Tom HallVenuemasters, the consortium representing academic venues, has announced two new board members.
The new directors are Harry Warner, head of sales and marketing at King’s Venues, King’s College London, and Nick Akerman (pictured), sales manager from the Fire Service College.
Warner’s background is in the London hotel sector, where he worked for 16 years for various hotel chains, culminating in the role of director of sales for the Millennium Mayfair. He moved into the academic sector five years ago and launched King’s Venues, where he is responsible for selling over 3,000 rooms during the summer across the organisation’s range of venues, which include Bush House on the Strand.
Joining him is Nick Akerman from the Fire Service College in Gloucestershire. He has 20 years’ experience in security, telecoms, financial services and, more recently, events and conference sales.
Akerman helped win several awards for The Dormy House and Cotswold Conference Centre, including VisitBritain Gold for Business Tourism and Midlands Small Hotel of the Year.
Commenting on the appointments, Natalie Williamson, Venuemasters general manager, said: “Nick and Harry are great additions to an already experienced and knowledgeable board. Their enthusiasm for wanting to get involved and help the organisation shows how passionate our members are for the academic venues sector, and making it a success. I’m really looking forward to working with them and learning from their experiences.”
Venuemasters chairman, Steve Crawford, added: “I’m pleased to welcome Harry and Nick onto the board, it’s an exciting time to join. As we continue to implement our 12-point plan, our change in direction and approach is reinforcing our leading position in the academic venue sector.”