Originally from Liverpool, Jan has had a varied career that has taken her all over the world. Originally working in hotels, Jan became a General Manager at the age of 29, coming to Worcestershire in 1993 and overseeing the renovation and running of Wood Norton Hall and Conference Centre for the BBC.
Worcestershire has been the family home for 27 years, with a five-year break when Jan and the family moved to Germany as she took up the position of Head of Operations, for NAAFI ( Navy Army Air Force Institute). Jan oversaw more than 100 shops and the catering across all messes and cookhouses of the Garrisons in Germany for the British Forces.
On returning to the UK Jan joined Elior where she was MD for their Education , Business and Industry Division. She was approached in 2009 to run the food and beverage, cleaning and waste areas for the London 2012 Olympic Games – delivering 17 million meals over three weeks, and leading a team of 22,000 (a combination of contractors , volunteers, and directly employed ) Having developed the strategy, she led the procurement and negotiation of in excess of £70million in contracts, brought in sponsors and suppliers and worked with them to ensure their objectives where achieved, as well as ensuring the operational delivery was delivered to specification and within budget.
She has held numerous senior roles within major hospitality and education business’s at board level since this time and has gone on to advise on numerous global events including advising the IOC (International Olympic Committee) on Food and Beverage and Cleaning and Waste on every Olympics since. She will be flying to Tokyo on the 9th July for the postponed Games to support the Organising Committee in their delivery of “Tokyo 2020”.
Now semi-retired, Jan runs her own business getting involved in working on projects that she enjoys and feels she can add value to. She is mum to Dan who is 23 and step mum to Charlotte and Toria who are married and live in Folkstone and Hong Kong respectively.
Jan and her family were introduced to St Richard’s after her husband Peter was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in the summer of 2016, when the hospice Family Support Team helped them. After Peter died in January 2017, St Richard’s supported Jan through bereavement counselling.
Jan has volunteered in the kitchens at St Richard’s, and been active in raising funds through walking the Worcestershire Way, jumping out of an aeroplane and fire walking.