Acorn winners 2012 – Scott Brown
Age 29
Position National account manager, Marriott National Sales Team
Nominator Mark Leyland
Proudest career moment Being given the Marriott Chairman's Circle Award this year for exceeding all my key targets. Only 3% of Marriott's global sales team achieved this award and only a couple in the UK during what was and is still a challenging landscape for the hospitality industry in the UK.
Greatest inspiration My father. He was an area sales director in a leading national company before starting his own business and his natural passion for sales rubbed off on me. His advice was that if I didn't believe in what I was selling I shouldn't sell it.
Scott Brown's career started with part-time jobs at Marriott hotels in 2006. He took his first full-time role as leisure membership sales advisor in 2006 and steadily progressed to golf and leisure sales manager with a £2.4m budget. But Scott is ambitious and to attain his career goal and move into hotel sales he knew he needed to take a backward step into a sales researcher role. It paid dividends: within 18 months Scott was promoted to sales manager.
A year later, in 2011, Scott moved into the director of sales role at the York Marriott hotel with a £5.4m sales budget.
