a&o Hostels appoints Markus Harder as chief financial officer

a&o Hostels, the European budget hostel operator, has appointed Markus Harder as chief financial officer, effective immediately. The company said Harder will support its digitalisation strategy, drawing on his experience scaling technology and AI-led companies in Europe. Based in Berlin, he will oversee finance, legal, organisational and business systems and processes, risk management and procurement, while leading the company’s digital agenda. Harder previously served as CFO and management board member at DeepL, the AI translation company. Earlier roles included CFO at Contentful and finance director at SoundCloud.