Warwick Best
Warwick works for the Centre of Leisure Retailing as programme manager. These programs revolve around a suite of generic qualifications based around the theme of leisure retailing. The suite is intended to map against key stages in company unit management development programmes. The Centre’s clients include companies such as:- Macdonald's, JD Wetherspoon, Everards brewery, Hall and Woodhouse brewery and Gala bingo. Prior to becoming a university lecturer Warwick worked for 20 years in catering, hospitality, and licensed retail management.
This unique blend of formal academic qualifications and two decades of hands-on experience enables Warwick to inspire confidence in more mature managers who might have left school with no formal qualifications. He has a good track record of leading students to study for academic qualifications that they would never dream they were capable of achieving. In 2008 and 2009 programs from this suite were awarded the British Institute of Inn Keeping’s prestigious National Industry Training award for the most effective program to be delivered in partnership between an educational establishment and an industry company.