Acorn Awards 2025: Ellie Olds, Holroyd Howe

Age 29

Position Company nutritionist, Holroyd Howe

Nominator Nicola Quinn, sales director, Holroyd Howe

In a sector where quiet influence often goes unnoticed, Ellie Olds has steadily built a reputation as a thoughtful leader in nutrition and wellbeing within hospitality.

Now head of nutrition at Holroyd Howe, having joined the WSH group through a graduate programme in 2018, Olds supports more than 230 independent schools across the UK, developing food education strategies that reach thousands of pupils each year. Her work blends scientific insight with practical impact: everything from writing menus and training chefs to leading wellbeing campaigns and classroom sessions.

In the past 12 months alone, she has educated more than 8,000 pupils on healthy eating, delivered eating disorder awareness training to over 500 team members and played a key role in national events like the RP7s, the world’s largest school rugby tournament. There, she combined tailored nutrition plans with on-the-ground guidance to support over 500 athletes, while also jumping in to support the catering team wherever needed.

A confident and capable public speaker, Olds shares her expertise at dozens of presentations, international conferences and sector-leading events, including delivering talks to 500 students at last year’s Girls Go Gold conference, a UK-wide school event aimed at increasing recognition and investment into female sport. Her initiative ‘Go with the Flo’ addressed menstrual health and nutrition with sensitivity and relevance for young women in schools.

Olds’ personal experience with Type 1 diabetes also informs her work. Her openness has helped demystify the condition and inspired others to take ownership of their health.

Empathetic, evidence-led and deeply committed to education, Olds continues to make a measurable difference – not just to her colleagues and clients, but to a generation of young people learning how to nourish themselves well.