I was born in North Lincolnshire and, with the exception of a small move away to Derbyshire for a couple years, Lincolnshire has been my home county since I came into the world.

My passion for food started young - I used to watch my Mum, who was a cook at my local school, cook at home for me and my brother and also watch cookery programmes with her on the TV… Delia Smith and Ainsley Harriott have a lot to answer for! This led to me catering college after I left school and the rest is history.

I joined Compass in 1991 and have enjoyed a great and varied career, firstly as a chef in a large factory restaurant within Business and Industry, then moving into our Retail sector, Instore, and working with many high street names such as Next, Tesco, Asda and M&S within their inhouse restaurants and cafes.

In 2018 I joined ESS Defence as Operations Director, working in my home county of Lincolnshire and looking after a number of RAF and Army establishments. I quickly realised I wished I’d joined the ESS family much earlier in my career.

Most recently, I've moved into the role of Business Director for Hestia 5, taking responsibility for the Wales & West Midlands region and focusing on our customer and client needs whilst driving our people agenda. Our people are our biggest asset and it's so important that we support them by engaging with them, nurturing their talent and developing key skills throughout their career with ESS.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my partner Lee, my son Tom, daughter Hollie and, especially so, my two grandchildren Henri and Cooper. I love to travel, and many of my friends and colleagues call me “Judith” after the infamous Judith Chalmers!... You may need to google that if you are over the age of 40!... Seeing different parts of the world is amazing and always has a link back to great food and drink (hence my profile picture).

I love working in the ESS family and hope to meet many more of you who feel the same way as me!  

My life has always revolved around the military. My father John was in the RAF Regiment and my husband Les is a serving Army Officer. Since 2016, I have had the privilege of leading a fantastic team for ESS, and together we look after the Defence East region, the Royal School of Military Engineering, the US Air Force and the National Training Estates across the whole of the UK and Ireland.

My journey began back in 1998 whilst my husband was stationed in Germany. I was keen to embrace the whole military experience and applied for my first role with Compass Group, as a General Manager at Oxford Barracks in Munster where my role meant I was looking after the catering, cleaning and support services for 600 soldiers from the First Battalion, Irish Guards. Being away from home, the people that you live with don’t replace your family, but they do become your family and you are welcomed into a strong, proud military community.

Over the next 22 years I have had the opportunity to work alongside some remarkable people, mobilising new contracts, growing revenues through innovation and really gaining an invaluable understanding from both sides of the fence - working in support services and being a military spouse.

I feel very lucky to have travelled and lived in so many different countries and regions of the UK over the last 30 years, 16 houses in fact, and now I’m revelling in being back in my hometown of beautiful Durham. Here we have been renovating a property in an area that I adore, not least because I’m surrounded by family and friends.

I still have a season ticket for Newcastle United who I have been dutifully supporting with my lovely Dad since I was 11. Whenever the opportunity arises, I’ll happily join the 'Toon Army' in a tune at St James’ Park.

Away from work my family means everything to me. If your legacy is what you leave behind; then my greatest achievements, without a doubt, are marrying my husband Les and having my daughter Victoria.

Born in South Wales and then travelling with my father’s work for several years, we settled in Bristol where I still live now.

My enjoyment of working with people together with my love of food took me to Bournemouth University where I completed a degree in Hospitality Management. I’m pleased to say that from then to now those two drivers of working with and getting the best out of people and my passion for food haven’t waned.

I joined Compass in 1991 and have enjoyed the challenges and varieties of many roles given to me during my time with the company. During these years, I heavily focussed on national multi-site mobilisation programmes in our Business & Industry sector and moved on to build and develop our Compass UK Instore division. This honed my retail skills and knowledge, putting the customer at the heart of everything we do and focussing on service excellence.

In 2015 I undertook New and Emerging Markets within our Business & Industry sector, driving new innovation and customer service delivery solutions to the market place. This included micro-markets, vending, supply chain and conferencing, where I relished the challenges of developing new business opportunities.

2018 saw me joining the ESS Defence sector as Business Director to help establish the new HESTIA contract. Focussing on the lived experience and consumer-centric offers and establishing a strong regional business throughout Wales and the West Midlands, this contract is centred on our clients' and customers' needs across the full spectrum of services.

