Leadership

 Ajaya Sodha - Co-founder and Chairman 

A native of Uganda, Ajaya came to the UK in 1972 as a refugee and to continue his education. After a brief time working in a travel agency and then with an airline, Ajaya co-founded Key Travel in 1980, opening the first office in Kings Cross, London. Ajaya proceeded to pioneer the non-profit niche in the UK travel market, serving the unique requirements of faith, charity and NGO organisations through a close collaboration with a growing number of airline partners.

In 2005 Ajaya acquired the remaining shares in the company and instigated a programme of change to enable Key Travel to expand globally. This programme included the recruitment of senior executives who now serve on the Board, as well as a major internal restructure and an investment in new technologies and processes.

Ajaya plays an active and influential role within the broader business travel community. He is the Chairman of the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) and chairs its Air Working Party. Ajaya is also on the Board of the Guild of European Business Travel Agents (GEBTA), a member of the Air Passenger Joint Council (APJC) of the UK, and served as a Board Director of Institute of Travel and Meetings during 2010. In all of his roles Ajaya seeks to champion the non-profit community while developing insight to feed continuing innovation and development within Key Travel.

Ajaya is a School Governor of a local infant school, passionate Spurs fan and a keen golfer.

Stephen Summers – Chief Executive


Steve joined Key Travel in 2007, initially as Commercial Director, before progressing to the role of COO. In 2010 Steve was appointed CEO, responsible for the overall development of the group businesses in the UK, Belgium (serving the euro-zone) and the USA.

Steve has been central to the development of Key Travel as the leading provider to the non-profit sector, in particular building alliances in the NGO community in both Europe and North America. Steve maintains overall responsibility for sales and marketing, developing the brand and defining the client proposition required to compete in an increasingly competitive niche. Steve was behind the launch of the Key Travel Welfare Suite and regularly speaks on the topic of risk management at international NGO conferences.

Prior to joining Key Travel, Steve was a Director of Tennyson, a boutique outsourcing firm specialising in business development and the re-engineering of front office processes for a number of household brands from the telecoms, logistics and healthcare sectors.

Before Tennyson, Steve was at Energis Plc for eight years, where he held a number of senior sales management positions, including Sales Director for the network integration business and Head of Strategic Partners. Steve left in 2002 as Group Sales Development & Planning Director.

Steve went to Southampton University, where he read Accounting and Business Economics, and now lives in deepest Sussex, where he enjoys an outdoor lifestyle with his wife and three young children.
 

Spence Knudson – Chief Financial Officer

Spence joined Key Travel in 2007 as CFO, with responsibility for the functions of Finance, IT and HR. In 2010 he took on the additional role of COO, taking responsibility for both the Operations and Product teams, and the creation of a Shared Service capability across the Group.

Spence’s key responsibilities have been to lead the Group M&A activity, improve business controls and drive the programme of business automation that facilitates Shared Services, and underpins the continued growth of the business.

Spence is a Chartered Accountant, graduate in Computer Science from the University of Reading, and is also a member of the Institute of Marketing.

After qualifying as an accountant with Arthur Andersen, Spence built his finance career in rapidly growing IT, telecoms and Internet businesses including Telewest plc and Energis plc. At Energis he was Finance Director of the newly acquired Internet operations, before joining the management team of the Dutch acquisition based in Rotterdam.  

Prior to joining Key Travel, Spence commenced his career in travel with senior finance roles at lastminute.com and Cendant, leading profit improvement initiatives and re-engineering financial systems and business process.

In his spare time he is a keen tri-athlete, long-suffering Leyton Orient fan and father of four.