Meet The Team -
Business Coaches
In This Section:
- Best Practice Forum
- Hospitality and Leisure Manpower
- HaLM Main Contact
- The HaLM Support Team
- Business Coaches
Find a Business Coach:
Adam Wellings
Adam Wellings has over 18 years' experience working as an independent consultant specialising in tourism, marketing and business diversification. He has run his own consultancy for 12 years and been a Partner with Armstrong Watson, a regional firm of Chartered Accountants where he specialised in business consultancy.
Adam has developed and run a range of business consultancy and training programmes for the tourism sector, including business planning, direct and e-marketing, tourism accommodation development, creating and supporting new enterprises and farm diversification.
His interests lay in working with small to medium-sized and family businesses especially regarding business strategy, marketing and the development of new and diversified ventures.
Beverly Payne
Beverly Payne has 25 years' experience in the hospitality industry and is a Partner in Company Growth, a specialist business consultancy operating throughout the UK. A founder member of the Malmaison Hotels team, Beverly was Vice President, Operations and Sales at Malmaison before moving to Macdonald Hotels as Managing Director, Scotland.
Working at executive level for the last 15 years, Beverly has also held a Board position with One Devonshire Gardens, the luxury award-winning hotel and restaurant in Glasgow. Beverly has a successful track record working with many types of businesses in the hospitality, tourism and leisure industry - working on a one-to-one basis with owners and managers to help them improve business performance and profitability.
Barbara Huddart
Barbara Huddart runs The Glendale Consultancy, a North East based marketing consultancy specialising in the hospitality, tourism and leisure sector. For the last 10 years, Barbara has provided strategic marketing and PR advice to a range of businesses, including visitor attractions, hotels and rural businesses, large and small.
Barbara was previously with Gleneagles Hotels and Norfolk Capital Hotels, where she was Director of Sales and Marketing, and with ITT Sheraton Hotels, where she had responsibility for all pre-opening sales, marketing and PR activities.
Barbara's strengths include the ability to identify marketing opportunities to help business develop and grow. Barbara has successfully launched some of the North of England's leading hotels and attractions and she has helped existing businesses to raise their profile, resulting in increased financial success and brand awareness.
Bryn Jones
Bryn Jones has a strong track record in the visitor attraction, tourism and leisure sector. He was Head of Visitor Services at The Science Museum, London and Commercial Director at both The Alnwick Garden, Northumberland and The Lowry Centre, Salford Quays, Manchester.
Bryn’s clients range from small visitor attractions and hospitality businesses through to larger organisations such as The V&A in London and the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. He has improved the financial performance of all the operations he has been involved with.
His areas of expertise include operations, trading activity, organisation and management, visitor services, innovation, quality and customer service.
Chris Morton
Chris Morton has over 17 years' experience managing independent and group-owned hospitality, tourism and leisure businesses. During this time he successfully developed their profitability and productivity through improvements in service quality and the implementation of effective operational procedures at all levels.
In 1999, Chris established CMA Ltd, and has since undertaken a diverse range of projects for clients in the UK and around the world. Chris specialises in working one-to-one with business owners and managers, helping them to implement business development ideas, identify market demand and increase customer spend and retention.
Chris is a regular contributor to 'Caterer and Hotelkeeper' magazine's Strategy Clinic. He is also a Northern Committee member of the British Hospitality Association and a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality.
Dave Allen
Dave Allen has been a Best Practice Forum business coach since 2002 and has been involved in delivering the Profit Through Productivity programme from the outset.
Dave has over 20 years' experience in coaching and advising businesses in the hospitality, tourism and leisure sector. He has a strong, successful track record supporting small to medium-sized businesses, particularly hotels - working one-to-one with owners and managers and helping them to improve performance and profits.
His specialisms include marketing, boosting sales, cost control, business planning, forecasting and budgeting, IT, purchasing and management and team development.
Gary Lowthian
Gary Lowthian runs Strategic Tourism, a specialist business consultancy and has been a key partner in the Profit Through Productivity programme from the beginning.
Having worked with tourism businesses for many years, Gary has built up a wealth of knowledge and a track record in business development, with particular expertise in improving small business performance, direct marketing, E-Marketing and employee development.
Gary has worked with more than 100 tourism businesses across the country. Previous roles include spells at VisitScotland, Cumbria Tourist Board and Yorkshire Tourist Board. Gary has a Masters Degree and Postgraduate Diploma in tourism and marketing and also holds the Chartered Institute of Marketing E-Marketing award.
Hilary Cooke
Hilary Cooke founded Merlin Consultancy in 1989, after more than 20 years managing the training and development functions of key industry operators, such as Bass Hotels and Resorts.
Hilary specialises in working with owners and managers to design and implement practical solutions for improving the performance of individuals and teams. She has significant and successful experience in a range of operations, from global corporate projects to small team and individual personal and professional development. Clients include InterContinental Hotels, Champneys and Jamie Oliver.
Hilary holds an MA in Human Resource Strategies and is a Fellow of the Institute of Training and Organisational Learning. She is also an 'Investors in People' adviser with a 100% success rate on all projects and accreditations.
