Our executive team

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Ian Sarson

Group Managing Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland

Ian joined Compass Group in January 2004 as Managing Director of our Healthcare business and joined the UK Executive team in October 2006 when appointed Managing Director of Specialist Markets.  In this role Ian was responsible for the delivery of multiple services in our Health, Care, Education, Defence, Government and Offshore markets.

Ian has been instrumental in the ongoing evolution of our multi sector business and has been closely involved with the development of industry leading tools and systems, leveraging the collective strength of Compass Group.

Ian was appointed Group Managing Director for UK & Ireland in April 2010.

Ian has held a variety of senior positions in the Industry. Prior to joining Compass, Ian had a four year spell in Hong Kong and China as Managing Director of Sodexho. During this period, Ian was also responsible for the development of healthcare business in Asia Pacific, and worked in Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.

He has worked in the Public Sector in the Defence, Local Government and Healthcare arenas for the past 20 years. Ian is a member of the Business Services Association Council and the CBI Healthcare Panel, and is a Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Organisation and Management at Sheffield Hallam University.

Ian is a graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University, where he studied Hotel and Catering Management.

Aged 46, Ian is married to Lesley and has 2 children, Eleanor aged 19 and Roberta aged 16. He is an avid reader and enjoys squash and spending time with his family.

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Graeme Tomkins

Sales Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland

Graeme started with Compass Group PLC in 1992 and has since held a number of sales roles across business sectors and in different countries. He has been based in the Middle East for the last five years, initially managing sales in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa but latterly as Sales Director for ADNH Compass - our Compass joint venture covering the UAE, Qatar and Egypt.

Graeme joined the UK & Ireland executive team as Sales Director in May 2011, bringing a breadth of invaluable experience and knowledge. 

Graeme lives in Northall in Buckinghamshire, with his wife and two sons. He?s a keen rugby fan, plays tennis and enjoys cooking for friends at home.

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Andrew Richards

HR Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland

Andrew Richards joined us from Compass Group PLC in May 2011, where he spent the last year as Director of Group Reward, driving the global reward agenda. Andrew has a wealth of experience spanning a number of different industries including manufacturing, FMCG and pharmaceuticals across the US, Switzerland and the UK. Functionally, Andrew has held roles in employee relations, talent management, organisation development and change, HR shared services and reward, where his breadth of international experience makes him a fantastic asset to the team.

As a passionate Welshman, Andrew is a lifelong Scarlets Rugby and Swansea City fan, and is a qualified rugby coach.

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Jason Leek

Managing Director, Business Excellence

Over the course of 10 years, Jason has held a number of operational and strategic roles across Compass to drive business growth and service excellence.

In October 2011, Jason was appointed to a newly created role as Managing Director of Business Excellence. This is the first time the UK and Ireland business has had an Executive role of this kind which will see Jason working across all of Compass? sector businesses to drive operational excellence and ensure the highest quality delivery of key change programmes.

Jason joined Compass Group PLC in 2001 as Corporate Development Director and then became Head of Corporate Development in early 2004. In this role, he was responsible for the Group?s global mergers and acquisitions, including leading the sale of its SSP and Moto businesses to EQT and Macquarie. He then joined the Compass UK & Ireland executive team in October 2006 as Managing Director, Restaurant Associates. After three years in the role, he took on the role of Managing Director for Business & Industry in Ocrober 2009, leading the foodservice and support services offers of Eurest Services, a portfolio consisting  of £500m of business and 15,000 people.

Prior to Compass, Jason enjoyed a successful early career as a corporate lawyer specialising in mergers and acquisitions, spending seven years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

 Jason is married to Claire and has two young ?Leeks?, Natasha and Harry.

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Paul Galvin

Finance Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland

Having trained with the Ministry of Defence, Paul joined Compass in 1990.  In his 20 years with the company, Paul has gained wide experience with roles in finance, operations, IT and commercial. 

In his early career with Compass, Paul undertook a number of finance roles, both at centre in Birmingham and out in the operating businesses in Bristol and then Cardiff. This was followed by a period working in IT on a number of significant projects.

Following the merger of Compass and Granada in 2000, Paul became Finance Director of Medirest  and was part of the team that established Compass in the PFI market.  This was followed by a period in the Commercial team as both Finance Director and Commercial Director for Specialist Markets.  Most recently Paul has been Finance Director for Specialist Markets and Finance Director - UK Operations.

This breadth of experience and understanding of Compass in the UK will help Paul support the company through this transition period.

Paul is 43, married to Becky with 3 sons Dan, Sam and Alfie and lives in Worcestershire.

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Fiacra Nagle

Managing Director, Compass Group Ireland

Fiacra Nagle joined the Compass business in March 2011, as Managing Director for Compass Group Ireland. He brings a wealth of commercial and catering experience to the business, having held a variety of leadership positions across varying sectors.

Previous to joining Compass, Fiacra was Commercial Director of ODC Group, the owner of the UK?s two largest on-demand printing brands: Prontaprint and Kall Kwik. Until 2008, Fiacra was CEO of O?Briens Sandwich Bars and was instrumental in growing the company into Ireland?s leading branded franchise business with 300 stores worldwide. Prior to this, he spent 15 years in international banking and project finance, latterly as Head of Telecom Finance for KBC Bank.

