THE LITMUS PARTNERSHIP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Joint Managing Director Leisure Venues
Alyson has a strong background in commercial retail catering and operational management having a successful proven track record within the hospitality, visitor attraction and leisure sectors.
She has held senior roles in large corporations and in private organisations across the U.K. She has a great enthusiasm for the industry and passion for developing both an organisation's talent and its business in order to deliver commercially sustainable solutions.
During a 25 year career that began in operations and service delivery, Rebecca moved into sales and subsequently procurement roles, before establishing herself in consultancy. With experience at a senior level, both as client and as supplier, she has an appreciation of multiple perspectives and is effective at leveraging the value to ensure both qualitative service benefits, as well as financial quantitative improvements are achieved.
Her work ranges across both public and private sector, from single-site solutions to global strategies. In all of her projects she maintains a focuses on business improvement, change and commercial optimisation.
Her specific expertise includes developing new strategies and design; service review and tender management; managing change to deliver a smooth transition and elevated service proposition. In parallel with this she has a commercial aptitude, that ensures value is properly considered, whether through formal procurement processes, including OJEU (now FTS), or direct negotiation.
She has a track record of collaborating with clients to deliver complex operational programmes, quickly grasping objectives and applying them to ensure stakeholders at all levels are effectively engaged to enable delivery within matrix environments.
Job Titles:
- Commercial Development Director
An experienced business development professional, with 15 years' experience working in the catering and facilities management sector, Candice prides herself on building long lasting and effective relationships with colleagues, clients and prospects.
Most recently working within the Independent School's sector, Candice brings with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in this unique marketplace. This will support the continuous improvement of our services to existing education clients and the ongoing development of our unique proposition for this sector.
Joining the Litmus Board as Commercial Director, Candice will provide overarching strategic insight, planning and business development support to all areas of the Litmus Business and its partners, in order to deliver targeted growth and profitability.
Job Titles:
- Consultant for Learning & Development
Caroline believes your people can be your biggest competitive advantage, and if you look after your team they will look after your customers. So, investing in your team is key to delivering a great customer experience, as well as improving productivity and engaging and retaining your best people.
Caroline has over 30 years' training and development experience behind her, 25 of which have been in hospitality. Recognising that managers in our industry often get promoted into line manager positions without any formal training, one of her key areas of focus is on developing junior managers in the skills they need to lead and engage their teams effectively.
Caroline's focus is on ensuring clients get the very best return from their (often limited) training budgets by helping identify their genuine training needs and looking at cost-effective ways to meet those needs, which often includes developing line managers' skills and confidence to coach and train their teams internally.
Job Titles:
- Head of Digital Technology & Development
Charlie studied Finance at Southampton Solent University and his extensive career experience relates to financial management, budgets, management accounts, Internal Audit & Controls, Web Design, Business Intelligence Solutions and Intellectual Property.
Following graduation, Chris held a number of positions including general manager of a country house hotel before joining a major financial institution as head of catering and subsequently staff planning manager.
He spent the next 10 years as a leading hospitality, catering and FM consultant undertaking major projects covering strategy, policy development, contract monitoring & foodservice design for a range of blue chip clients including Microsoft; the BBC; Lloyds of London and Barclays.
David is a highly-experienced senior healthcare Facilities Management professional with extensive experience at Operations Director level, gained in both PFI and non-PFI settings. He has strong inter-personal skills, commercial focus, contractual awareness and commitment to excellence in service provision. David's professional training was in catering, and he has over thirty years' experience of managing all soft and hard FM services. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, and has lectured on healthcare Facilities Management for professional associations, NHS Trusts, commercial service providers, and the Department of Health.
David is particularly interested in the quality and cost of in-house and outsourced FM services and has successfully benchmarked and improved services for many clients. In recent years he has assisted many organisations in commissioning and procurement of services in order to deliver excellent services at optimum cost.
Dee has worked within the FM industry for over 15 years, working with two of the UK's major suppliers. She has led business development and retention teams with targets of £120+million per annum. Alongside this, Dee was the Director leading the European business strategy working in partnership with other European providers.
Dee has worked with major blue-chip companies, focussing on clients within the Professional and Manufacturing sectors, from single to multi-sites. Her success was as a result of strong leadership and collaborative working with the operations departments to create robust operating models.
She has great skill in assessing the needs of our clients, creating the optimum operating model and maximising the return on investment, whilst also driving equitable client service provider relationships, giving stability to both organisations. She is professional in her approach, she listens, hears, reviews and then translates information, giving clients the solution that they and their business need.
