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Saying thanks to fellow Facilities Directorate colleagues

Our Facilities Directorate is full of brilliant people.

Together, we work as a team over a thousand people to help students, staff and the rest of our University community achieve success.

Recently, we asked our FD staff to nominate a colleague from the directorate who helps to make Leeds a great place to study and work, as part of the University’s central communications team’s ‘Celebrating our Staff’ feature.

Taking the time to say ‘thanks’

Staff from all corners of our directorate came forward to anonymously nominate a colleague they wanted to say ‘thanks’ to.

36 nominations were made by FD colleagues, in which:

22 teams were recognised

14 nominations included how supportive their nominee is

8 nominations described their nominee as providing a ‘great’, ‘brilliant’ or ‘excellent’ service

8 nominations described their nominee as being ‘friendly’ or ‘helpful’

Read some of the nominations below.

Heidi Turner, Accommodation Office

Heidi is the Accommodation Office Manager who is currently both supporting me in my role and herself tackling with much needed processes that will be put into place to support vulnerable students.

Heidi is always so willing to listen to what I think is needed and is really positive when things are suggested, this support from a structural and personal position is really effective when it comes to directly improving students experiences at University- which is something that is often talked about but not always actually achieved.

John Moran, Catering

John is an Assistant Manager and is a fantastic member of the Catering staff team, based in the Refectory.

John is extremely hard working and committed and demonstrates this every day through his dedication to the role. However, it is for his work with international students and catered residential students that I am nominating John.

John recognises that it can be a challenging time for international students in particular to adapt to life in a different country or when visiting as part of a summer school and he goes out of his way to welcome students, make them feel at home and walk them through their first experience of dining with us. He is never too busy to help and is friendly and talkative with our students and enjoys working with them.

We regularly receive positive feedback about John and his team and the family atmosphere he is able to create, particularly for catered students.

Richard Martin, Operational Excellence team

Richard’s substantive post is within the Hand Gang team, however, more recently Richard joined the Operational Excellence team in May 2024.

Richard always has a smile on his face, and is always out and about talking to teams from across the Facilities Directorate and creating a positive and inclusive environment.

When Richard joined the OpEx team he was very reluctant to use IT equipment, as this was something throughout his career he never needed to use, however, Richard has risen to the challenge by showing commitment and determination to learn these new skills, to allow him to assist teams across the Facilities Directorate.

Tim Jarrett, Sport & Physical Activity

Tim Jarrett has made a huge contribution to the service in his nine years here, such as introducing the Strength & Conditioning student volunteering placement opportunities and creating new LEED modules which he now leads the teaching of.

Tim recently was an instrumental part in the move over to the newly refurbished Gryphon Performance Hub facility, he was heavily involved in the full process from planning to build and worked tirelessly during the move to ensure its success.

He always brings a positive energy to work with his can-do attitude, puts the students first and is a joy to work with.

Jim Ha, Health & Safety

Jim is such a brilliant ambassador for the FD H&S team, recently ensuring that the Libraries achieved ISO 45001 accreditation, as well as working to ensure that the Staff Festival was a great success for all to enjoy.

Despite how busy this has kept him, he always finds time to be of support to the rest of the team, as well as to all colleagues and individuals that require his help on a daily basis – always with a kind and professional approach. Cheers Jim!

A full list of the colleagues nominated can be found below.

Jim Ha, Health & Safety

Kevin Stephenson, FD Finance

Emma Green, Sustainability

Sarah Thompson, Purchasing

Kitty Binns Hall, FD PA team

Slavi Slavov, SPA

Penny Davies, FD Human Resources & People Development

Adrian Cheung, SPA

Michael Parker, Car Parking

Dr Ross Little, Teaching Technology Support

Harriet Boatwright, Organisational Development & Professional Learning

Lucy Ridler, SPA

Tim Jarrett, SPA

Richard Martin, Operational Excellence Team

Sue Tattersall, Conferences & Events

David McAndrew, Procurement

Sarah Robinson, SPA

Rebecca Kirk, SPA

Michelle Smith, SPA

Kirsty Gill, FD

Preeti Sagu, FD

Gursharon Dogra, Estates Office

Kiran Amin, FD

Reesa-Jama Qureshi, Dentistry Admissions Team

Heidi Turner, Accommodation Office

Lucy McDonald, Residences

Jason Jutha, Energy Team

Andy Holland, Library

John Moran, Catering

Violette Marzycka, Catering

Vibha Firth, Purchasing

Staff can view the nominations in full by searching for ‘Celebrating our Community’ on the Staff Intranet.

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