Acorn winners 2012 – Katarina Burikova

Age 25

Position Front office manager, the Cavendish, London SW1

Nominator Neil Braude

Proudest career moment Winning the 2011 Front Office Team Hotel Catey. This award proved that I have achieved my goal to build a team that is strong, consistently performing and engaged. Winning an award as an individual is hard, but winning one where every team member contributes to the overall success is a great reward.

Greatest inspiration I believe I can learn from every single person - whether it is from their mistakes, or being inspired by their success.

Ambition To be an inspiration to the people I work with, to use my leadership and management skills to create a great working environment, where people feel part of the family and are motivated, engaged and strive to work to the best of their ability.

Katarina Burikova arrived at the Cavendish in 2005 straight from school in her native Slovakia. She now has a degree in hospitality management from the University of West London, sponsored by the hotel, and has reached the position of front office manager.

It's a far cry from her first role as F&B assistant, but Katarina doesn't stand still. Within a year she had become front office assistant and 18 months later became income auditor. In 2008, Katarina rejoined the front office team as duty manager and by March 2010, she had scooped her current role. She is responsible for the 24-hour running of the front office, manages 17 staff and has helped to achieve budgeted room sales of £9.8m, achieving £150,000 in room upgrade revenue.