With 25 years' experience in the catering and facilities management industry Diana's strong operational skills and in-depth industry knowledge are a real asset to our business and our clients.
Change management and business restructuring and reinvention are her specialist subjects and many of our clients have benefited from Diana's wisdom in these areas.
Diana earned her stripes predominantly in the education sector, where she worked for Sutcliffe Catering, Scolarest, and two universities in the North of England. Her qualifications include an HND in Hotel & Catering Management and she is a member of the British Institute of Facilities Management.
Ed has been working with Litmus for nearly 20 years and is highly skilled in the creative development and implementation of every aspect of marketing activity, brand identity and corporate communication.
Responsible for every level of marketing - including strategic direction, promotional and PR activity as well as digital reach and content. He was the winner of the Cost Sector Catering Marketing Award in 2002.
Emma has worked in senior leadership and director level roles across a broad spectrum of industries including financial services, healthcare, housing and for various FM service providers. She is an experienced consultant, PRINCE2® Practioner and interim professional with an extensive background in project, general and operational management. For over three years, Emma held the post of non-executive Board Member of the British Institute of Facilities Management (now IWFM) and Communications Director for GlobalFM.
Gerard is an experienced senior facilities management professional with 20 years of experience. He has worked in a vast range of sectors, from aviation, education, retail and commercial to large prestigious sporting events and 5-star private members clubs.
Throughout his career, Gerard has managed teams of in-house staff, external contractors and suppliers in contractor and client roles. His speciality includes contract mobilisation, contract performance and their deliverables to creating and implementing various new service lines. He has a keen eye for detail and thrives on delivering service excellence for his clients.
He has a passion for innovation and introducing new technologies. He is also a certified member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management and a member of the British Institute of Cleaning Science.
Graham has worked in the Catering and Facilities Management industries for over 30 years, during which time he has held directorships with some the industry's leading contractors. He specialises in FM strategy, operational efficiency and delivering change across a broad range of sectors for businesses that either outsource or insource their support services.
With a background in both operations and business development Graham has extensive experience in Site, National, Regional and Global FM with a strong speciality in business and industry especially in the financial services, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and FMCG sectors. Graham has worked with a large number of FTSE 100 companies.
Ian has worked at senior management levels in the foodservice, hospitality and leisure sectors for more than 20 years.
He has extensive experience in marketing, market research & analysis, customer insight and branding. Ian has an international background, having worked in Canada, developed brands for global foodservice markets and worked with international clients.
Ian has FTSE 100 experience based on a range of roles with the Compass Group; responsibility for international B2B brand development as the Group expanded from its UK roots, Vice President Marketing for the Canadian business and senior executive roles, including Head of Retail, in the sports, leisure & hospitality team back in the UK.
Job Titles:
- Education Consultancy Director
Effective performance management consultancy is the critical service Joe offers our clients in catering and hospitality, using comprehensive business analysis, modelling and proficient implementation of strategy to deliver success. A highly experienced consultant, Joe holds a Level 4 Diploma in Management from the Chartered Management Institute and an Honours degree in Social Psychology. He honed his skills and gained extensive experience in contract performance management and operational team management through the delivery of front line services in the residences arena, building design, and project and facilities management.
Joe specialises in helping independent schools get best value from their catering and domestics services departments, conducting benchmarking, strategic reviews and tendering for many prestigious clients in the sector. He also leads catering design projects at Oxford University.
Job Titles:
- Joint Managing Director, Litmus FM
With over 30 years of knowledge and experience of the facilities management market within business development and operations, from large single and multi-site contracts, to global and European business, John is well placed to undertake strategic project work for clients in all sectors.
John's successful career to date spans the contract catering and facilities services world. He led the business development function with Sodexo, Compass Group and Balfour Beatty Workplace and gained extensive knowledge across the Private sector market. John has produced and won over 500 tenders to a business sales value of over £1.4bn.
John also holds certified-level membership at the Institute of Workplace Management (IWFM) - the pioneering body for workplace and facilities management professionals.
Job Titles:
- Joint Managing Director, Litmus FM
- Member of the Institute of Workplace
- Service Expert
Karl is a Member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management and the Association of Building Engineers, with over 28 years' experience in the Facilities Management industry.
Over the last 10 years Karl has provided FM consultancy support to a wide range of Clients across both traditional and PFI/PPP markets. This work has included FM and lifecycle cost modelling, tender preparation and review, FM options appraisals, service reviews, benchmarking and value for money assessments, across a number of operational projects.
