Danni Rush steps into Group COO role at Virgin Experience Days

The Virgin Experience Days’ group of brands, including Virgin Incentives, has today announced that Chief Customer Officer, Danni Rush, has been appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer.

The move signals the Virgin Group’s commitment to keeping customers at the heart of its businesses and will ensure consistent operational approach across Virgin Experience Days brands and divisions, especially as it expands into the US market.

Earlier this year Virgin Experience Days acquired leading US experience gift provider Cloud 9 Living, in an expansion deal into the $4.6bn US gifting market. The two brands are leaders in their domestic gift experience markets and have merged and unified under a Virgin Experience Days brand. The company now offers consumers and corporate clients a choice of over 4,000 experiences, and accounts for almost 1.4 million purchases each year in a resurgent gifting market following the end of lockdown restrictions. It is poised for growth as consumers increasingly change their purchasing habits to favour experiences over tangible gifts.

To date, Danni’s career has spanned several industries including travel, retail and outdoor education. Her passion for team engagement, having seen the positive impact that a highly engaged and motivated team can have on business performance, led her to her role as Chief Customer Officer. She led the customer experience, product development, partnerships and the people strategy for Virgin Experience Days and Virgin Incentives, and helped the business navigate through the challenging pandemic period to actually increase employee engagement ratings and win gold at the 2021 UK Employee Experience Awards.

Commenting on her appointment, Danni says:

“I firmly believe that regardless of the industry, team are at the core of any organisation. The pandemic has brought new challenges to light and further demonstrated the importance of a unified operational approach. I am delighted to lead the Virgin Experience Days groups operations at an exciting time of rapid growth and expansion into the US market. Huge opportunities lie ahead, and we’re in a great position to seize them.”

CEO of Virgin Experience Days, Richard Hurd-Wood, adds: “Since joining the Virgin Experience Days Group, Danni has shown a true passion for improving the business operationally and growing the team’s engagement in the work we do. At such a crucial time of expansion and growth for the business, I’m excited for its future with Danni as our Chief Operating Officer.”