Inspiring Women in Hospitality Naureen Ahmed

On this episode we hear from Tabatha. Grown up in Adelaide Australia, it was studying tourism that took her to work in seven different countries, across a wide range of companies and roles. A career in hotels that started in the UK, took her to Japan, Australia and then a long stint in Asia. She has worked in big organisations like Starwood to smaller independently owned hotel companies like Vihn Group in Vietnam, which then tapped into her tourism experiences. A wide range of experience in commercial roles in a wide range of types of businesses in our industry. She had different learnings across these companies, like Starwood was great for people, skills and branding and her time at IHG taught her about revenue and technology. Tabatha says that it was her curiosity and desire to experience new things and new cultures that took her on this career journey.

On this episode we hear from Jeannette. She started her career as an economist for the government and then turned to the travel industry, where she spent 30 years of her career, which lead up to a CEO role with Saga. She now has her own portfolio of business advising travel leisure hospitality businesses and a podcast 'Brave, Bold, Brilliant'. She shares her experience and advise on growing your career and that you must be proactive about it. Speak up, put your hand up, volunteer for projects, work hard, network internally and externally and do not let your career progression up to chance or anyone else. In her mid 40s, she decided it was time for a change in her life and started her own entrepreneurial journey in search of more freedom, choice and flexibility. Her podcast which started in July 2020 has become her personal brand with her work with leadership and executive strategy. She also credits the support of her partner, another 'hospitality husband' with the success that she has experienced in her career and someone to believe in her, when she would not. Some of the key learnings she had to share were around not being afraid to fail, do not let fear hold you back and self-belief.

On this episode we hear from Stephanie. It was french toast in New York city and Home Alone 2 that got her hooked into hospitality. From a young age she loved to travel and so she started working to be able to make the money to travel. This theme carried on in her career, she chose destinations based on where she could learn a language, learn culture or work for organisations she admired. She ended up moving across to seven countries during her 20 year career thus far. Even though she is not a risk taker, she shares with us two experiences when she took the risk to leave jobs without having a new one lined up. She did this knowing two things, in hospitality you will always find a job and second, she believed in herself.

On this episode we hear from Kseniia. She has made marketing her profession in hospitality and has worked across Fiji, Samoa and Australia. She studied law for her degree, but then got into hospitality as a student when they were recruiting for the big stadiums in Ukraine around the time of the Euro Cup. She saw this as an opportunity to practise her English and meet people from different countries. She then found herself in Fiji, pursuing a hospitality career fulltime and it was the people that she admired. They were so warm and welcoming, gave her a sense of belonging. She came into marketing by volunteering her time at the hotels she was working at and then eventually made it her career, where she found her passion. Her time in Fiji gave her a great admiration and respect for the Fijian people and their sense of hospitality. She spoke of them with the highest regard. Four years ago she moved to Australia, still with hotels and then recently with a desire to grow she joined a dmc to promote Brisbane

On this episode we hear from Heide. From a young age she always had the feeling of wanting to be a host and that is what then drew her into hospitality. I loved how she said that when she first went looking for some work experience, she applied to the five Michelin starred restaurants in Germany, and only them, because she wanted the best experience. She went onto to focus on marketing during her education and that is where she started her career after graduating. She worked for LVMH, then after a PR education in Germany, worked at a PR agency before coming back to hospitality with Kempinski. You will hear throughout the conversation is that career changes came to her when she started asking herself the questions, whether this was the right role for her and what kind of lifestyle she wanted for herself. After four years at Soho House in Berlin she took on her next transformation and started her own business, an Italian deli. We also discussed the importance of taking a break, even if it means you do not have another job to go. It is super scary, as I have experienced myself, but we both agreed that without it it would never give us the mental space that we needed. She has recently sold her deli and taking that break to reflect on what comes next.

On this episode we hear from Rachael. She was born and raised in hospitality and her very first job was an ice cream scooper. It was when she moved to New York City where she learnt about the world of hospitality and work at every possible food and beverage service type that you could find in the city, from tourist traps to fine dining. Throughout her working career, she found the only way she could grow was to leave her current job and find another one. After several years, she was burn out and took some time out, learnt to teach English as a second language and that somehow drew her back to hospitality, but with her own business this time. After five years, this transitioned into her second business, Opus, a training software for frontline employees. When it comes to gender changes in the workplace, she raised an interesting point on greater pay transparency.