Meet the new faces in Catering & Hospitality
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 10:30:00 GMT
Karen Souter – Catering Operations Manager
With over 20 years working in contract catering and 10 years delivering management development training Karen brings a wealth of experience to the University. Karen has worked for Compass Group and Elior with clients ranging from Kellogg’s and Bentley to Shell and Hewlett Packard. Having managed teams as large as 250 people, Karen now takes on a team of approximately 40 staff.
In her new role as Catering Operations Manager, Karen wants to introduce recognised branded offers to the catering outlets here at the University, bringing a High Street look and feel to the students and staff here, whilst providing value for money.
Customer Service is paramount to Karen, as is staff development, which she has incorporated into the department’s new structure, ensuring that all staff have the opportunity to develop.
The Catering team want to work with the rest of the University, including working with our students on events, sharing ideas and getting their feedback. The team have lots of exciting new ideas, which they’d like to share with students and staff and see what they think.
“When students come here on an Open Day we want them to be impressed by the food available on campus and remember the University of Huddersfield as a great place to eat,” commented Karen.
Jon Green – Executive Chef
With over 20 years of experience in the catering industry Jon started early at the age of 13 helping in the restaurant where his Mother worked.
Prior to starting here Jon did development work for Sodexo, the second largest contract catering company in the world. Jon also enjoyed his time working as the Executive Chef for the West Yorkshire Police Service.
Interestingly Jon’s first choice of career wasn’t catering, but architecture. Having dyslexia Jon decided to take an alternative route and make a successful career for himself in catering.
Here at the University Jon has a team of 37 staff and his role is responsible for menu development and planning, liaising with suppliers, generating new ideas and concepts, training and VIP events.
Jon wants to develop the catering facility into a corporate offer which can compete with the High Street. He is looking forward to the opening of the new centre and introducing new catering outlets, including Starbucks and a Pizza Concept.
With a passion for using local suppliers, all dairy, meat, pop, crisps and sandwiches are locally supplied. Jon’s aim is to source all produce within a 30 mile radius, reducing the University’s carbon footprint and supporting local suppliers.
“I’m looking forward to working with students and getting involved with the events taking place on campus. I’m very approachable and would welcome their feedback on what they’d like to see included on the menu,” commented Jon.
Rachel Moore – Conference & Events Manager
Rachel graduated in Events Management from the University of Huddersfield in 2009. Since then she has worked in a variety of roles, including co-ordinating events for Kali Mountford MP. This involved organising a range of events, including some taking place in Parliament. The role also enabled Rachel to work with a wide range of people from different backgrounds and cultures and to see first hand the issues that people are passionate about.
Following this Rachel worked for Holiday Inn and then Radisson, co-ordinating events and weddings ranging from £5,000 weddings to £97,000 corporate ballroom events for 300 people. During this time she got to grips with the challenges of dealing with customers, including everything from collapsing cakes to the perils of balloons!
During her time with Radisson, Rachel was based at Manchester Airport co-ordinating their events. She also worked with their sales and marketing team covering Manchester and Leeds.
“It’s nice to return to the University and show that a degree from here can lead to a career in the industry. I was even interviewed by my former lecturer Nikki Dawson when I applied for this role,” commented Rachel.
Rachel wants to make her team into the Events Hub for the University. The team is ably assisted by some of our students from the JobShop. Rachel’s goal is to raise the University’s profile to a venue of choice for events and conferences in Yorkshire.
