DAVID BATTERSBY OBE, MSc, FRSA
Managing Director, Hospitality and Leisure Manpower

Since January 1990, David has been Director of Hospitality and Leisure Manpower, the London based consulting group. He was previously with the Hotel and Catering Training Board, the industry's National Training Organisation. As Director of Training for the Board he was responsible for a national recruitment, training, retention and enterprise strategy for the tourism and hospitality industry.

David has over 30 years experience of work at a strategic level in the tourism and hospitality industry. He works closely with government; major employers; employer associations; professional bodies; tourist boards; trade unions and educationists.

David is the Past President of the Hotel and Catering International Management Association. He is also a Director of the Academy of Food and Wine Service, a Fellow of the Tourism Society, and a past Trustee of the Savoy Educational Trust. In 1998 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours for services to the Tourism Industry, and in 1999 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is currently a member of the Small Firms Task Group of the CBI / DTI Council for Excellence in Management and Leadership.

In recent years David has worked with several National and Regional Tourist Boards. David has developed and managed for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, DTI and the British Hospitality. He has, this past two years, managed the “ Tourism Means Business” project for the Government Office for London and the London Development Agency. Currently he is managing a Tourism Industry "Best Practice Forum" for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport,and DTI as part of the Government's Tourism Strategy to increase competitiveness within the sector.