Related: Lo-Q helps families to beat the queues / Lo-Q awarded contract for eleventh Six Flags theme park / America’s oldest family theme park, Lake Compounce introduces 21st century reservation system to reduce queue lines with Q-txt from Lo-Q
Lo-Q plc, the leading supplier of virtual queuing systems for theme parks, today announced the appointment of Tom Burnet as Chief Executive Officer. Effective immediately, Burnet joins Lo-Q from Serco plc where he was Managing Director of the company’s 5,000 person Defence Services division.
Prior to Serco, Burnet was Managing Director of QinetiQ’s Capability Support Division, a high growth £50 million technical consultancy, working with Governments and industry around the world.
During his career, Tom Burnet has been a director of a number of successful businesses and in 1997, he was instrumental in co-founding Cedalion Ltd, offering a range of technical consulting and development services to a blue-chip client base throughout Scotland. During his time there, the company established itself as one of the UK’s leading Microsoft partners and the software giant’s third Gold Partner in Europe, winning Deloitte “Fast 50” status 5 years in a row.
Commenting on his appointment Tom Burnet said, “I’m delighted to be joining Lo-Q at such an exciting time. With some brand new products on the horizon, Lo-Q is perfectly positioned to exploit the potential of its already well-established family of Q-bot hand-held and Q-txt mobile reservation systems. I am confident that, working closely with the first class team already established at Lo-Q, this is an exceptional opportunity to grow the company from its excellent foundations and I’m looking forward to playing my part in doing so.”
In his early career, and after joining the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst straight from school, Burnet became the youngest officer in the Army at the age of 18. He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Edinburgh and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Lo-Q’s dynamic virtual queuing concept arose because of a wait in a line by Leonard Sim, the company’s founder and inventor of the Q-bot system, and his family at a Florida theme park in the 1990s. The ride had mechanical problems, which meant that the almost two-hour wait was a waste of time. Lo-Q’s virtual queuing solutions put customers in control of their day. Unlike traditional paper-based queuing systems, visitors can be updated in real time when their queue slot is available. They can be advised should their ride break down, or even updated on special promotions and events running throughout the day.
Lo-Q virtual queuing solutions are now used by more than 5 million people in major theme parks around the world, including numerous Six Flags theme parks in the USA and Canada, Dollywood near Tennessee USA, LEGOLAND® Windsor in the UK, Dreamworld in Australia, Parque Isla Magica in Spain, Mirabilanda in Italy, and Lake Compounce, USA.
About Lo-Q
Lo-Q plc is a UK publicly traded company with subsidiary companies in USA and Canada. Lo-Q designs, installs and operates solutions that allow customers to make ride and show reservations when they visit a theme park or other attraction.Its flagship product, the Q-bot system is a true virtual queuing system for theme parks. The Q-bot is a proprietary hand-held unit and is used in major theme parks around the world, including LEGOLAND® Windsor in the UK, Dreamworld in Australia, Mirabilandia in Italy and eleven Six Flags theme parks in the USA and Canada and Dollywood near Tennessee, USA.
Q-txt is a mobile phone based reservation system for venues with a smaller number of queue lines. Q-txt is in use in a number of locations including Flamingo Land in Yorkshire, UK, Parque Isla Magica in Seville, Spain and Lake Compounce, USA
Q-credits is a waterproof wristband that accumulates time credits which can then be redeemed on rides. Q-credits was trialled at Aquopolis in Madrid, Spain in September 2010 and is due to make its official debut at IAAPA in Florida, this November.
Lo-Q has extensive patent protection and owns the intellectual property rights in the system, its software and electronic design. Its headquarters are in Henley-on-Thames in the UK and its USA offices are near Atlanta, Georgia.