiring to replace her previous role of general manager for UK sales and marketing.

‘A statement of intent’: Brands on the rationale behind appointing their first CMO

While some brands are cutting senior marketing leaders, with the latest data from the 2025 Marketing Week Career & Salary Survey showing 23.8% of respondents have seen a senior marketer cut from their team and not replaced, Intrepid’s appointment follows another trend that sees brands appointing their first CMO in the pursuit of growth.

Center Parcs has just appointed Sara Holt to the newly created role of CMO, while bread brand Hovis appointed former General Mills marketing director Mark Brown as its first CMO last July.

Warner Hotels also named its first CMO, David Murdin, in July as it looks to “power its growth”, and Merlin Entertainment appointed former Sage marketing boss Craig Inglis as its first CMO in May.