I started working in hospitality when I was 15 and haven’t left. From serving pub carveries to cleaning hotel rooms - from collecting glasses to serving desserts, many roles had been covered by the time I was 18 and I was hooked. By 21 I was running a city centre vodka bar and by that point, I knew I would never leave.
Although I loved the engine end, it was people that were to become my true passion. How different people fitted into different environments, how leaders developed. How we assessed great leadership, what high performance looked like in different settings - that was the stuff that got me out of bed in the morning.
But after years of working in in-house recruitment and training, a gap in the market became obvious. Recruiters were not good. No deep understanding of the roles I was trying to appoint, no real expertise when it came to assessing and qualifying behaviour, a feeling of no one genuinely caring about candidate or client experience. The opportunity was clear.
In 2019, once my third child was in school, I decided to go for it. Took the leap of faith to set something meaningful up. A recruitment firm that wasn't like the others. That offered real expertise, added real value. That had consultants driven by outcome and experience, not fee. Where the network we curated was unparalleled.
Sixty Eight People is a senior, central and C-suite search firm - with teams working from hubs in Manchester and London, supporting the hospitality sector across the UK.
We say what others won't and mean what we say. Every conversation we have is honest, human, and grounded in genuine care - no scripts, no spin, no robots. Real relationships built on real talk.
We have each other's backs and operate in a high trust environment. Accountable for our own work, we are supportive, considerate and respectful.
