Richard Lewis - Chief Executive
Richard Lewis has over thirty years experience in the hospitality industry including thirteen years global work experience. He has an in-depth understanding of e-commerce after helping to pioneer the transformation of travel booking patterns with WorldRes in the late 1990s and launching Clickworker’s crowdsourcing platform in the UK in 2010.
Richard is an international speaker and panelist who has presented on subjects ranging from ‘Hotel Branding in the Luxury Market’ to ‘eCommerce Strategy’ and from ‘Straight Facts about Selling Online’ to ‘Travel Portals and Alliances’.
Richard has an extensive knowledge of the hotel and other service industries and is an innovative operator. His core beliefs include empowerment, integrity and encouraging personal growth.
Chris Durant – Director of Beacon
Following graduation from Birmingham College of Food, Chris entered the hotel industry as a trainee manager, subsequently working in a variety of management roles before being appointed as general manager of a privately owned country hotel.
He then joined a major financial institution as head of group catering, subsequently being appointed as staff planning manager in corporate personnel.
The next 10 years were spent as a leading industry catering and facilities management consultant undertaking major projects covering strategy and policy development for clients including Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclay’s, British American Tobacco, Standard Life & the BBC.
Seeking new challenges Chris returned to operations in business development and operations director roles in the contract catering market. In the commercial sector his responsibilities included overseeing the launch and development of celebrity chef Brian Turner’s eponymous Mayfair restaurant and the management of catering and bars at 12 west end London theatres.
As Operations Director for a privately owned company he had responsibility for managing a diverse range of contracts covering business & industry, healthcare and education. Chris was appointed as Director of Beacon in 2007 and Chris is a fellow of the Institute of hospitality.
Graham Hustwit – Director of Finance, Interchange & Consort Hotels
After training with a Leeds based firm of Chartered Accountants Graham moved to the garment manufacturing division of Coats Viyella as financial accountant for Harrogate based Robert Hirst. Five years later he moved to gain internal audit experience with Graham Builders Merchants, part of a multi-national public company. After two years auditing however, a change was essential to retain his sanity, so in 1983 he took up the post of financial controller for a Leeds-based firm of computer consultants.
Graham joined Consort Hotels in 1988 and within two years was appointed Finance Director, a position he retained following the merger of Consort and Best Western in 1999. Apart from exercising his accountancy skills Graham also negotiated and managed to a very tight budget the construction project and subsequent fitting-out of Consort House including sourcing the land, securing the finance and tendering for architects and builders.
Keith Pope – Director of Best Western Hotels GB
Keith holds the position of Director of Membership Services. He is a qualified Best Western QA Assessor and also represents the company on industry committees for the Disability Discrimination Act and Brand Management.
From 1983 to 1988, Keith was Chief Executive of Consort Hotels, during which time the company won the Queen’s Award for Industry. Keith then held senior management positions with Croft Hotels, Greenfield Holdings, Rainbow and Taz Hotels before returning to Consort in 1997.
Keith has over 30 years’ experience in the industry, being involved in various roles with Trust House Forte, Ryans Tourist Group and Managing Director of the Gresham Hotel.
