EMT Council

The East Midlands Tourism (EMT) Council is made up of both private and public sector representatives from across the tourism industry and is supported by an executive group which the CEOs of the regions five destination management partnerships sit on.

Role of Council Members

• Support the development and implementation of EMT’s visitor economy strategic plan
• Advise EMT on strategic priorities
• Advise on investment opportunities
• Act as ambassadors for the tourism industry in the region
• Influence wider tourism planning as appropriate within the region
• Provide ‘state of the industry’ feedback

EMT Council Profiles

Chas Bishop, Chairman, East Midlands Tourism

Chas has had a long and rewarding career in the tourism and hospitality sector. He spent much of his early career with the Tussaud’s group in operational and marketing management roles. Chas then went on to become the marketing director of The American Adventure Theme Park before joining the National Space Centre as chief executive in 2001.

Andrew Fox General Manager, Crowne Plaza Hotel

Andrew has over 15 years senior management experience in the hotel industry and is currently the general manager of the Crowne Plaza hotel in Nottingham. Andrew is also chairman of Experience Nottinghamshire.

Prior to his current position, Andrew worked for a number of five star hotels in London before moving into global branding with the Marriot Hotels Group in Leeds and Derbyshire.

Jon Grubb, Editor, Lincolnshire Echo

Jon Grubb is the editor of the Lincolnshire Echo after a three-and-a-half year stint at the Scunthorpe Telegraph.

He started his career as a trainee reporter on the Buckingham Advertiser and later moved to the Gloucester Citizen as assistant news editor, working up the ranks to deputy news editor and then head of content. He then moved to the Nottingham Post where he worked as head of content and deputy editor before taking his first “editor’s chair” in Scunthorpe.

He studied English and History at the College of Ripon and York St John and later trained at the Westminster Press Training Centre in Hastings.

Andrew Pugh, Chairman, Visit Peak Distict & Derbyshire

Andrew is the chairman of Visit Peak District & Derbyshire as well as the managing director of popular tourist attraction, The Heights of Abraham.
He has been actively involved in international project management assignments, advising, building and operating cable car systems in China, Jordan, and South Africa. Andrew also led the French consortium that built the passenger capsules and control technology for the British Airways London Eye.

Michael Carr, Executive Director of Business Services, emda

Michael is Executive Director of Business Services at East Midlands Development Agency (emda), where he is responsible for all aspects of emda’s support to businesses, including inward investment, tourism and innovation. He is also a member of BERR’s (Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) Manufacturing Strategy Board, Enterprise Strategy Group and Business Support Simplification Steering Group.

Prior to emda, Michael was the chief executive of Medilink East Midlands. Before this he was the managing director of Parema, a healthcare business. In Michael’s earlier years he worked with Rolls Royce and Courtaulds Textiles and was a lecturer in Manufacturing and Engineering Systems at Brunel University.

Beccy Speight, Regional Director, The National Trust

Before becoming the East Midlands regional director for the National Trust in 2005, Beccy she was the property manager of the Stourhead Estate in Wiltshire. In 2002 she took a secondment to manage the National Trust’s behavioural change project.

Prior to this, Beccy was a company director of Smythe Dorward & Lambert, a management consultancy with offices in London and Boston, USA.

John Millican, General Manager, Lee Wood Hotel

John has worked in the hotel industry almost all of his career and is now the general manager of the family run Lee Wood Hotel in Buxton.

He has spent time as both the chairman and president of Best Western UK and also worked for the Berkeley Hotel in London and Ecole Hoteliere in Switzerland.

Caroline Plant, Director of Marketing, East Midlands Airport

Caroline has been the director of marketing for the Manchester Hotel Group since 2004. Since joining she has developed marketing and communications strategies that have delivered passenger numbers far ahead of the market trends.
Prior to this Caroline spent three years with Virgin Atlantic. She is an associate member of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and a member of the Institute of Travel and Tourism.

Rob Purdie, Managing Director, JHP Associates

Rob is the managing director of JHP associates, a marketing services and customer support business. He is also chairman of Hybrid Marketing, a customer relationship management consultancy and sits on the board of Nothamptonshire Enterprise Limited.
Rob was previously the commercial director at Wegener DM, marketing strategy director at Carlson Marketing and divisional director at Nielsen Marketing Services. During his 15 years in the marketing industry, Rob has worked with a number of blue chip companies including Tesco, J.Sainsburys, Toys R Us, Shell, Lloyds TSB, News International and KLM.

Roger Begy, Chairman, Lincolnshire & Rutland Learning Skills Council

Roger is currently the chairman of the Lincolnshire and Rutland Learning and Skills Council. He is also a member of the Welland Sub-Regional Strategic Partnership and the Regional Assembly Board.
Roger has previously held senior manager positions in a number of businesses in the food industry including Green Giant and British Sugar. He was also a county Councillor and leader of Rutland County coucil.

Martin Bryant- Non – Executive Director Government Office for the East Midlands

Martin has been a non executive director of the Government Office for the East Midlands (GOEM) for four years and sits on the audit committee. In 2008 he became a non executive director of the Fire Service College.He sits on the board of Poland’s leading health and beauty retail company and also is a trustee of Vision Aid Overseas.

Martin previously worked in Whitehall as Chief Executive of The Shareholder Executive, a cross departmental body charged with improving the professionalism of government’s shareholding functions (£20 billion of assets) and providing corporate finance advice to ministers. He preceded that with a period as Director of Strategy at the Home Office.
Prior to joining the Civil Service Martin worked for two years as Interim Chief Operating Officer for BP Retail – the UK’s largest forecourt retailer. The bulk of his career was with the Boots Company in Nottingham, where he held a number of roles including Operations Director for Boots the Chemists and Managing Director for Boots Retail International and Boots Opticians.

Jenny McGee, Head of Marketing, Visit England (Observer Member)