Maria Hughes is an experienced centre manager and facilities manager seeking a new opportunity. She has 20 years of experience managing retail centres, shopping centres, and other facilities. Her most recent role was as Centre Manager at The Valley retail and leisure centre in Evesham, where she oversaw expansion and improvements that increased occupancy and revenue. She has a strong track record of improving operations and tenant relationships at various centres.

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Contact
01789 490054
07734865353
Honeysuckle
Cottage
Alcester
Warwickshire.
B49 6DG
jemmproperty@aol.co.uk
Profile
Personal Statement: I am a highly motivated person – passionateabout delivering high standards within any
scheme- combined with a strong commercial understanding of theretailing & catering
environment to deliver a highly profitable site. My workingethos is all about delivering as a
team and my proudest moments have been developing staff and seeing them launch their own
facilities management careers. My mantrais ‘together we all achieve more ’
Training
 Iosh - managing safety
 Service Charge – Managing Agents
 Legionella – Awareness
 BIFM
 First Aider & DE fib/Oxygen
 Media Awareness
 DDA
 Social Media
Education
HND – Business Studies- Retail Option
Northumbria University, Newcastle on Tyne
1982-1985
MARIA HUGHES

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Work Experience
The Valley – Evesham Eagle One ( Landlord) Centre Manager
Out of town scheme -
Managing a traditional anchor garden centre exterior scheme, with 18 retail units and three
catering units giving 400 covers - 124 acres of river side park, 750 car parking spaces, a steam
railway and lake.
 Transitional scheme – phaseI delivering £4 million project compromising new units to
the scheme increasing square footage to 90,000 and working on phaseII to increase
footage to 140,000.
 Activity involved with lettings /shop fit & managing shops fits (some of those
relocations) - e.g. Mountain Warehouse- Julian Charles-Outdoor & Country- Fat Face
and independent caterer Fig & Favour. ( personally introduced lead to let this unit)
 Managed therelocation of car parks & delivery access during theconstruction phase.
Installed two electric car charging points and white line and marked the car parks and
signage. Introduced project indicatives new CCTV , WIFI / Fibre – Footfall and
security systems
 Re tendered on wasteto give waste reductions and green initiatives - thescheme has the
additional challenge of no main drains – currently upgrading septictank system!
 Sourced and installed in house new street furniture to bring together older scheme and
newer phase I.
 Re engaging tenants after a period of no centre manager – and highly disruptive
construction issues, (e.g. relocation of toilet facilities/ marketing suite/site
entrances/delivery yards etc.) - introduced tenant newsletter /regular tenant meetings and
social events.
 Engaged and motivated site team to deliver higher sitestandards and increased
productivity – purchased new tractor and gardening machinery for siteteam – lead a
project to build a mountain bike course in the grounds approved by British Cycling and
subsequently assisted a letting to leading Cycle Retailer.
 Re brand of name from Evesham Country Park to TheValley – worked with agency and
internal marketing manager on creative launch – signage, wayfinding, new web site and
social media.
 Service charge and operational budgets. Produce monthly report for Landlord
 Introduced commercialisation to the scheme and increased income from zero to £50k on
second year- which is a key achievement for an outdoor scheme.
 Engaged and networked with the local and wider community bringing events such as
Cycle Fest and Santa Dash by working with key stakeholders such as St Richards
Hospice, Evesham Sea Cadets and Evesham Rowing Club.
 Became a voluntary member of two local town marketing organisations and worked on
the key project of the 750 years celebrations of the Battle of Evesham. Installed a £25k
Adventure Fort as a legacy to theevent.
 Over hauled health & safety and introduced permits to work and organised Tree Surgeon
Training, First Aid, COSHH, Working from Heights and digger & dumper training
November 2014 – to date

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Regent Court - Royal Leamington Spa – Town Centre Location
Centre Manager – CBRE & Workman LLP
Managing an external shoppingcentre as a managing agent for a commercial landlord.
 Managing a scheme of initially 25 retail outlets – 100 bedroom hotel and three cafes
and 100 high end residential apartments.
 Post sale in 2012 working with a new landlord and managing agent requirements
 Managing thetransaction of the centre from retail to a food quarter- dealing with a
variety of stakeholders:-planers, local residents, local councils, environmental health,
contractors, utilities and architects.
 Contractor Management and retendering all contracts to post sale.
 Health and Safety – Managed all aspects of compliance for siteand an extensive
amount of shop fits during the transition – Nando’s, Las Igunans, Turtle Bay,
Wagamama, Yo Sushi, GBK Whitewall Galleries, and Zoubisou. Refurbishment of
Grade 2 Hotel with Travel Lodge
 Introduced commercialisation to the Centre, launched a successful weekly Artesian
food market EatStreet which then became the location for the annual fringe food
festival part of major BID lead event .Taking the external scheme from zero revenue in
first year to exceed target by 50%. This then led to being nominated for a Sceptre
Award 2014 –
May 2012 to Nov 2014

