Key Personnel
John McNamara BA FCIB CMBII, Chief Executive
John is responsible to BII's elected Council for the overall management of BII and its staff. His vision is to increase membership throughout the licensed retail sector; to ensure that we respond to and anticipate our customers needs, by providing high quality member benefits; and to ensure we provide "best in class" professional qualifications for our sector. He is also concerned with representing our views to Government and its agencies to ensure that licensed retailers' views are represented.
Cathie Smith ABII, Director of BIIAB
Cathie directs and controls all activity connected with BII's awarding body, BIIAB, including qualification development and maintenance, business and client development and maintenance, and the Social Responsibilities Initiative. She also represents the BIIAB qualifications at a government and industry level.
Paul Hellmuth ABII, Director of Finance and Operations
Paul’s remit includes ensuring that the finance strategy for BII is successfully implemented. He also has overall management of Finance, HR and Operations.
Steve Howe ABII, Director of Membership
Responsible for the strategic development and growth of membership classes and categories and the operation of BII's regional dimension. The Director of Membership is also in charge of benefit policy, identification and implementation.
Brian Maughan CMBII, Director of Special Projects
Brian's role is to deal with specific and largely self-contained projects working closely with the Chief Executive.
Sue Medhurst ABII, Director of Marketing
To develop, direct and implement BII's marketing strategy of the whole organisation. Sue has overall responsibility for all marketing activities, in particular BII’s corporate image, corporate literature and sponsorship for national events.
Jonathan Stemp ABII, ICT Director
Jonathan manages the provision of Information, Communications and Technology throughout BII. His team provides full IT support to all BII staff and is responsible for the development of ICT throughout the organisation.
Michelle Luscombe ABII, Corporate Communications Manager
Responsible for all press and media enquiries as well as working to grow BII's profile in the licensed sector, this role also includes handling all government relations, ensuring that BII members’ views are heard at all levels of government, and working to build professionalism and highlight best practice within the licensed retail sector.
Janet Hood ABII, Head of BII, Scotland
Janet’s remit is to support and promote strategic BII and BIIAB initiatives in Scotland. She provides the first point of contact for licensing issues in Scotland and represents the interests of BII Scotland members and BIIAB in government and local forums
Denise Thomson ABII, Deputy Director BIIAB
Denise develops and maintains the quality assurance function (BII Excellence Programme) within BII and BIIAB. She is responsible for the approval and ongoing monitoring of centres. Denise is also responsible for handling complaints and appeals, and manages the Centre Monitors and the Call Centre.
Allan Thomson, Head of Membership Development
Allan manages BII’s existing portfolio of member benefits and sources appropriate new ones. He also manages the various membership committees and links with other relevant organisations, and assists with developing strategies to help BII members cope with new legislation
Vicky Jackson ABII, Head of Membership Services
Vicky is responsible for the overall management of the Membership Department including managing the administration of member recruitment, renewals, telesales, customer services, membership literature, membership initiatives, and regional liaison.
Steve Dennis, Head of Business Development
Steve heads up the Client Development team and is responsible for identifying and developing strategies to maintain and grow market share of BIIAB qualifications and services
John Melia CMBII, Mike Wroe FBII, and Alice Cardwell-Hodges ABII, Client Development Directors
John (left), Mike (centre) and Alice (right) work with breweries, independent trainers, pub companies and colleges to promote professionalism in the sector through qualifications. They also link into Police, Magistrates and Local Government on the key issues of Social Responsibility and Crime & Disorder Partnerships. They play an important part in helping to develop qualifications. John is responsible for Western England from Cumbria to Cornwall, Wales and N Ireland. Mike is responsible for Scotland and Eastern England down to Kent and Sussex.
Michelle DeBrett-Watson ABII, Head of Qualifications
Michelle heads up the Qualifications Department, who are responsible for researching, developing and piloting all new qualifications, including materials and assessments and maintaining and revising the materials and question banks for the complete BIIAB qualification portfolio.
Jackie Sims ABII, HR Manager
Jackie is the HR Manager for BII and it's staff. Her remit is to ensure that the HR strategy for the BII is successfully implemented. Her role covers the full range of HR activities. BII is a recognised Investor in People believing in the development and recognition of our team members. If you are interested in working for the BII please e-mail recruitment@bii.org , or click here to see current vacancies at BII.
Gill Cooper ABII, Financial Controller
Gill is responsible for the financial management of BII and all its subsidiaries and to ensure that BII complies with all statutory obligations in respect of auditing, accounting and company and charity law.
Susan Burton ABII, Head of Examination Processes
Responsible for the day-to-day running of BIIAB's examination processes. This primarily involves being responsible for the processing of order forms, despatching examination papers, scanning candidates’ answer sheets and issuing results and certificates to centres.
Graham White ABII, Publisher
Graham oversees advertising, editorial and distribution for BIIBUSINESS and is responsible for researching other commercial streams, including website advertising, regional event sponsorship and corporate membership packages.
Roland Matthews FBII, Centre Monitor Manager, Verena Surtees FBII and Emma Wheaton ABII, Centre Monitors
Roland (left), Verena (centre) and Emma (right) are responsible for conducting advisory, approval monitoring and assessment inspection visits and reporting back findings to BIIAB.
Louise Firth ABII, Membership Regional Manager
Louise is responsible for the development and organisation of all regional events. As well as securing sponsorship, they arrange speakers, source venues and write marketing material. Louise is the main point of contact for BII's regional chairmen and councils, and she facilitates communication between the regions and Head Office. 
