Simone Roche is director of Women 1st - an initiative run by sector skills council, People 1st, which aims to transform the face of boards in hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism, and support women who aspire to senior leadership roles to fulfil their career ambitions. Simone began her career in the Royal Navy, where she spent nearly four years as a radio operator before being promoted to lieutenant. In her four years as lieutenant, she became a qualified air traffic control officer. Simone’s time in the Navy gave her the discipline and commitment to succeed in management roles at Aintree Racecourse, Southport Theatre and Floral Hall Complex, Blackpool Pleasure Beach (where she drove a 300 percent surge in sales) and the new ACC Liverpool Arena as it was undergoing construction for Liverpool’s year as European ‘Capital of Culture’. Simone joined People 1st in 2007 to grow, develop and promote its UKSP website, which promotes careers in hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism. In 2011, she took a secondment to LOCOG (the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympics), where she looked after the sponsors and transport logistics, before returning to People 1st in her current role in 2012.