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 Part of the production team with NRR of a professionalcorporate video for the
landlord of the re focus of the centre & EatStreet to promoteits asset management
strategy.
 Successful management of Voids-: by using a range of approaches i.e. - an Exhibition-
that focused on the History of Computer Games in Leamington Spa and by using Art
Galleries as arts studios and gallery with Artists in residence. This then led to a
successful monthly Art Market providing income and footfall to the scheme and also
gave additional cross overs with an outstanding event called DRIVEN – This focussed
on a range of car related activities for three weeks:-vintage, classic and contemporary
car displays- art competition and an F1 simulator. Sponsored by regional car
manufacturers - Jaguar Landrover and Aston Martin. This achieved record footfall for
the centre.
 Event Management: Plan annual event campaign linked in with marketing plan-e.g.
Leamington Comedy Festival, Fringe Food Festival, RSC-Live Radio Event -Peter Pan
and Wendy. Christmas Craft stalls & Mad Hatters Event.
 Marketing: Worked with marketing agency on marketing plan/ PR and social media -
Introduced new website.
 Engagement: with local communities and charities e.g. Guide Dogs for the Blind,
Local Junior football teams, Air Ambulance, Christmas Tree Stars appeal. Allocating
sponsorship to successfulapplicants.
Tenant Liaison—Strong on siterelationships providing full sales and footfall data to the
Landlord. Dealing with operations and marketing contacts with the tenants Head Office.
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratfordupon Avon
Facilities Manager
Full Time
Jan 2011 to April 2012
Working for an organisation that employs nearly three hundred peopleand at peak times can
have 3 thousand visitors per day to its five historic houses, book and gift shops, cafes, farm,
playground, library, exhibitions, head office and conference facilities.
My rolewas to coordinate all the hard and soft facilities services for these locations. This covers
working on planned and responsive FM with theworks team, developing the help desk, H&S
compliance, procurement, post room, commercial fleet, bookings and events in thesix conference
rooms, office re locations, reception, utilities and telecommunications, first aid, security & CCTV.
Budget responsibility for the Head Office £1.5Million
 Manage a team of fifteen : - cleaning, catering, security, car parking, conferences,
 Fire Officer
 Health and Safety Officer
 Green Team Leader
 Introduced follow me print solution across five locations
 Streamlined telecommunications and utilities
 Manged the visit of the premiere of China – 2013
Full Time

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Cosmopolitan Student Homes, Stratfordupon Avon ( now Sanctuary Students)
Property Manager
Jun 2006 to Jan 2011
I managed a 257 bedroom site for student accommodation unit consisting of 50 individual flats
with communal areas – common room & Laundry Delivering sla agreement to Stratford College-
(supportinginternational students on Warwick University access course.) Organised over 300
tenancy agreements every year, fulfilling a £1m rental stream, dealing with all hard and soft FM
on a site that never closed. Turning it into a hotel during the summer for international summer
school. I managed a small team of 7 - reception, security, caretaking, cleaning, administration,
outsourced cleaning for the hotel service and ran thesite budget.
Manged a major crisis when the building attacked by arson incident and fire damage caused 12
months of operational issues.
I had sole responsibility for the siteand reported into Head Office in Liverpool managing all
Health & Safety Compliance.
 100% occupancy for four years
 Maintaining excellent standards of maintenance and cleaning – Group Flagship
 Excellent Health and Safety Record
 Lowest incident rate in the group
Countrywide Lettings, Evesham
Property Manager
Full Time
May 2004 to Jun 2006
Managing over 300 properties covering Worcester, Warwickshire and Gloucester, from studio apartments to country houses.
Planned and responsiverepairs, inspections, compliance regulation and contractor management.
Achievements
Key achievement was being the Centre Manager at Regent Court Leamington Spa for the transition of my scheme into a food
quarter – organising theweekly Artesian Food Market and overseeing the fifteen shop fits and leading to a successful asset
management project for New River Retail who successfully sold the scheme within two years.
Using local contacts to partner with to achieve events at the centres I have run has been very rewarding- especially Santa Dash
for the Hospiceand CycleFest- Mountain Bike Race at The Valley – This year Chris Boardman will be opening the2016
Mountain Bike race at The Valley – this has all be achieved through networking and minimum contribution from the marketing
budget.
Career highlights for myself however is when I can bring on and develop staff by helping to shapeand support their career
promotion in the industry.

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Professional Memberships andLocal Engagement
 Member of theBritish Instituteof Facilities Management
 Ex- Board Member of Leamington Spa Bid –
 EX -Vice Chair of Leamington Spa Chamber of Trade
Maria Hughes Centre Manger of Regent Court and Vice Chair of Leamington Spa
Chamber of Trade and Commerce with Parminder Singh Birdi – Chairman of the
Chamber of Trade and Commerce at Regent Court promoting the launch of the new
web site for the chamber of trade and commerce Leamington Spa. Summer 2014
 Member of VECTA – Evesham Marketing Forum
 Member of re brand Evesham – Wychavon Council

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Additional Information
My initial career was running an outside catering company for ten years – Catering for Weddings, Events and Business
lunches – this led to two catering franchises at the RSC – Stratford and one for Lee Longlands Retail Store Leamington Spa -
and then I went on to sell property which lead into a facilities management career. I have also run a portfolio of buy to let
residential and commercial property for fifteen years.
References: Further contact details can be supplied upon request.
Charles Spooner – Asset Manager New River Retail - Georgina Grazebrook - Associate – Workman LLP
Stephanie Kerr – Director Leamington Spa Bid - Phil Maclean – Retail Marketing Manager – Eagle One
Mark Neale – CEO and Founder of Mountain Warehouse