Outside of work I am an avid sports fan and combine my country of birth with the city I now live in by following Welsh Rugby passionately, and also being a regular season ticket holder for the mighty Robins, Bristol City!

When I started my career as a chef, working mainly in the hotel industry, I had little idea that I would fall in love with the creativity and camaraderie of the industry and it would form such an ongoing part of my life. Three years working in Zurich, Switzerland, in a large business hotel, changed everything for me, and raised me to Junior Sous Chef level. After several positions and a return to the UK, I was proud, as Head Chef, to lead my team to two AA rosette status at Sketchley Grange Hotel in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

But marriage changes you and in 2001, having recently got married, I decided I wanted a more settled lifestyle but wanted to stay within the hospitality industry. After two years working for a small independent contract caterer, I was offered the opportunity to join Compass and I have never looked back.

I have held operations positions in our Business & Industry and Education sectors before I moved into a retention and sales role in ESS in 2016. In 2020 I was pleased to be handed the mantle of Business Director for Government Services within ESS, guiding and supporting our teams to deliver the best for our customers and clients.

Family life has taught me some invaluable lessons - just because you happen to be a lifelong Ipswich Town fan, don’t be surprised when you find yourself with an Aston Villa season ticket because your two teenage sons have other ideas. And be careful what you wish for - a throw away remark about wanting to keep chickens resulted in a Christmas gift of a chicken coop and chickens from my wife, Tess. Ten years later I’m still keeping chickens!

Throughout my life I have always worked in and around the retail industry. Like a number of people my starting point was at McDonald's whilst a student, and then on to brand leaders such as Costa, operating key attraction sites in the city. I have worked in both the public and private sectors through healthcare and education and also the exhibition industry, most notably with ExCeL in London. This varied background has given me tremendous insight into both operations and people across differing environments, something that I don’t underestimate the value of.

In 2006 my journey with Compass started within the Chartwells education division. Since then I have held various senior management positions across other key sectors in the group, including Head of Operations in Medirest Retail. In 2014 I joined ESS as Head of Operations, supporting their retail transformation program. This was a hugely enjoyable journey, developing a great team and culminating in the mobilisation of the three HESTIA retail regions - no mean feat at over 120 outlets.

Outside of work, I enjoy as much time with my wife and two children as I can. Having young children aged three and five, we have our hands full! Recently, to tire the kids out, we bought Merlin annual passes and as a result we have pretty much visited every theme park in the UK! As most will know, with a young family there isn’t much time to do anything else - but I will admit to being a long suffering Spurs fan, going to the odd game when I can and hoping that this year, just maybe, we might win something!

Food has always been an important part of my life. From reading cookbooks with my mother as a youngster to pretending to be sick as a teenager so I could stay off school and watch the daytime cookery programmes, and now as a parent, encouraging my daughters to try new cuisines – my lifelong passion for food has developed me into the person that I am today.

Aged 16, I once told my college catering lecturer that I wanted their job one day. They laughed and years later, after travelling around the world twice and working with some incredible culinary mentors, I found myself sitting behind the teacher’s desk embarking on a hospitality education career that lasted for ten years!

A period spent with Compass Group developing their Chef Apprenticeship Academy was fulfilling and ultimately led me to become the first head of a hospitality careers college some years later.

Deep down though, the chef in me hadn’t forgotten the pride I felt when I put on my first chef’s jacket. So, I embarked on reigniting my chef career and rejoined ESS as Executive Chef for Government Services and subsequently took on the role of Culinary Director for Defence and Government Services.

I’ve not looked back since 2015 and enjoy the passion and hands-on approach I’ve been given to develop our people and our food. I feel I have balance and the best of all worlds now, along with an amazing team of chefs who share the same visions as I do for the future of our food in ESS.

I’ve always loved the diversity of life, being born and bred in London, and having an Italian mum and a Scottish dad, gives you an opportunity to experience different cultures and none more so than through the food. From the Jewish delis of North London, the Cypriot shops in Green Lanes, the Brick Lane Bangladeshi curry houses, the infamous Wong Kei (the rudest Chinese restaurant ever) and Jamaican jerk shops of Brixton – these were the flavours I grew up with. Of course, at home was pasta and risotto as standard, and my brothers, sister and I were all expected to help in the kitchen.

With food being such an important part of my life, I should have realised I would end up in the world of hospitality, but instead I went to study theatre design in Aberystwyth.

