Our Team

We have brought together talent from across the travel, food and other complimentary industries to deliver world-leading operational and business excellence.

From our operations managers on the ground to our board directors, our management includes some of the most experienced specialists in the business; a team of true food travel experts.

Mark joined SSP Group on February 20th 2102 as CEO of its UK and Ireland division to oversee a business that generated sales in excess of £650m in 2011.

He began his career in marketing roles within the FMCG pharmaceutical sectors, including 11 years at Colgate-Palmolive and 5 years at ICI (now Astra-Zeneca). He was Managing Director of Greene King Pub Company and a main board member of Greene King plc for 3 years. Most recently he spent 4 years as CEO of PizzaExpress Restaurants .

Mark holds a degree in modern languages from Cambridge University.
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Joel is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, having worked in the property industry for over 30 years in a wide range of roles in both the public and private sectors. Prior to SSP, Joel was the Director of Station Trading for the British Rail Property Board, with a responsibility for the management of all stations throughout the UK.

Joel has been with SSP for 13 years, and is responsible for SSP UK’s wide range of property issues throughout the UK and Ireland, with key responsibility for developing the business further. During the period Joel has overseen many exciting additions to the business, including the purchase of Whistlestop, Millie’s Cookies and the franchise arrangements with Marks and Spencer.
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Sarah joined SSP UK in 2008 as the first Chief Commercial Marketing Officer for the UK - bringing together the Rail, Air and Retail business under one functional head. Responsible for the development, product and marketing of a portfolio of over 40 brands, Sarah relishes the opportunities that being is such a dynamic sector brings.

After graduating with a Business Studies degree, she joined Boots the Chemist and had a variety of Marketing and Buying roles before taking this retail expertise into WHSmiths where she was Marketing Development Director for the high street chain. Sarah then joined BAA as Retail Marketing Director for all the BAA airports, creating her close links to the travel sector.

With such a diverse portfolio of brands in some of the most exciting retail space in the UK, according to Sarah, “I never know what each trading day will bring - from ash clouds and bird flu to train delays and boy band events at shopping centres, which means life is never dull!”
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Nathan joined the Burger King Management training scheme direct from University in 1987 and ran several restaurants before embarking on a progressive career over almost a decade in various multi site roles Operationally both Internationally and in the UK.

He joined JD Wetherspoon in 1996 as an area manager when the business operated under 200 Pubs, and worked in various roles in Operations and marketing, culminating in becoming Operations Director for the 800 pub business for the period 2003 through to 2008.

After joining SSP UK as National Operations Director for the UK air business in 2008, Nathan today is Managing Director for the same division operating almost 150 units in 21 Airports and also Center Parcs in the UK and Ireland – His favorite business quote is ‘if you are not serving the customer you had better be serving someone who is’
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Greg left Chichester College and joined J.Sainsbury’s as a Retail Management Trainee, working his way across various store operational divisions up to Deputy Store Manager in the flagship Cromwell Road store in the mid 90s.

Taking time out to study for an MA in Management Studies, Greg graduated from the University of Leicester in 1996 and joined Safeway Stores Supply Chain division, driving store compliance, forecasting and demand generation. In 1998, he moved into Purchasing and established his career in the Meat / Chilled Foods arena. In 2001, Greg took on the challenge of foodservice and moved to Compass Group to procure the Meat, Fish and Frozen Food categories.

Two years later, Greg joined Aramark as Buying Director before joining SSP UK in October 2006 to create a Purchasing function across all the UK & Ireland divisions. This included Air, Rail, Millie’s Cookies and Rail Gourmet with an annual spend of over £100m.
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After a short career as a musician, Paolo moved his career into catering with a small chain of Italian restaurants in the North East. He then spent some time with Hard Rock Café working in the US and Europe. He was then involved in setting up a music venue in Italy before returning to the UK in 1997 where he joined Pret-a-Manger.

He took on various roles within operations before becoming a Regional Operations Director. He then left to take on the same role for SSP UK before leaving for a short stint as Operations Director for a London based chain of restaurants.

Returning to SSP UK in 2007, Paolo took his current role as National Operations Director Rail Catering. Today Paolo is responsible for 420 units across 120 locations in the rail business as well as 86 Millies Cookies retail units.
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Mark is a qualified accountant and in 2003 obtained a Masters in Business Administration from Warwick Business School. He has previously worked for a variety of organisations including Shell, Guinness and Cable & Wireless.

He joined SSP in 2004, working in Group Finance, and was heavily involved in the sale of SSP from Compass to EQT. In October 2008, he was appointed as Chief Financial Officer for the UK business, including Rail Gourmet
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Bob started his retail career as a management trainee with Debenhams working his way up to the Assistant General Manager of one of the department stores. A spell then followed as an Area Manager within the Licensed on Trade before joining Asda as a Fresh Food Manager.

Bob then joined T&S Stores as they embarked on their ambitious convenience store opening programme and prior to joining SSP was a Retail Operations Manager responsible for 130 convenience stores by now, due to takeover as part of the Tesco empire.

Today Bob is responsible for the M&S and Whistlestop Brands within SSP UK Rail, with some 57 units currently trading as a strong development chain.
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Expertise

Skilled in understanding global food and travel trends and adapting them to distinctive UK and Ireland local market needs .

• Food
• Travel
• Consumer Insight
• Operations

Careers

Developing talented people is an essential part of being the Food Travel Experts .

Recruitment Centre