Karen Hickey
Karen Hickey
Training and Operational Development Manager
Karen started a 30 plus years career in the hospitality industry on a Youth Training Scheme at the Regent Hotel in Doncaster where she continued to work for a number of years until graduating from Leeds Polytechnic with a Higher National Diploma in Institutional Operations and Catering Management.
What followed were many years of specialising in education and healthcare catering both in the public and private sector. A large part of her career has been spent monitoring financial and contractual performance, with the strategic development of services, policies and procedures being a speciality.
The completion of a Master’s degree in Business Administration sparked a keen interest in performance and development not just in business but of people as well. Spending a period of time as a Lecturer in Management and Customer services at Doncaster College was the start of a greater focus on developing people.
Karen found the development of people interesting but numerous years of working in challenging operational roles meant she missed the operational contact. Karen joined Riverside Catering in 2009 as Training Manager and now gets to combine both of her passions within the one role.