“I am a lifelong learner. I look beyond my everyday world, seeking inspiration from diverse resources, other managers, and colleagues across Imperial. One day, I’d like to set up an organisation which helps people from diverse and less privileged backgrounds to reach their best potential within the hospitality, events, and tourism industry.”
I started my career in auditing before transitioning first to global banking, then into the hotel, venue and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) industries. I’m passionate about business strategy and really enjoyed the diverse experiences that working in hospitality provided – from building multimillion pound venue facilities from scratch, to creating and developing Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.
In my current role as Strategic Implementation Manager, I lead the development of the growth strategy and long-term plans for Commercial Operations. Our team transform the student accommodation and teaching spaces into a residential venue for the Easter and summer vacation periods to generate additional income for Imperial. We also deliver Imperial’s flagship Global Summer School (GSS) which feeds into the student recruitment journey – over 350 GSS students have become undergraduates and postgraduates at Imperial.
The two Imperial Values that resonate with me the most are respect and collaboration. The Commercial Operations department is a diverse mix of people from different backgrounds and experiences, a reflection of the Imperial community. As a team leader, I always come from a place of understanding and for me to do this, I listen and take on board everyone’s views and perspectives. In addition to providing opportunities in regular team meetings, I make time for one-on-one conversations with team members.
I enjoy being part of an environment that allows people to collaborate. I love that Imperial and my current role offers that ecosystem. On a daily basis, the department works collaboratively with various internal departments. We could be involved in discussions about a maintenance project and how to minimise disruption to users during the summer, and also be in discussion about developing a new course for our GSS students. We recently worked together with Imperial academics and other external partners to win a bid to bring the International Heat Transfer Conference to London in 2030. By working together, we provide truly excellent products and services to external students and users, which in turn generates significant profit to support a wide range of initiatives.
I am a lifelong learner. I look beyond my everyday world, seeking inspiration from diverse resources, other managers, and colleagues across Imperial. One day, I’d like to set up an organisation which helps people from diverse and less privileged backgrounds to reach their best potential within the hospitality, events, and tourism industry. They are very underrepresented in senior management. These industries can benefit from diversity not just at the lower and middle level but also senior level.
Professionally, I am looking forward to working on our newly revamped brand Celesta Venues, which combines the event and accommodation business under one umbrella.