In his consultancy role Karl has provided technical advice and support to a number of key projects in the UK, Ireland, Greece and Egypt, and in addition has carried FM consultancy assignments for Clients in Russia, Norway and the Netherlands.
As a Facilities Management and operational service expert Karl has supported and co-ordinated project teams and hard and soft FM service delivery teams, involving high-level discussions and negotiations with authorities, lenders, SPVs and key stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery, smooth operation and handover of projects, at each stage of the contract/concession.
Some of Karl's most relevant projects include the Attica Schools PPP Programme in Greece, Alexandria Hospitals Egypt, University of East Anglia school of Midwifery, Asset and lifecycle modelling Cummins Engine Plant, Asset survey and data capture Richmond University, Sussex Police Custody Units PFI, Tower Hamlets Schools PFI, Miltoncross School Portsmouth PFI, East Lothian Schools PFI, Caerphilly Schools PFI, Dudley Schools PFI.
Kate has over 30 years of working in customer facing operations in both private and public sectors with 10 years of experience of working at a strategic level in commercial and facilities roles at Leeds Beckett University, driving considerable improvements into the business, identfying new business opportunities to maximise revenue and improve service delivery efficiencies.
A strategic thinker adept at translating strategic objectives into actionable plans with key measurables across a wide range of commercial and FM soft services, Kate has experience of leading large-scale projects whether defined by monetary value, headcount or complexity.
Kate's experience covers conferencing, hospitality, print and reprographics, merchandise, marketing, and a wide range of FM soft services from car parking to mail. This includes significant experience in inhouse teams and contracted out services, tenders on both sides of the process, contract management through to implementation and ongoing development of building management software (planon).
Kate's energy, drive and passion for her areas of expertise is infectious as her sense of humour. Future focussed Kate always has a handle on the latest trends to benefit the workplace.
Recently qualified with a MBA, her management project has delivered over 330k p.a. savings in print and reprographics whilst still delivering to the university's requirements. Kate also brings significant and lived expertise on the people piece through culture change, management of change and delivery values and behaviours and also acts as guest speaker on the subject.
An Independent Foodservice Consultant with 32 years experience in the Hospitality Industry and a passion for sustainability, Kate has become a leading figure within the sector when it comes to environmental issues with the aim of reducing energy consumption and the carbon footprint across the Industry.
Kate has an in-depth technical knowledge of catering equipment. Her specialism is developing catering equipment replacement strategies projected over the life of the facility, taking into consideration lifecycle costs and long-term capital investment.
She developed the concept for CaterOps, an expert cloud-based software system that produces energy and carbon footprint projections, which enables operators to manage their energy consumption. In the process of doing this she has compiled a vast database of catering equipment which assists clients in specifying which items best suit their operational needs in terms of fit for purpose, meeting capital budgets, reducing overall lifecycle costs and reaching effective timelines for ROI.
Kate is also able to provide strategic solutions based on her design and management experiences both practically and as a consultant. Her operational knowledge, together with her understanding of design and building constraints, gives her a unique lead in the marketplace and makes her a valuable member of any project team.
Job Titles:
- Head of Business Growth Team
Katie started work in data research for Litmus 10 years ago and has progressed to manager of the
Lucy's entire career has been spent within the catering industry, starting in the B&I ‘Prestige' sector of one of the largest multinational catering contractors. She worked for Litmus for a number of years overseeing the Head Office team. Delivering successful support for tender management and contract monitoring, while engaging with hundreds of schools across the UK regarding their catering, cleaning and facilities management services.
She is certified by the Chartered Management Institute and her strong financial acumen and analytical past brings the highest attention to detail, ensuring efficiencies are identified, communicated and implemented across all of her clients. A particular eye for cost saving and compliance within the Education sector, saw her offering procurement advice to numerous schools and multi academy trusts, having been trained in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
This coupled with her experience of catering operations, having worked for one of the UK's larger education catering specialists, means she's able to bring a host of commercial expertise and a ‘grounded' view of a value for money contract.
Mark's career has always been focused on hospitality and its many facets, including operational leadership, business development and subject matter expertise in the high street, workplace, leisure, healthcare and travel environments.
Mark's experience includes projects in the UK & Europe as well as further afield in the Middle and Far East. For each, Mark has provided an innovative take and delivered financial and operational outcomes in tune with the local market needs.
Matt brings over 30 years' experience in the Construction and Facilities Management industries and is a Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and a Chartered Building Surveyor.
