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Corporate Travel's extinction event

A mid-flight update, where Ashes anticipation meets the unravelling of CTM.

Joe Aston |
Corporate Travel's extinction event
Corporate Travel Management chairman Ewen Crouch. March 2016. Photo: Louie Douvis

Hi all,

I'm coming to you from my (Virgin) flight to Brisbane for day two of the Ashes Test at the Gabba. I'm praying for some more of the ‘Travball’ that I was treated to in Perth two weeks ago. Then hopefully tonight I can catch some Super Retail executives canoodling in the lobby bar at the Calile Hotel.

My monthly Rampart column in The Australian Financial Review was published this morning on the extinction event at Corporate Travel Management.

Joe Aston: Exiting Jamie Pherous should be the easiest decision ever for the CTM chairman
In the middle of each night, when Corporate Travel chairman Ewen Crouch gets up for a pee, he must silently acknowledge that he’s got absolutely no idea.
Australian Financial ReviewJoe Aston

I've been covering this company for a long time. In 2018 and 2019, I exposed a succession of embarrassing governance oversights by its founder Jamie Pherous.

Corporate Travel had to confess last week that it had been stealing from its biggest client, the government of the United Kingdom. Here’s my column on this from earlier in the week:

Is anyone surprised about Corporate Travel?
The thesis that CTM’s margins never made sense has been borne out.
RampartJoe Aston