Team size: Five

Key team members: David Johnston (General counsel), Aoife Martin, Eimear Vellekoop

What are the most significant cases and transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

CarTrawler is the leading B2B technology provider of car rental and mobility solutions to the global travel industry. Given our B2B focus, the legal and compliance team plays a key role in negotiating and concluding contracts for our services with key partners. We have recently been involved in finalising contracts with high profile airline and travel businesses such as United Airlines, Hilton Hotels, Uber and Hopper.

Attracting and retaining talent is key for a technology business like CarTrawler. As part of that focus, CarTrawler recently rolled out a company-wide share option scheme to give all our employees a stake in CarTrawler. The legal and compliance team played a key role in the design and implementation of that scheme.

CarTrawler is also at the forefront of using new and innovative technology and analytics to help grow our business. In that context, our compliance team is key to ensuring that privacy and compliance is at the forefront of everything we do.

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

As with all travel related businesses, CarTrawler was significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. As travel opened up again, our recovery was then impacted by disruptions at airports. Travel is now largely back to normal and the legal and compliance team is focused on supporting the business as it positions itself to manage the increased demand in what is expected to be a bumper summer for travel.

Has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities, and if so how?

A key element of CarTrawler’s strategic focus is to take the lead in improving sustainability in the car rental sector. As part of this strategic focus, CarTrawler is seeking to create a market leading sustainability proposition and to partner with suppliers to promote green content through our products. We are also looking to enable carbon footprint measurement and our ability to offset. The business has also filed an application for B-Corp certification, which measures a company’s entire social and environmental impact. Certified B Corps are leaders in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy.