Acorns 2019: William Nisbet, 27

Regional operations manager, Whitbread

Nominator Natasha Lane, operations director, Whitbread

Proudest moment "Being promoted to regional operations manager at the age of 27."

Greatest inspiration "My mum, because she's given up so much for me. I want to be successful enough to buy her a house. My mentor has been Chris Penn, co-founder of Steel Hotels. He's supported me and showed me that you can achieve your dreams by working hard."

Why hospitality is a great career

William Nisbet's promotion to regional operations manager last year means he is now accountable for 14 Premier Inn hotels across Birmingham and the West Midlands. Seven multi-site hotel managers report directly to him and he has responsibility for revenues of £55m.

It's a far cry from when he started his career as a kitchen porter with Whitbread in 2010. Within four weeks of starting his job he was enrolled onto a level two hospitality apprenticeship, and this determination to develop has underpinned his career ever since. By 2017, he was accepted for a level seven apprenticeship/MBA at Henley business school, the same year he opened the Hub by Premier Inn King's Cross as hotel manager.

His achievements to date include leading Hubs' first apprenticeship programme and an 89% engagement score from his "your say" team yearly engagement survey.

His passion is people development and, having facilitated internal leadership and management programmes, he has promoted 12 of his team within Whitbread.

Outside of Whitbread, his work with Springboard and the Drive Forward Foundation to help young people gain work experience and permanent roles within hospitality was broadened when he fulfilled his aim of giving returning mothers, or people who had never worked at all, a chance to develop a career in the industry. Impressively, some 55% of the 95 team members had never previously worked.