441. Steve Byrne CEO Travel Counsellors

Steve Byrne leads one of the most distinctive businesses in global travel. Not call centres. Not high-street shops. People. As CEO of Travel Counsellors, he leads a community of more than 4,000 independent travel entrepreneurs connected through its platform and supported by over 400 support team colleagues across seven countries.

His own start was humble. His first job was a paper round. Through sixth form he sold kitchens and beds in the evenings and at weekends. That early apprenticeship in graft and face-to-face selling shaped a leader who has always understood a simple truth. Trust is earned one customer at a time.

Steve joined Travel Counsellors in 2004 as Managing Director, joining an already successful and distinctive business. In 2014 he led a management buyout backed by Equistone Partners. In September 2016 he became CEO. Two years later he led a secondary acquisition with Vitruvian Partners. Steve’s focus has been on helping the business continue to grow and evolve while building on the culture of care and personal relationships at its heart.

The defining test came with COVID when the global travel industry effectively came to a standstill. For Steve, it was the clearest test of whether the values the business talked about would hold when circumstances were at their toughest. The company focused on supporting its people and looking after customers through extraordinary uncertainty, helping them navigate cancellations, changes and refunds at a time when trusted, personal advice mattered more than ever. The business subsequently emerged strongly from the pandemic. It topped MoneySavingExpert’s customer care survey and returned to 65% growth above pre-pandemic levels. For Steve, the way the community responded remains one of the proudest chapters of his leadership.

The track record reflects that consistency. The company has received 25,000 Trustpilot reviews and has won numerous awards and accolades over its 30-year journey, including most recently the 2026 King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation and the Customer Loyalty Award at the 2025 Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards.

Steve sees leadership as a privilege rather than a position. His approach is grounded in taking responsibility, remaining open to learning and creating the conditions for others to succeed. He believes in combining high challenge with high support, and in ensuring that growth never comes at the expense of care.

Steve’s experience reflects a tension familiar to many leaders. He runs a PE-backed technology platform business with hard commercial targets while seeking to keep a human, values-led culture at its centre. His focus has been on helping an established, successful business grow and evolve, investing in data and technology while protecting the culture, care and human connection that make it distinctive. For CEOs navigating the pressures of growth, technological innovation and leading at scale, Steve brings practical experience of leading a high-performing business through significant growth and change without losing sight of its people, purpose or values.