With his unrivalled understanding and experience of the Irish economy, Fiacra is an exciting addition to the UK & Ireland executive team.

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Matthew Thompson

Managing Director, Sport, Leisure & Hospitality

Matthew joined Compass Group in June 2007 from Centrica, where he was Commercial Director.

His career at Centrica saw him in a variety of roles from head of strategy and acquisitions through to MD of the information services business unit. In recent years as Commercial Director, he had responsibility for procurement and the supply chain across the Group.  He was also Finance Director for the company wide IS activities.

Previous to Centrica, Matthew worked for Glaxo Wellcome in an international role, he has also run his own business, and initially was a strategy consultant for a number of years.

He has a degree in modern history and an MBA from London Business School.

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Robin Mills

Managing Director, Chartwells

Robin was appointed as Managing Director for Chartwells in May 2011 after three years as Human Resource Director for Compass Group UK & Ireland.

In his time as HR Director, Robin developed a commercially accountable, highly experienced HR team who delivered key initiatives to benefit Compass? 50,000 employees. These included the award-winning induction programme, new and innovative training solutions for our managers and a greater focus on externally recognised qualifications such as Apprenticeships and NVQs. 

Robin joined Compass from Woolworths Group in April 2008. Previous to this, he held senior operational and functional roles with Kingfisher, Diageo, and Scottish and Newcastle PLC. His diverse experience across differing markets brings a fresh and innovative approach to the Chartwells? business.

Robin is married with four children; Arran, Ruby, Johnny and Olivia.

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Oliver Cock

Managing Director, Commercial

Oliver joined the Compass Group UK & Ireland business In May 2011, as Managing Director for Commercial.

Oliver joined Compass Group PLC in 2009 as Group Procurement Director, responsible for establishing and delivering the Group?s functional procurement agenda. Since joining he has overseen the development of a new approach to procurement at Group and country level, and driven the development of strategies for Compass? key areas of global expenditure.

Prior to joining Compass, Oliver spent 11 years with Diageo PLC, initially managing global categories, managing the procurement operations in North and South America, and latterly in Europe and Africa. He was also responsible for innovation procurement globally. Previous to this, he held senior roles with Deloitte and the NHS.

Oliver lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife Karen and their two daughters, Ella and Georgia. He is a keen sportsman a lifelong supporter of Southampton FC.

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Andy Harris

Managing Director, Restaurant Associates

Andy joined Compass in November 1995 from Sutcliffe Catering, where he had been working in operations and sales since 1990.

His career at Compass has seen Andy enjoy a number of sales and operational roles, moving from a Sales Director role in the Midlands to becoming Managing Director for Eurest Central, Wales and North in 2004/5. Senior operational roles in Eurest England and Wales followed where Andy managed large operational businesses and was responsible for significant national account portfolios.

Andy joined the UK&I executive team in 2008 as Sales & Retention Director, responsible for driving net growth. He returned to operatiovns in March 2011 to take up his current role as Managing Director, Restaurant Associates.

Andy is married with two children and is a competitive sportsman.

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Steve Cenci

Managing Director, Healthcare

Steven Cenci joined Medirest in January 2002 after a fifteen year career with Group 4  where he held a number of senior appointments latterly that of Operations Director and before that, Technical Director. The latter carried a brief for introducing innovations aimed at driving up levels of customer satisfaction and for the development of ongoing service improvement initiatives. He spent the first 6 years in a sales role ending as National Sales Manager for manned services.

Steven has wide ranging B2B UK contract services experience with both the large blue chip commercial and government sectors and has also worked within PFI teams.

He is currently Chairman of the British Services Association Healthcare Committee which acts on behalf of most private sector organisations that deliver facilities services into Healthcare. He also chairs the International Compass Healthcare food Forum designed to exchange global best practice from over 27 countries delivering Healthcare facilities services.

Steven is married to Julie and has three sons. He has an MBA from Hull University and is a keen club Badminton player. Of Italian roots, he speaks Italian and travels often to Italy (where two of his three sisters live) enjoying both the food and weather as often as possible!

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Chris Garside

Managing Director, Defence, Government, Offshore & Remote

Chris joined Compass Group in June 2009 as Business Director of ESS Support Services Worldwide, our Defence and Government Services business.

Promoted to Managing Director joining the UK&I Executive Committee in April 2010, Chris assumed additional responsibility for the Offshore and Remote Markets.

During his short tenure, Chris has been instrumental in the restructure, development and future strategy of this critical Compass Division. In introducing a new commitment to Choice, Value and Well-being via ESS?s Lifestyle brand, Chris has evolved our approach and focus on customer service, achieving demonstrably improved client and consumer relationships across the sector.

Prior to joining Compass, Chris held a variety of senior appointments in the Retail Industry with Dixon Stores Group, and Kesa Group under the Comet brand, acquiring knowledge and experience throughout the United Kingdom, France and United States.

Chris enjoys spending time with his family and lives in Cheshire with his wife Philippa and their three children. Chris loves watching and playing sport; particularly football, rugby, motor sport and tennis.