Acorn winners 2016: Sarah Tregoning, 27

Ambition "To become a hotel general manager within the next 10 years. To achieve this, I would like to move into a more operational role."

When Sarah Tregoning embarked on her career, she hit the ground running. In July 2010, she joined the competitive Marriott graduate scheme in Washington DC, leading 30 employees in managing an underperforming 100-seat restaurant. Her weekly upselling incentive resulted in a 15% increase in the average breakfast bill and by improving team morale, engagement surged from 60% to 86%. She was named Hotel Supervisor of the Year in 2011.

Tregoning joined the newly opened St Pancras hotel as the first event and groups co-ordinator. Her remit was to build the relationship between front office and events, to manage systems and oversee all group bookings. Three promotions later saw her in a senior event manager role, handling the hotel's largest bookings, including an event worth more than £700,000.

By June 2015, Tregoning was director of event management, overseeing seven event managers. One of her first initiatives was to arrange cross-training between finance and revenue to create a more dynamic sales strategy, which led to overachieving annual budget in 2015 by 9%.

With her at the helm, the hotel has scooped Best for Meetings at the Condé Nast Johansens Awards 2014 and her team was awarded Sales Team of the Quarter 2015 in Marriott UK.

Tregoning also supports the strong relationship between the hotel and Oxford Brookes School of Hospitality. She managed its annual Bacchus Awards dinner and hosted 10 hospitality students. She also mentors a student.