Established a web design and development company working with clients primarily in hotels, travel & tourism with a network of 8 Associates. Key projects included:
• Built and managed a 500-page interactive web site in 5 languages for a landmark designer hotel in Barcelona complete with booking and email marketing systems and content management, quadrupling web traffic and creating an online database of 9,000 registrants.
• Research, prototyping and roll-out of franchise value proposition models to support the transformation in management & franchise sales strategy for three hotel brands in UK & Europe.
• Creation of a PMS-linked web site, booking & marketing system for a leading Amsterdam hotel.

World’s 2nd largest hotel group (t/o £2.2 bn, 3,500 hotels). Key member of a review team that proposed & agreed a fundamental revision of the growth strategy for EMEA to support an exit from asset ownership to a managed/franchised business model (leading to record 27,200 rooms pipeline signings H105).
Following a major company demerger and re-structuring in early 2003, in the new role of Director, Marketing Planning, I created processes and tools to balance marketing activity, coaching functional heads and managers to optimise returns on a $30m annual budget.
• Divisional lead on Project Horizon, the $7m redesign of business intelligence capabilities, working closely with teams in EMEA, Asia Pacific and the USA to redefine metrics.
• Re-engineered processes for activity planning, spending approval and hotel openings, working with teams of function heads and service managers.
From 2/2002, as Director, Strategic Development, I introduced strategies for increasing the distribution of ICH’s branded hotels throughout the region as the company switched from a brewing to a hotels focus.
• Developed and maintained strategic plans for the main European markets supporting pipeline growth to 20,000 rooms (+4% YOY) and NPV of $1.1bn.
• Devised and introduced a methodology for assessing strategic network value as part of the appraisal process for major capital projects in key locations.
Joined as Director, Strategy, responsible for rolling out the strategic planning process.
• Worked on the multi-disciplinary ICONS team, redesigning front line customer service processes for the $2m global re-launch of the InterContinental Hotels brand.
• Co-ordinated a project to deploy “breakthrough” methodologies for the control of workstream deliverables across central functions, reporting to the Executive Team.
• With consultants and legal team mounted a series of successful submissions to the Office of Fair Trading for the £810m acquisition of Posthouse. Compiled executive briefings on potential acquisitions.

In early 2000, I co-founded One-pm, an innovative B2B dot.com which attracted a commitment to £0.5 million seed funding from BDO Stoy Hayward (Acorn Investments) with launch scheduled for early 2001. One-pm was the world’s first cause-related e-mail permission marketing company. Alongside this, trading as Screen Presence, I developed B2B/B2C web applications and e-strategy for a diverse range of clients, managing the full project life cycle, through initial research to delivery and roll out.

Responsible for strategy, financial management & marketing, for the award-winning Travel & Tourism Programme in which the American Express Foundation invested over $4m.
• Supported the annual attainment of over 10,000 tourism vocational qualifications.
• Transformed the business through the creation and development of the Tourism Education Network, a web-based subscription service linking 100 UK schools and colleges with 10 national programmes and over 200 tourism businesses.
• Secured funding for, and led the development of, Career Compass - the UK’s most successful tourism careers portal with over 50,000 CVs posted online (since acquired by monster.com) in partnership with the World Travel & Tourism Council.
Promoted in 1998 from Partnership Development Manager where I secured funding of over £250,000 pa

Established and led a public/private sector regeneration partnership to revitalise the Lincolnshire Coast seaside resorts, successfully completed in 1995.
• Building on £85,000 pa seed funding, developed, agreed and implemented a strategic plan for tourism attracting partner investment of over £2.5m.
• Led bids for ERDF funding, winning the a £1m Rural Challenge prize against 23 competing bids. Presentation to Ministers attracted a prize fund of £1m, securing a final programme budget of £8.3m
• Subsequently implemented an inward investment campaign attracting private investment of over £30m in new leisure developments.
• Launched a training initiative, which pioneered Welcome Host for the ETB, now the world’s most successful customer care qualification.
• Implemented a marketing strategy targeting shoulder season business by direct mail, generating income of £3m, and gaining extensive media coverage.

I led an internal team of consultants handling service development for the UK's largest hotelier (t/o £800m). Responsible for achieving targeted returns of 15%.
• Implemented a networked competitor intelligence system, training participants and from 6/1991 was retained as an independent contractor handling competitor profiling and mystery guest programmes.
Promoted in 1989 from Business Analyst, Central Marketing where I analysed business performance and commissioned market research to support brand planning, marketing initiatives and new product development and fostered early database marketing efforts.
• Produced monthly performance reports to the Board to support decision-making and controlled 14 sales offices worldwide.
Promoted in 1988 from Business Development Manager, International Hotels
• Negotiation of international hotels onto UTELL reservation system.
• Introduced a cross-brand referrals system to maximise sales on walk-in business, generating additional revenue of over £1m for the London Hotels division.

Responsible for a change project to transform this former GLC department’s Population & Statistics Group into a commercially-viable statistical service during the organisation’s transformation from public to private sector.

I provided management consultancy services to the hotel, leisure & tourism industries for this respected international market-leader. I researched, produced and presented market feasibility and tourism development studies in the UK, Europe and Africa.
• Completed 23 assignments, 11 of which supported large capital investment commitments.
In 1986, I was promoted from Research Assistant, where I analysed large datasets and authored market analysis publications under the highly-respected Outlook-Trends brand, enhancing the firm's reputation for high quality research.
• Redesigned end-to-end proposals process improving acceptance rate from 50% to over 70%, organised client development events, launches and conferences.