Hertz picks Harraway for top job

The Fashion Café’s vice president of sales and marketing, Elizabeth Harraway, has left the company after just five months in the job to join car rental company Hertz Europe as director of retail sales and marketing for leisure services.

Harraway is leaving at a time when the designer restaurant chain, fronted by supermodels Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson and Claudia Schiffer, is reported to be suffering financial difficulties.

The chain has already lost the backing of fellow supermodel Christy Turlington and the New York outlet of the chain has been served with writs over alleged unpaid bills.

Harraway’s role at Hertz Europe has been created as part of the company’s expansion into the leisure market. In June, Hertz Europe appointed former Walt Disney Company marketing director Bill Jones to the new role of divisional vice-president, leisure sales.

Harraway formerly worked for Jones at Disney where she was head of marketing for Disneyland Paris prior to joining the Fashion Café in February.

Jones says: “Elizabeth has imagination, management talent and lots of energy. Her skills will be enormously influential in shaping the new approach to the leisure market which we are developing.”

Competition in the car rental market is intense. US rental giant Republic Industries introduced the National Car Rental brand to the UK earlier this year as part of its global expansion drive.

Thomson Holidays entered the fray last year when it teamed up with car rental company Holiday Autos to launch an own-brand car hire service.