Bar tending and waitering kept me busy between design commissions, but it wasn’t long before I discovered that there wasn’t anything that felt as good as a busy night in a restaurant or bar - the team work, showmanship and making customers feel special.

From there to management and from management to marketing, it seemed quite a natural progression at the time and allowed me to rekindle the design and storytelling skills I had developed with my degree.

Over the last twenty years I have worked with some key high-street restaurant brands, pub chains and retailers. In 2018 I was fortunate to take up the mantle of Head of Marketing for ESS. Although a novice to contract services, I’ve been able to bring a wealth of marketing, communication and product development experience to the business.

I now live in Surrey with my partner and two dogs. I’m fortunate that my partner shares my passion for food, wine and gin – and the dogs are quite happy for long country walks ideally ending in a pub garden!

My career in the hospitality industry started with an HND with the Savoy Hotel Group. From there, I was lucky enough to join Compass Group in 1986 as a Catering Manager.

During my time with Compass, I have been fortunate to hold many operational roles in our Retail, Business and Industry and Defence sectors. A decade of this time was spent nurturing the Tesco contract, building from a single site to a £15m business, and developing my skills and qualifications in programme and project management.

Key to all of this has been teamwork and understanding the benefits each individual can bring to a project. This came to the fore in 2013 when I joined ESS to set up a central operational team and lead the design of new target operating models for cleaning and FM services.

In my current role of Productivity Director, I work with the whole Senior Leadership Team overseeing the development and optimisation of all our target operating models, seeking new ways of working to support the development of our people and business models for the benefit of all.

Away from work I try to stay active and can often be found in the gym, at yoga or enjoying a round of golf with friends. Although, having recently moved house with my fiancée Vivien, I find I’ve become quite a DIY-pro which seems to be taking up most of my spare time!

I’ve been a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur supporter, a passion I’ve passed on to my sons and, as a season ticket holder, I try to attend all home matches with them.

I joined ESS in 2005, having already spent 35 great years in the army, firstly in the Army Catering Corps then in the Royal Logistics Corp both as a soldier then as a commissioned officer. During this time, I held a wide variety of roles including chef and VIP chef. I travelled extensively and was fortunate enough to spend time in many exotic locations, including Singapore, Cyprus, Falklands, Belize and Canada, as well as some closer to home like Catterick and Tidworth, and a total of sixteen years in Germany and Berlin when it was still an enclave within East Germany.

After life as a chef, I transferred to training and development roles within the armed forces, specialising in IT, a pet passion that has served me well to this current day. Whilst in Germany, I first cut my teeth on commercial bids as part of the Army’s team pulling together the in-house bid for the catering and domestic services contract – which unfortunately went to NAFFI, although we were supported in the bid by Compass.

Over the last decade and a half within Compass, I have held several roles from Contract Director to Mobilisation Director, including the London Olympics, NATO Summit, Notting Hill Carnival and the defence Hestia mobilisations.

Having been born in County Durham (in an era when Sunderland was in County Durham), I have supported Sunderland Football Club from the age of five, which doesn’t seem to have helped them much! At the end of the day and at weekends, I love to get on my road bike and ride out into the countryside listening to rock and indie music, or indulge in my other passion of IT, having built and repaired a host of PCs for family – who says you have to be young to live in a digital world!

You have to love food to work in this industry and for me to see how the food service sector has evolved over the last 30 years, with changing dietary preferences, service styles and new dynamic technologies and innovations, has been quite a journey!

Working in this sector has its perks! I’ve travelled the world (my other passion project!) and worked at some of the UK’s most prestigious stadiums and events, running operations at Lord's Cricket Ground to the Royal Windsor Racecourse. Sixteen years ago I switched my focus to defence, becoming a Regional Operations Manager for the Army in the West of England and ten years ago I transitioned into a commercial role and have never looked back.

It’s fair to say that supporting the UK’s military, government and offshore industries is challenging at times, but I’m immensely proud of the role my colleagues and I play in supporting these sectors.

Even in my personal life, I’m never far from reminders of food and drink. My husband and I bought an old converted pub four years ago in a lovely Berkshire market town, where we now enjoy weekends walking and entertaining friends and family. I can often be found in the kitchen making my favourite tipple, an Aperol Spritz, reminding me of our travels through Italy.