John Goleczka
John Gloeczka is a specialist in the hotel and accommodation sector and has been a Best Practice Forum business coach for over 5 years. He has a successful track record in working one-to-one with small and medium-sized businesses and helping them to improve profitability and performance.
With many years’ experience in the hospitality and leisure sector, including owning and running a hotel in Greater Manchester and management positions with Caterleisure and Royal Mail, John brings a highly practical, ‘no nonsense’ approach to his work with clients, counting operational management, revenue development and cost control among his specialist areas.
Katie Read
Katie Read is Natural Tourism Manager at Natural Economy Northwest.
Dedicated to working with tourism businesses and with 20 years’ experience in tourism and marketing, Katie’s specialisms are business and marketing planning, carrying out strategic appraisals, product and service diversification and farm and rural tourism development.
Katie has a successful track record in providing one-to-one, ‘hands-on’ advice, helping businesses to solve problems, share best practice and market themselves more effectively.
Malcolm Gallagher
Malcolm Gallagher is a tourism, hospitality and leisure ‘business performance improvement’ specialist with over 40 years' experience in the sector. He is a director of BizVision Ltd and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He prides himself on delivering innovative, fresh thinking and challenging coaching and training.
Based in the North East, Malcolm has coached businesses across the tourism sector, large and small, and has a wealth of experience of strategies and tactics for business growth and performance improvement. He has specialist expertise in working with businesses to develop practical plans to maximise revenue across operations and throughout the year, in particular using internet marketing activity.
Martin Evans
Martin Evans runs The Tourism Business, an award-winning tourism marketing consultancy, and has over 20 years' experience in tourism marketing, including spells as Marketing Director at Consort Hotels Group and Yorkshire Tourist Board.
Since starting his consultancy in 1996, Martin has worked for over 100 different clients in the UK and overseas. From hotel groups like Holiday Inn and Choice Hotels Europe to small, independent operators as well as 20 national and regional tourist boards and local authority tourism offices. He has been a Best Practice Forum business coach since the outset.
Martin launched the national Hotel Marketing Conference in 2004 and the National Attractions Marketing Conference in 2005. Both are now established industry events.
Nigel Hammond
Nigel Hammond is Director of JH Leisure Consultants Ltd and specialises in helping businesses in the tourism sector to improve productivity and performance.
For 20 years Nigel held senior positions with well known companies in the sector, including Director roles with Forte and Village Leisure.
Since 1993, Nigel has worked with business owners and managers, helping them to review their businesses, improve customer service, boost sales and plan successfully for the future. He is a Fellow of The British Institute of Innkeeping and has run his own successful businesses for 15 years.
Roddy Whiteford
Roddy Whiteford is Managing Director of RM Leisure Management Ltd, a specialist business consultancy operating throughout the UK.
During his 7 years as General Manager at the 5-star Cameron House Hotel, Loch Lomond, Roddy and his team won a series of accolades including Business Excellence Awards, AA Scottish Hotel of the Year and Michelin Star recognition. At Hand Picked Hotels, where he was responsible for four hotels, he led the £10m redevelopment of Rookery Hall in Cheshire. Three of his hotels achieved Red Star awards from the AA.
Roddy has a successful track record working with hospitality businesses of all sizes - working with owners, managers and teams to help them improve performance and profits.
Sheena Kitchin
Sheena Kitchin is a tourism and leisure sector specialist with more than 20 years' experience providing support, advice and mentoring services to business owners across the tourism industry.
Sheena specialises in business growth, product development, marketing, service excellence, working in partnership and performance management. She works with many clients, including tour operators, meetings and events companies, visitor attractions and hospitality businesses to help them drive up levels of profitability and productivity.
Sheena combines her extensive knowledge and understanding of the tourism industry with excellent people skills and a wide range of industry contacts throughout the UK. Sheena was a Board member of VisitScotland, the tourist board, for four years.
Stephen Coupe
Stephen Coupe runs Clear Blue Water, a consultancy company which helps businesses in the tourism, hospitality and leisure sector to create a distinct competitive advantage.
His experience includes the launch and management of quality 'world-class' products such as Cromlix House in Perthshire, Loch Lomond Golf Club, One Devonshire Gardens in Glasgow and The Royal Scotsman luxury train, where he was Managing Director. His company also runs projects for clients in Europe and across the world.
Stephen specialises in helping owners and managers to develop and enhance their product, add value through quality, build and promote their brand and deliver excellence in customer service.
Sue Crawley
Sue Crawley runs Fire Circle, a marketing consultancy specialising in the tourism, leisure and hospitality industry and has over 10 years' experience working with businesses throughout the sector.
Sue was previously Head of Business Tourism and Membership at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, where she developed the destination marketing plan with over 180 hospitality businesses. She also managed Hartlepool's Maritime Experience and in 2005 was UK Chair of the British Association of Conference Destinations.
She specialises in marketing planning, PR, and helping hospitality businesses to boost sales, particularly taking advantage of opportunities available in the business tourism market.