Age: 28
Position: Operations manager, Aramark, London
Career to date
Dunford kicked off his career at Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot, Surrey, where he worked in conference and banqueting before moving on to the Queens hotel in Farnborough as catering team manager. Then, following a brief spell as room sales co-ordinator at the Regency Park hotel in Thatcham, Newbury, he moved to contract caterer Aramark in 2001 where, after various on-site management roles at Aramark clients, he decided to switch to operations management. The company even created a new role for him - that of designate operations manager - before promoting him to the role of operations manager for its key London accounts one year later.
Why is he a winner?
In addition to being highly driven, Dunford has demonstrated a cool head in difficult situations. For example, while working at one of Aramark's clients, the IT hardware firm Dell, he not only oversaw the move to a new catering facility with no break of service, but increased revenues by 25% by providing additional services. His efforts so impressed the client that they recommended Aramark to a nearby firm, resulting in Aramark gaining a new contract.
In his current role, Dunford oversees 12 contracts in the London region, with a total turnover of £9.5m. He has proved to be highly adept at budgetary planning and he has introduced new processes to improve client reporting and client communications, as well as a company-wide auditing tool to ensure that Aramark achieves Sarbanes Oxley compliance.
Dunford is currently working on a training matrix for the region to help monitor and maintain staff training and development and for the past three years has been actively involved in the graduate training programme, providing mentoring at unit level. He is currently working on a programme to help identify and promote rising stars in the company.