CCE APPOINTS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AS NEW CHAIR IS ELECTED

Conference Centres of Excellence, the UK’s leading marketing consortium of specialist conference venues, has appointed Anthony Lishman as Executive Director. It is a new, full time position designed to help the consortium grow through a process of raising its sector profile and achieving a progressive increase in membership.

Anthony takes up his position on 4 August. Most recently he was regional general manager for the Niche Hotel group, based at its Cotswolds venue Wyck Hill House, where he was responsible for a £3 million investment to expand bedroom capacity and extend conference and leisure facilities, and for developing new business.

Previously he managed his own executive search and business consultancy, specialising in the conference centre and hospitality sectors. This followed a nine year career with Initial Style conferences (now De Vere Venues), including a period as multi site general manager with specific responsibility for the development of the group’s Wychwood Park and Cheadle House conference and training centres in Cheshire. He successfully managed the projects to develop both venues from greenfield sites to fully operational businesses with multi million pound turnovers.  His previous roles with Initial Style included general manager positions at two Buckinghamshire venues, Uplands in High Wycombe and Harben House in Newport Pagnell.

CCE also has a new Chair, elected at its AGM on July 25. He is Tim Willows, who is Finance Director and General Manager of Wilton Park, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s property in West Sussex, which specialises in international policy conferences and is based at Wiston House, a 16th Century Grade 1 Listed building at the foot of the South Downs. Tim takes over from previous Chair Kay England, who has completed her two-year term of office.

Tim has been at Wilton Park since 2001, and has extensive experience within the UK Civil Service, including periods with the DSS (now the DWP) and the Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue & Customs). He is a Fellow of the UK Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA) and has been CCE’s Vice Chair since 2006.

CCE currently has 36 members, including many of the country’s best known specialist meeting venues. Until now, the consortium’s activities have been managed by a board consisting of representatives from individual member venues, with a core of full time administrative support based at its headquarters in Dorking. Its primary services to member venues include providing a focused venue-finding service for conference organisers, and promoting the concept of specialist centres as the optimum solution for conferences and meetings.

Explaining the Executive Director appointment, new Chair Tim Willows said: “CCE levels of membership and revenue create demands that are now too great to be managed effectively on a voluntary basis. A full time executive director will maximise potential opportunities and thus optimise business for the consortium and its individual members.”
                                                                                                           
“We are very excited about this vital step forward in CCE’s evolution," he added: “Anthony has an excellent understanding of the conference centre industry, together with extensive sales and marketing experience that will benefit the consortium enormously.”

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Notes for Editors

Pictures of Tim Willows and Anthony Lishman, if not sent with this release, are available in jpeg form from MGK Communications (see below).

CCE is the UK’s only consortium of independent conference and meeting providers, all of which provide a completely focused service. Members range from established centres to successful new providers, some located near town and city centres and others in rural locations and country estates. All members have achieved the conference industry’s most stringent audited quality standards in terms of conference and support facilities and customer care.

CCE provides a free, focused venue-finding service for corporate clients, providing single-source guidance on facilities, availability and price for each member venue; it also arranges visits. The service can be contacted on 0845 230 1414, email info@cceonline.co.uk. The consortium’s website www.cceonline.co.uk includes extensive information on all members.  

Further information

MGK Communications
Michael Kennedy
michaelkennedy@talk21.com
0121 605 4048