Alison Jane Brittain led a 25-year career in banking, battling through the male-dominated industry to become 2015’s most senior female banker in the UK. The next year, she left banking to be appointed CEO of Whitbread, a leading hospitality business and the parent company of Premier Inn and Costa Coffee. Premier Inn is the biggest hotel brand in the UK, with over 800 hotels, 30,000 employees and five million customers per month. Overall, Brittain is now leading over 50,000 staff serving 27 million customers each month. She has been deemed a versatile business leader, with particular experience operating in consumer-facing service environments. Her time as non-executive director at Marks & Spencer Group lends further credence to her top role at Whitbread. Her goals for the company mention a focus on diversity, whilst aiming for an ambitious growth in sales.
