Entrepreneur · Investor · Keynote speaker
Founded his first business, Travelworld, at 19 and grew it to 130 shops. Chairman of Huddersfield Town at 29. CEO at FTSE 100 Thomas Cook. Six exits, including a $100m-plus sale to Snap. Terry Fisher brings 44 years of deal-making to conference stages, boardrooms and podcasts, with keynotes and fireside chats on building, fixing and selling a business.
Coming soon: Terry on The Business Leader Podcast with Sir Richard Harpin
Huddersfield TownChairman
MD
CEO
CEO
Founder
Flats in LeedsChairman
DigiMapps
voiseyAcquired by Snap
OH4Investor
V1 EnergyFounder & CEO
The numbers behind the stories
Age he founded his first business, a Travelworld shop in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, in 1982.
Travel Weekly ↗Age he became chairman of Huddersfield Town in 1992, the youngest chairman in professional football.
Travel Weekly ↗Gold Medal's sale to FTSE 100 Thomas Cook in 2008, after Terry took it from a £1.0m loss to £6.4m profit in three years.
Travel Weekly ↗Rescue bid for Thomas Cook in 2012, backed by Invesco, the group's second-largest shareholder.
Evening Standard ↗Return for Terry and his investors on Voisey, the music app Snap bought in a $100m-plus deal in 2020.
Music Business Worldwide ↗The itinerary
Travel, football, property, publishing, tech and now energy. Six industries, plenty of connections, no straight line: back the right people, move faster than the market and know when to sell.
At 19, Terry opened a travel shop in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield. Travelworld grew to 130 shops, the UK's largest remaining independent travel chain, and was sold to Airtours in 1998.
Became chairman of his home-town club at 29, the youngest chairman in professional football. Town went to Wembley twice, won promotion in 1995 and moved into the new Alfred McAlpine Stadium. In 2003 administrators accepted his group's bid to rescue the club. He came out of football without the losses most owners take.
Airtours made him managing director of Going Places, then put him in charge of its whole UK retail arm: Going Places and Travelworld combined, around 800 shops. He set out to shake up the culture.
Led the Yorkshire consortium, assembled by Zeus Capital with former Leeds captain Trevor Cherry, that went after Leeds United while the club was in freefall. Two weeks in the numbers, then he walked away. In 2008 Gold Medal's Netflights.com, then run by Terry, went on the Leeds shirts.
Came in to run loss-making Gold Medal Travel Group. In three years he took it from a £1.0m loss to £6.4m profit, and in 2008 he led its £86.5m sale to FTSE 100 Thomas Cook.
Became CEO at Thomas Cook, running Gold Medal, Pure Luxury, Elegant Resorts, Netflights.com and Thomas Cook Tours. The same year he received the Business Achievement Award at the British Travel Industry Hall of Fame.
He put together a £400m rescue package for Thomas Cook, backed by Invesco, the group's second-largest shareholder. The Financial Times broke the story; the board said no. When Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019, Travel Weekly reported it could have been saved.
Founded Mapperarti in Newport Beach, making bespoke maps and apps for luxury hotels, with 60 contracts including Jumeirah, Ritz-Carlton and Hyatt at launch. DigiMapps and Nutshell WiFi followed in 2017.
Founding seed investor and board director of Voisey, the London music-creation app whose users recorded more than 11 million songs. Snap Inc. bought it in November 2020 in a $100m-plus deal: a 60x return for Terry and his investors.
Director of V1 Energy Solutions and an investor in OH4, cutting the energy that commercial buildings waste on heating and cooling.
Keynotes, fireside chats and panels for audiences who want the real story of building, fixing and selling businesses.
Speaking
No borrowed frameworks. Terry talks about what it actually takes to start, scale, turn around and sell a business, including the calls that didn't go his way.
Six businesses, six sales: Travelworld to Airtours, Gold Medal to Thomas Cook, Voisey to Snap and more. How to build a business someone wants to buy, and how to sell it well.
At Gold Medal, Terry took the business from a £1.0m loss to £6.4m profit in three years and led it into FTSE 100 Thomas Cook. How you fix a business at pace, and what it costs you.
How a 19-year-old with one shop in Slaithwaite built Travelworld into the UK's largest remaining independent travel chain against the biggest names on the high street, and what challenger brands can still take from it.
