MEET THE TEAM

Murray Hennessey

Chairman

Murray Hennessy is Chief Executive Officer at Great Wolf Resorts Inc., an affiliate of Blackstone Group LP. Murray and our management team are focused on accelerating the growth of the Great Wolf Lodge brand and expanding into new markets throughout the United States and the world.

Murray Hennessy has worked extensively in customer-facing industries and has significant experience with online businesses. Murray was the former CEO of buy.com UK, an online retailer of technology products, which was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership in 2001. Between 2001 and 2004, he was the commercial director of John Lewis Department Stores where he pioneered the store’s online presence, johnlewis.com. Following this, from 2004 to 2008, Murray was the CEO of Avis Europe plc.  From 2008 until 2014 he was the CEO of thetrainline.com, the online train ticket retailer.

His previous experience includes executive appointments with Tricon Global restaurants (now Yum Brands), initially as CFO for Europe and latterly as VP and General Manager for Europe.  He also spent five years with Bain and Company as a management consultant.

Murray holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a BA from Williams College in Massachusetts and a diploma from L’Institut d’études de Paris.