Career highlights
Education: MSc Human Resource Strategy; CIPD; ITD diploma in training management

Previous roles: Thomas Cook: head of HR, tour operations and independent business (2008-2011); Nationwide Building Society: head of HR, business partners (2006-2008); various roles across HR and training (1989-2006); TSB Bank: various roles (1979-1989)

Personal: Most sports, particularly football and cricket spending time with the family, school governor

My first job working at TSB Bank was supposed to be temporary. I was originally focused on teaching, training or coaching within a sporting environment, and had decided to pursue a career with the police as a physical training instructor. Greater Manchester Police offered me a role, but with a 12-month lead-in time I took the role at TSB as a temporary measure. Those 12 months turned out to be 10 years. In my early career with the bank I worked within several head office functions, including management services, personal and commercial lending and the retail network.

In my last role at TSB I was responsible for training, developing and coaching in a large branch, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was then I realised I wanted to pursue a career in an HR/training environment. Ironically, this linked back to my earlier ambitions – just in a different environment. Nationwide at the time was diversifying into the world of banking, and was seeking people with both banking and training experience. My first role there was as a regional training officer. Following relocation from Manchester to Peterborough, I was responsible for training senior people on the core elements of banking and preparing them for the risks associated with unsecured lending.

I then moved into a consultancy role within the business development department, and later into managing the training function across Northampton and Swindon. At this point I set myself a career goal to gain responsibility for both training and HR. So I moved into HR, progressing through roles across various disciplines. Nationwide supported my professional development with training and HR qualifications and an MSc in HR strategy. My proudest business achievement was playing a major role in implementing a business partnering model – it was a complete cultural shift from the traditional HR model, which can be very silo-oriented. We introduced the role of HR business partners, who worked directly with the business and were supported by an HR service centre and centres of excellence, including talent, development, employee relations, pay and reward.

I live in Peterborough, and the new role of head of HR business partners demanded more presence at Nationwide’s head office in Swindon. With a journey of three to four hours one way, I stayed overnight on a regular basis. But after 17 years of business travel, I just physically could not do it any more, and my two children had got to an age where I felt I was needed more at home. When an opportunity came up at Thomas Cook’s Peterborough head office, I applied and was successful. I enjoyed working at Thomas Cook, and doing less travelling, but I did miss the breadth of the roles I had held previously. When you’ve worked across several HR functions, you don’t realise what you’re going to miss until you are not doing it, and I realised quickly that I did miss accountability for the training, reward and talent agendas.

Last year I moved to my current role, working within Fusion, a contact centre brand that is part of the BGL insurance group, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I’m back looking after the HR, training and development agenda, and I report directly to the MD, working closely with the business. While it was nice to spend some time in a different sector, I feel my passion is financial services. It felt right within the first month of working here. BGL Group is a great company to work for. It’s commercially focused and driven, there are clear lines of accountability, and it’s a vibrant, exciting growing business.