Polly Robinson - Executive & Leadership Coach
Business and Executive Coach
Polly is an Executive Coach and Leadership Development trainer empowering business founders and leaders to achieve business growth, increase performance and become better leaders. She supports leaders in building personal and business resilience in today’s complex and ever-evolving business landscape.
Hospitality Leadership Training
Polly specialises in Hospitality Leadership development through coaching and training workshops. She supports hospitality leaders and managers in overcoming multiple business challenges with a particular interest in culture, employee engagement and retention.
Qualifications
ILM Executive & Senior Level Coaching and Mentoring Level 7 - post-graduate level.
Thought Leadership and Writing
I am regularly asked to contribute to hospitality trade publications including Restaurant Online (formerly Big Hospitality), The Staff Canteen, Speciality Food and Hospitality Mavericks Podcast.
Polly speaks at industry events such as the Restaurant Show and Abergavenny Food Festival.
Help to Grow Facilitator and Coach;
University of Leicester School of Business
Help to Grow Coach / Facilitator
Polly is a Coach and Facilitator at the School of Business at the University of Leicester working with SME business founders and leaders on the government-backed business growth programme, Help to Grow Management.
Polly has worked with over 100 business leaders on the 12 week-programme and presents modules on leadership, culture and change management.
She was a Learning Coach with Henley Business School delivering modules on leadership, employee engagement, strategy and change management.
“
Working with Polly is a pleasure. She brings an abundance of talent and ability to anything she takes on.
She always receives fantastic feedback and is reliable and efficient.
Polly is a massive asset to the University of Leicester School of Business as a coach and facilitator. She has supported 100s of SME businesses through the government-funded Small Business Leadership Programme and the Help to Grow Management Programme since 2020.”
Previous Experience
Polly has years of in marketing and communications for hospitality and food & drink brands. She has worked with Michelin-star chefs and restaurants including Gareth Ward at Ynyshir, Shuan Hill at The Walnut Tree Inn and Lisa Godwin Allen at Northcote. She also worked with independent restaurants, pubs and hotels including Baker Hospitality; The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny, Andrew Sheridan and Brassica in Dorset.
Polly was Acting Head of Marketing at Aspall (2013-2015) and led a major rebrand project from concept development through to implementation in packaging and online. Other food & drink clients include Parsons Nose Butchers, Turnips at Borough Market, Spoon Cereals,
Polly created her own food events business, Food Safari (2008-13), which took the public and media on behind-the-scenes, field-to-fork experiences with food and drink producers in Suffolk and London.
Prior to that, Polly’s career spanned marketing in the arts, charities, finance and at Forrester Research and McKinsey & Company.
voluntary experience
Polly is a Trustee of local youth organisation FAYAP (Framlingham Youth Action Partnership) to support young people in the Suffolk town where I live and my two children have grown up.
Polly was a committee member of the Guild of Food Writers from 2015-2021 and a Board member of the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival and helped to curate the programme of workshops and demonstrations as well as fringe events for six years.
Outside work
Polly currently splits her time between the sleepy Suffolk countryside and coast and buzzy Bristol where both her children as now based.
Polly’s daughter, Bea, is a chef in Bristol having left home just before her 18th birthday to start an apprenticeship at a prestigious hotel near Bath. Her experiences starting a career in hospitality (especially as a young woman) have spurred me on to wanting to help hospitality become a better place to work, where staff are valued and can achieve a decent work life balance. To create a workplace that is diverse, inclusive and open to everyone.
Polly switches off by swimming - preferably in the sea, cycling and sometimes trying to run around the Suffolk countryside. For culture or seeing live music at a gig or festival, visiting a gallery and reading novels.
“Polly’s contacts within the food world are second to none, and her networking is tireless. It’s clear Polly is held in very high regard within the food and drink media world.”
JUDGING
I am regularly asked to judge local and national food awards. In 2018, 2017 and 2016 I was a regional judge for the Delicious Magazine Produce Awards and the East of England Producer of the Year Awards. In 2015 I was a judge for the BBC Food & Farming Awards Best Suffolk Market and for the Suffolk Food & Drink Awards.
RECOGNITION AND AWARDS
Food Safari received national acclaim achieving widespread national press and TV coverage including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Country Life, Olive and Food & Travel magazines and was featured on the Great British Food Revival on BBC2 and on Country Tracks on BBC1. In 2012 Food Safari won UK Cookery School Awards - Best Day Course/Food experience and was shortlisted in the British Cookery School Awards Best Use of Local Ingredients and won the Pride of Suffolk Award in the Suffolk Food & Drink Awards 2012.
“Polly has ensured we have reached above and beyond our aspired customer base and delivered great value for money. She brings invaluable PR & Marketing savvy beyond the brief and is a pleasure to work with.”
