New Year Honours: Dick Turpin is appointed an MBE
Dick Turpin, one of the hospitality's unsung heroes, has been appointed an MBE in the 2013 New Year Honours List.
As vice-chairperson of Hospitality Action and chairperson of the Ark Foundation, Turpin receives the award for charitable services to the hospitality industry.
The honour comes just six months after Turpin - whose career has spanned hotels, high-street restaurants, food service management, department stores, airports and railway stations - received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 Catey Awards.
After starting his career in the Army Catering Corps, Turpin moved into hotelkeeping at the Park Hall Hotel in Wolverhampton before later becoming managing director for the Berni Inn Group, where he oversaw 285 steakhouses and 21 million meals annually.
Turpin then merged three catering companies owned by Grand Metropolitan and in 1981 was the founder managing director of Compass Services Catering and Vending, employing 18,000 staff across 2,000 locations in his role as managing director, before being appointed chief executive of Letheby & Christopher (then owned by Delaware North) where he handled clients including Ascot racecourse and Arsenal Football Club.
More recently, he has been known, along with Peter Smale, as the founder of Turpin Smale Foodservice Consultancy, where the pair managed over 350 assignments.
Although now semi-retired, Turpin continues to travel the country, working for industry bodies such as Hospitality Action, the Ark Foundation, which supports alcohol and drug awareess, and the Savoy Educational Trust. In addition he is adviser to the castle and gardens of Mey in Caithness, chairman of CV Check, a pre-employment screening specialist, and adviser to eight agricultural shows.
MBEs were also appointed to: Francis Brady, managing director, La Mon Hotel and Country Club, Castlereagh, near Belfast, for services to tourism and hospitality in Northern Ireland; Winifred Clark, deputy director-general, British Holiday and Home Parks Association, for services to tourism; Dianne Leeman, manager, Belfast City Tour Services, Belfast City Council, for services to local government and tourism; and Robert Nicholson, who headed the Somerset Tourism Association for 25 years, for services to tourism in the couunty.
Meanwhile, Michael Wells, chairman of Lochs and Glens Holidays, was made an OBE for services to the tourism industry and charity.
Paul Gayler, Patrick Dempsey and Kellie Rixon represent hospitality industry in Queen's Birthday Honours List >>
By Janet Harmer
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