TUCO - Key Persons
Amanda joined the Board in 2015 with areas of responsibility within Marketing and Communications. Amanda has a wealth of experience within the catering industry including work within contract catering, hotels, sport and the education sectors. Her current role is Catering, Hospitality & Conferencing Director at the University of Nottingham.
Camilla Hayes re-joins the Academy team as the Training Officer. She has worked within hospitality for over 10 years, and moved from a waitress to deputy manager position where she has had a lot of experience in training new staff in compliance and brand standards. She brings with her sound personal experience of the joy and challenges involved in delivering good hospitality and customer focussed service.
As Director Commercial Operations (Residential, Catering and Domestic Services) at Loughborough University, Gagan Kapoor plays an important part in the award-winning student experience the university is renowned for. Kapoor holds a Master's degree in business administration from Sheffield Business School along with a hotel management qualification and a degree in mathematics. As a career hospitality professional, he has 22 years of experience working for higher education catering, hotels, restaurants and contract caterers in the UK and India.
Gavin joined the team in 2010 and is TUCO's Data Analyst. His role involves the collection of spends data, analysing all TUCO spend information and the production of statistics, in order to help and support the contracting team.
Job Titles:
- in 2008 As a Purchasing Assistant
- Team Member
Hannah joined TUCO in 2008 as a Purchasing Assistant and was promoted to Category Manager in 2015. She currently manages the Milk & Bread, Fresh Fish & Seafood, Food & Drink Concepts & Innovation and Alcohol frameworks and attends the TUCO South West & Midlands Regional meetings. Hannah always looks to find and deliver new ways of adding value. As TUCO's MSC Champion, she continues to build the Chain of Custody membership through raising awareness of the programme which she achieves by working closely with stakeholders within the TUCO community.
Jane has responsibility for TUCO's annual spend of over £140 million and manages the contracting team. Legal compliance and value for money are key to the role as is stakeholder engagement; ensuring that our members views are represented in each agreement.
After 10 years in the HE sector, working with close link to TUCO, Judith joined the TUCO team in the new role as PA to the Chief Executive Officer in October 2014. As well as handling all the day to day tasks, Judith is also responsible for co-ordinating all the national and regional TUCO meetings along with offering secretarial support to the various groups.
Job Titles:
- Food and Drink Manager
- Team Member
Kelly Hart is the Campus Food and Drink Manager at Queen's University Belfast and is the newest recruit to the TUCO board. With almost 20 years' experience in the Public, Private and Higher Education sectors, Kelly has a wealth of knowledge and management experience to bring to the Board. Within her current role at Queen's University, Kelly focuses on innovation and delivering excellence in customer care. She has a varied remit over multiple sites, including operations, compliance and contract management of third parties.
Kim manages the agreements for Fresh Fruit & Vegetables, and Convenience Retail. Kim represents TUCO at the North East regional meetings. Kim has worked within procurement for 19 years, experienced in both public and private sectors, EU legislation and leading edge procurement techniques.
Li has worked for a multinational company and local authority before joining TUCO in December 2021, Li is knowledgeable in both private and public procurement and keen in applying her knowledges in Hospitality Procurement. Li manages Sandwiches and Associated Products, Kitchen Equipment Maintenance, Deep Cleaning & Ventilation Ducting Services , Food Waste Management Services DPS, EPOS frameworks. Li is continuing CIPS studies to achieve MCIPS Chartered.
Manish is a hospitality and catering expert with more than 19 years' experience within various sectors of the industry including hotels, restaurants, a visitor attraction and a premier league football club. He will use this opportunity to build on his role as TUCO's South East Regional Chair where his passion for creativity and innovation has already created a positive impact.
Mark's role as Head of Finance is to manage the operational accounting for TUCO and the production of quarterly accounts and end of year accounts for approval by the appointed auditors and to act as operations manager. He also manages the finance and data team.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Head of Bars and Dining at the University
- Team Member
Matt Tebbit is Head of Bars and Dining at the University of Reading and his main interests are sustainable food systems and how diet can improve academic outcomes. At Reading, he has spearheaded the University's emphasis on feeding students and staff nutritious and delicious food to improve academic outcomes, aligning with Reading's extensive research and teaching across food system.
Matt has led Reading to achieve a number of sector firsts including the roll-out of Meal Plans to all students and staff, adoption of the Menus of Change principles and become a member of Menus of Change Universities Research Collaborative (MCURC) with the BBC Food programme commenting "remarkable kitchens at a remarkable university'.
Beyond Reading, Matt is a Director of TUCO, chairs the TUCO Sustainability Group, leading the adoption of Menus of Change across HE, sits on the NACUFS Membership Committee and is a member of the MCURC Advisory Council.
Natalie joined TUCO in December 2021 as a junior category manager. Natalie recently achieved her MCIPS status and joins us from the public and private transport company Stagecoach, she will be responsible for managing the Meat & Poultry, Disposables & Kitchen Chemicals, and Catering - Light & Heavy Equipment, Vending framework agreements.
Nicola has a keen interest in EU procurement law and has extensive experience operating in both the public and private sectors, also having managed TUCO frameworks since 2006. Nicola currently attends the Scottish and South East regional TUCO meetings and manages the Frozen, Confectionery, Hot Beverages, Vegan & Vegetarian, and Recruitment frameworks. Nicola also has responsibility for the new framework for Design and Installation for the Customer experience.
Samantha joined TUCO in September 2019 and is responsible for providing administrative support to the contracting team in the management and promotion of TUCO's framework agreements.
Sarah joined TUCO in 2023 and manages the further competition service across all categories. Before joining the team, Sarah worked at The University of Manchester, firstly in a purchasing and operations role in catering before moving into procurement to work in the University's central procurement office. Sarah is keen to use her experience and knowledge from her higher education background to provide a tailored further competition service to our members.
Sarah is responsible for managing the development of the TUCO Academy through online training, apprenticeship training, study tours, day courses and professional development content for conferences. Sarah is also accountable for developing The Academy blended training programme in line with the strategic direction set by The Academy Steering group and TUCO members.