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Focus Hotels Management is strengthening its investment in people with a series of appointments to its central team, as the business continues to expand its UK portfolio. A pivotal new hire is Jan Foster, who joined as HR Business Partner earlier this year.
Jan brings a well-rounded, hands-on approach to people strategy, marking an important step in the business’s continued focus on its people function. With over 25 years of experience across hospitality, she began her career in bar and restaurant operations, progressing into General Manager roles with a strong focus on operational delivery and catering. She later moved into senior positions, including Catering Development Manager and Learning & Development Manager, before transitioning into HR leadership roles. During this time, she supported multiple operations within an 800-site portfolio, building scalable frameworks, developing accredited programmes and creating clear career pathways across complex hospitality businesses. Responsibilities varied from Capex management to developing menus, policies and scalable solutions for a wide range of operational environments.
In her new role, Jan will focus on strengthening HR and Learning & Development frameworks, embedding consistent processes and supporting teams with practical, people-first solutions.
Jan says: ‘What excites me most is the opportunity to make a real difference. Hospitality is fast-paced and ever-changing, and that’s something I’ve always thrived on. My initial focus is on building strong relationships across the hotels and really understanding the business and its people. From there, I’ll be supporting the team in strengthening consistency across HR processes, key people priorities, and identifying opportunities to enhance development pathways and engagement.’
Other appointments at the start of this year include Lucy Clayton as Group Finance Manager, Graeme McCarrison as Financial Systems & Reporting Manager, and Donna Simpson in Operations Support.
As the team continues to expand, Focus Hotels has invested in an additional office in Leeds to support its growing operations.
The appointments form part of a wider strategy to strengthen Focus Hotels’ central support model, ensuring its growing portfolio is underpinned by people, process and performance frameworks.
Niki Ball, Human Resources Director at Focus Hotels, said: ‘These hires bring valuable experience and energy into the business, ensuring we are well-positioned to support our hotels and deliver consistent, high-quality performance across the portfolio. With further growth on the horizon, we continue to invest in the people and structures needed to support both our hotel partners and our on-the-ground teams.
In an era of rising costs and operational pressures, it would be easy to focus solely on numbers. But the hotels that thrive will be the ones that remember what hospitality is really about: people. That’s why, at Focus Hotels, our people-first philosophy isn’t just a strategy, it’s our identity.’