Over the last 10 years Matt has held Executive Leadership roles in Facilities Management service providers, leading operational and support teams delivering IFM, TFM and Catering Services across the UK & Ireland. Clients and market sectors included PFI/PPP projects, Multi-Academy Trusts, Individual Schools, Universities, Manufacturing, and the Ministry of Justice.
Prior to operational leadership Matt spent 20 years delivering capital projects managing the design and construction of refurbishment, new build and lifecycle works across a wide variety of commercial property portfolios.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner Central Services
Job Titles:
- Managing Director Retail Services
Mike is an experienced business leader with a wide cross-section of skills and experience including retail brand analysis and foodservice brand development across all foodservice sectors. Additionally, he has a depth of experience in terms of implementation, delivery and best practice transfer.
Mike has over thirty years' experience in the Foodservice sector including twenty years' experience within one of the World's largest foodservice organisations - Compass Group - where he was group healthcare director prior to working with the Litmus Partnership. He dealt with clients at board level in the food and multi-service market and was involved in the leadership of the group's international healthcare forum for over 10 years.
Michael has worked in the catering industry for over 30 years and his career embraces hotels, in-house catering and all sectors of the contract catering industry, in particular the education sector. His practical skills and experience are strengthened by a Master's Degree in Hotel and Catering Management and an HCIMA Part B from Oxford Brookes University.
Facilities management consultancy has been his career choice for the past fourteen years and he is well known for his advice and professionalism in ensuring that his clients receive ‘best value' in the provision of facilities management contracts in all areas of the education sector.
With 15 years of experience in the hospitality sector, Mike has a breadth of knowledge from working in a range of business functions.
Mike began his corporate career as a Project Lead in the Care & Education catering sectors, all of which provided valuable learning in offer development & food procurement for National providers.
Most recently, he was the Director of Operations for Food.ee, a technology platform in Vancouver that specialises in linking local restaurants with offices across North America. Mike was responsible for all operations; from customer support, restaurant sales & management to last-mile delivery.
He returned to the UK in 2022 and provides Litmus with a fresh perspective on business transformation and the role technology can play to support growth.
A tactical services expert, Mike specialises in auditing, benchmarking and tendering soft facilities management contracts.
Always acting in the best interest of his clients, Mike draws on his strong multi-service senior-level operational background, his 30 years' experience within the catering and support industry, and his valuable contacts and relationships to consistently and effectively monitor contracts.
Neil has worked in the Catering Industry for over 20 years, gaining significant experience with both national and international hotel chains.
To support his operational management experience Neil has an HCIMA part B and both RIPHH and advanced EHO food hygiene diplomas. He also has a postgraduate diploma in Strategic Marketing.
Neil broadened his catering management experience to include 12 years as a consultant in a corporate environment, gaining qualifications as a lead auditor against the ISO9000 and EFQM business models. He has Six Sigma and Prince 2 qualifications, in support of his process improvement and project delivery roles.
The consistent focus throughout Neil's career has been achieving excellence in customer satisfaction and improving business profitability.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant
- Member of the NHS Improvements Food Standards
Operating at a senior level in the catering and facilities management sector for over 30 years, Paul has vast experience in procurement management, marketing, sales and operational functions. He specialises in operational efficiency reviews, benchmarking, tender management and helping to set and achieve strategic goals for clients. His experience includes being the operational lead for full soft services contracts, including catering, cleaning, security, reception and grounds.
Paul is passionate about ensuring the front line teams have the resources and support required to deliver the services the client expects, and is an experienced negotiator and arbitrator to ensure this is achieved.
Operating across sectors including education, business and industry, government and healthcare, Paul is a member of the NHS Improvements Food Standards and Strategy Group, UK Hospitality Food Services Group and a representative of organisations on WRAP (Waste Resource Action Plan).
Peter has worked within the hospitality industry in excess of 50 years; as such he might be considered to be our senior statesman. During his career Peter has worked in most facets of the industry starting his broad-church experience in management at a London, West-end Hotel, before gaining insights into the banqueting, conference, healthcare, and industrial & commercial aspects of the industry. Peter has managed operational, sales and design & planning teams during his career within leading companies of his industry.
Peter was a winner of the LV travel award scholarship and used this bursary to travel to the United States to explore alternative management and service systems, in addition to his formal hospitality qualifications Peter is also a post-graduate holder of the Diploma in Management Studies (distinction) and has played significant roles in the development of some of the industries' management systems.
Job Titles:
- Joint Managing Director Leisure Venues
Job Titles:
- Head of Asset Management - FM