A £400m rescue bid for Thomas Cook, backed by its second-largest shareholder. A consortium for Leeds United. A Football League chairmanship at 29. Stories about ambition, risk and what you do when the answer is no.
From a music app bought by Snap to energy-saving technology for commercial buildings: how Terry chooses founders and sectors, and when he doubles down.
Coming soon · The Business Leader Podcast
Terry sits down with the founder of HomeServe, owner of Business Leader and author of How to Make a Billion in 9 Steps, to talk about building, fixing and selling businesses. The episode is on its way.
Listen to The Business Leader Podcast ↗
On set with Sir Richard Harpin
Ventures
After travel, football and tech, Terry's attention has turned to energy: cutting the power that commercial buildings waste on heating and cooling.
Founder & CEOLess energy. Evidence you can check.
V1 installs the OH4 system in data centres, care homes, hotels and commercial estates, and measures the savings from real meter readings, one building at a time.
InvestorFit-and-forget heat transfer for commercial heating and cooling.
The Devon-based manufacturer behind the system V1 installs. Terry has backed OH4 through its development and calls it potentially his best investment to date.
A personal chapter · Father & son
Backing my son Harry. Building V1 Energy.
Some people would be nervous about handing the keys to a business to their son at 22. For me, this is a moment I've spent his whole life preparing him for.
Harry has grown up around my businesses: listening in on calls, being part of the conversations and seeing first-hand what it takes to build something. The learning started long before he had a job title.
Now he's putting that experience to work with V1 Energy Solutions, bringing OH4 technology to commercial heating and cooling systems. I'm there to share what I've learnt and support him as he makes the business his own.
I've backed plenty of businesses over the years. Watching my son take the controls is the one that means the most to me, and he has a long way left to climb.
V1 Energy Solutions · Bringing OH4 technology to commercial heating and cooling
44 years in business. Still reaching new altitudes.
Gallery
Stages, studios and good company, from RISE UP London to Anthony Joshua. Every stop leaves a stamp.
Press room
Twenty-five years of coverage and conversation, from the travel trade to the back pages. Every link goes to the original source or an archived copy.
Names Terry Fisher among Voisey's original seed investors.
The stock-exchange announcement credits Terry, as CEO, and CFO Steve Bacon with turning a £1.0m loss into £6.4m EBITDA.
Revisiting the £400m rescue plan the board turned down.
No stories match that search. Try a company name such as “Voisey” or “Thomas Cook”.
For organisers & press
Copy-ready words for your event programme and your MC, plus a high-resolution headshot. Speaker bureaus and agents are welcome.
Terry Fisher is a British entrepreneur, investor and keynote speaker with six exits. He founded Travelworld at 19 and grew it to 130 shops, chaired Huddersfield Town at 29, led Gold Medal's £86.5m sale to Thomas Cook and became CEO there. A founding investor in Voisey, sold to Snap for $100m-plus, he is now a director of V1 Energy Solutions.
Our next speaker opened his first travel shop at 19 and grew it to 130 shops before selling the chain to Airtours. At 29 he became chairman of Huddersfield Town, the youngest chairman in professional football. He sold Gold Medal to Thomas Cook for £86.5 million, then put together a £400 million bid to rescue Thomas Cook itself. He was a founding investor in Voisey, sold to Snap for more than $100 million. Please welcome Terry Fisher.
Terry Fisher is a British entrepreneur, investor and keynote speaker with six exits behind him. He opened his first travel shop in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, at 19, and grew Travelworld into a 130-shop chain, the largest remaining independent in the UK, before selling it to Airtours in 1998. At 29 he became chairman of Huddersfield Town, the youngest chairman in professional football, taking the club to Wembley twice and to promotion in 1995. He later ran Gold Medal Travel Group, taking it from a £1.0m loss to £6.4m profit in three years and leading its £86.5m sale to FTSE 100 Thomas Cook, where he went on to become CEO. In 2012 he put together a £400m bid to rescue Thomas Cook itself. He was a founding investor in Voisey, the music app Snap bought in 2020, and is now a director of V1 Energy Solutions and an investor in OH4.
Book Terry
Tell Terry about your event and he'll come back with availability and fees. Keynotes, after-dinner talks, fireside chats, panels, masterclasses and podcasts, in the UK and internationally.
Your boarding pass fills in as you type. Send it and it goes straight to Terry. Prefer email? Write to terry@terryfisher.com.
Ground control
The quickest route for each kind of enquiry.
Sport
