The owner of Legoland and Alton Towers has appointed a top digital officer to the role of chief digital and data officer.
Sarah Venning joins Poole-based Merlin Entertainments, Europe’s largest visitor attraction operator, from Pret A Manager, where she is currently global digital officer. Ms Venning has previously held senior roles at the John Lewis Partnership and Heathrow Airport.
Merlin currently operates more than 140 attractions in 25 countries around the world. The company's attractions include 10 Legoland resort parks and hotels; six theme parks including Alton Towers, Heide Park and Gardaland; the Sea Life aquariums; Madame Tussauds; Peppa Pig World of Play; the Lastminute.com London Eye; and Sydney Tower Eye.
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Ms Venning will focus on bringing together the key areas in Merlin's technology data, and digital capabilities to build a digital strategy and deliver a seamless digital experience for guests and over 30,000 Merlin team members. Her responsibilities will also include co-leading the business transformation efforts to achieve optimum performance in technical and specialist areas.
Scott O’Neil, chief executive at Merlin Entertainments said: “As Merlin Entertainments begins its next phase of growth across our LEGOLAND Resorts, Resort Theme Parks and Midway attractions around the world, we recognised we needed to add talent that maps to our ambitions. Sarah Venning is the type of extraordinary executive who will lead us there. Innovation, creativity, passion, and the discipline to do the heavy lifting are all hallmarks of this company, and a perfect fit for a leader like Sarah.
"Her experience in driving change, attracting talent, building teams and transforming companies will set Merlin on the next step of our trajectory, as our guests look for us to continue to be ahead of the curve on our innovative digital journey. Across all of our 140+ attractions, our focus will be on working with the most exciting brands and IP, delivering the best customer service, and all whilst providing guests with a truly personalised digital experience they have come to expect.”
Ms Venning added: "Merlin is a company defined by its people, culture and dedication to innovation and I am excited to help drive the next phase of growth. Merlin's extraordinary global locations will become ever more social, connected, and immersive through the power of digital and data. With the whole team, we look forward to designing an incredible next-generation experience for our guests."
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