Who's who at BII

Neil Robertson ABII, Chief Executive

Neil is responsible to BII's elected Council for the overall management of BII and its staff.  His vision is to increase membership throughout the licensed retail sector; to ensure that we respond to and anticipate our customers needs, by providing high quality member benefits; and to ensure we provide "best in class" professional qualifications for our sector.  He is also concerned with representing our views to Government and its agencies to ensure that licensed retailers' views are represented.

 Cathie Smith ABII, Director of BIIAB

Cathie directs and controls all activity connected with BII's awarding body, BIIAB, including qualification development and maintenance, business and client development and maintenance,  and the Social Responsibilities Initiative. She also represents the BIIAB qualifications at a government and industry level.

Steve Howe ABII, Director of Membership

Responsible for the strategic development and growth of membership classes and categories and the operation of BII's regional dimension. The Director of Membership is also in charge of benefit policy, identification and implementation.

Sue Medhurst ABII, Director of Marketing

To develop, direct and implement BII's marketing strategy of the whole organisation.  Sue has overall responsibility for all marketing activities, in particular BII’s corporate image, corporate literature and sponsorship for national events.

Jonathan Stemp ABII, ICT Director

Jonathan manages the provision of Information, Communications and Technology throughout BII.  His team provides full IT support to all BII staff and is responsible for the development of ICT throughout the organisation.

Michelle Luscombe ABII, Corporate Communications Manager

Responsible for all press and media enquiries as well as working to grow BII's profile in the licensed sector, this role also includes handling all government relations, ensuring that BII  members’ views are heard at all levels of government, and working to build professionalism and highlight best practice within the licensed retail sector.

Janet Hood ABII, Head of BII, Scotland

Janet’s remit is to support and promote strategic BII and BIIAB initiatives in Scotland. She provides the first point of contact for licensing issues in Scotland and represents the interests of BII Scotland members and BIIAB in government and local forums

Denise Thomson ABII, Deputy Director BIIAB

Denise develops and maintains the quality assurance function (BII Excellence Programme) within BII and BIIAB. She is responsible for the approval and ongoing monitoring of centres.  Denise is also responsible for handling complaints and appeals, and manages the Centre Monitors and the Call Centre.

Vicky Jackson ABII, Head of Membership Services 

Vicky is responsible for the overall management of the Membership Department including managing the administration of member recruitment, renewals, telesales, customer services, membership literature, membership initiatives, and regional liaison.

John Melia CMBII, Mike Wroe FBII, Client Development Directors and Alice Cardwell-Hodges ABII, International Development Director

John (left), Mike (centre) and Alice (right) work with breweries, independent trainers, pub companies and colleges to promote professionalism in the sector through qualifications. They also link into Police, Magistrates and Local Government on the key issues of Social Responsibility and Crime & Disorder Partnerships. They play an important part in helping to develop qualifications. John is responsible for Western England from Cumbria to Cornwall, Wales and N Ireland. Mike is responsible for Eastern England down to Kent and Sussex.

Michelle DeBrett-Watson ABII, Head of Qualifications

Michelle heads up the Qualifications Department, who are responsible for researching, developing and piloting all new qualifications, including materials and assessments and maintaining and revising the materials and question banks for the complete BIIAB qualification portfolio.

Jackie Sims ABII, Human Resources Manager

Jackie is the HR Manager for BII and it's staff.  Her role covers the full range of HR activities and her remit is to ensure that BII's HR strategy is successfully implemented. BII is Investors in People accredited and believes in the development and recognition of all its people. If you are interested in working for BII please e-mail recruitment@bii.org or click here to see current vacancies at BII.

Gill Cooper ABII, Financial Controller

Gill is responsible for the financial management of BII and all its subsidiaries and to ensure that BII complies with all statutory obligations in respect of auditing, accounting and company and charity law.

Susan Burton ABII, Head of Examination Processes

Responsible for the day-to-day running of BIIAB's examination processes. This primarily involves being responsible for the processing of order forms, despatching examination papers, scanning candidates’ answer sheets and issuing results and certificates to centres.

Roland Matthews FBII, Centre Monitor Manager, Verena Surtees FBII Centre Monitor

Roland and Verena are responsible for conducting advisory, approval monitoring and assessment inspection visits and reporting back findings to BIIAB.

Louise Firth ABII, Membership Regional Manager

Louise is responsible for the development and organisation of all regional events.  As well as securing sponsorship, they arrange speakers, source venues and write marketing material.  Louise is the main point of contact for BII's regional chairmen and councils, and she facilitates communication between the regions and Head Office.