David Wood. DOB 16th May 1945
I come from a very operational background, having worked for both small and large companies developing and implementing concepts; Restaurants, bars, hotels and leisure. I have had such titles as Chef Tournant, Restaurant Manager, Hotel General Manager, Regional Manager, Catering Development Manager, Managing Director and CEO. I have run my own businesses in pubs, restaurants, hotels, web marketing and consultancy.
I worked with my friend and deputy, Dr. Ernst Schute, to achieve a business based MBA. Ernst already had a PHd in history but I tagged along to keep him company and fully expecting to fail, as my academic history is very poor, hampered in part by a family history of Dyslexia.
Finding that I was able to compete with my peers, I caught the learning bug! I became involved with learning through work and became taken up with governments, universities and colleges in providing work place learning.
In 1995 I became the CEO of the Hotel and Catering International Management Association (HCIMA now the IoH).
You might have seen that I have a Doctorate (DBA), but this was achieved in an unusual way. My academic colleagues with PHd's or DBA's studied hard and attended seminars and workshops, eventually writing a thesis on their chosen specialism. However, I was awarded an honouree doctorate for my work in bringing education to the workplace. And perhaps, the start of that was done at Les Roches. I was invited with the HCIMA to evaluate the education given here and I put together a team to work with the faculty. At the time few had a formal degree, so together with IMCA (International Management Centres Association) we put a large number of the teachers through a distance learning programme to develop their qualifications and learning. I was part of the team that did this with Bournmouth, Surrey and Oxford Brookes Universities, piloting distance learning degrees at Whitbread, Fortes, Compass, Hilton and Marriott. It was because of this work, together with my work as a Director of EuroCHRIE and the HCIMA, attending conferences, working with the UK government and writing countless articles in Newspapers and magazines across the world that I was awarded the DBA honour in August 2002 through acclamation (honoris causa), a Doctorate at the Revans University, which was set up for distance learning. I also became a Life Companion of IMCA.
The educationalist, Reg Revans was an advocate of Action Learning, similar to the blended learning used during my time at Les Roches. One might say that one is reactive to a situation at work, while the latter is more proactive, using many delivery avenues to help learning.
With my background it is perhaps predictable that my philosophy for teaching is from a practical - DIY tools basis.
David Wood
I come from a very operational background, having worked for both small and large companies developing and implementing concepts; Restaurants, bars, hotels and leisure. I have had such titles as Chef Tournant, Restaurant Manager, Hotel General Manager, Regional Manager, Catering Development Manager, Managing Director and CEO. I have run my own businesses in pubs, restaurants, hotels, web marketing and consultancy.
I worked with my friend and deputy, Dr. Ernst Schute, to achieve a business based MBA. Ernst already had a PHd in history but I tagged along to keep him company and fully expecting to fail, as my academic history is very poor, hampered in part by a family history of Dyslexia.
Finding that I was able to compete with my peers, I caught the learning bug! I became involved with learning through work and became taken up with governments, universities and colleges in providing work place learning.
In 1995 I became the CEO of the Hotel and Catering International Management Association (HCIMA now the IoH).
You might have seen that I have a Doctorate (DBA), but this was achieved in an unusual way. My academic colleagues with PHd's or DBA's studied hard and attended seminars and workshops, eventually writing a thesis on their chosen specialism. However, I was awarded an honouree doctorate for my work in bringing education to the workplace. And perhaps, the start of that was done at Les Roches. I was invited with the HCIMA to evaluate the education given here and I put together a team to work with the faculty. At the time few had a formal degree, so together with IMCA (International Management Centres Association) we put a large number of the teachers through a distance learning programme to develop their qualifications and learning. I was part of the team that did this with Bournmouth, Surrey and Oxford Brookes Universities, piloting distance learning degrees at Whitbread, Fortes, Compass, Hilton and Marriott. It was because of this work, together with my work as a Director of EuroCHRIE and the HCIMA, attending conferences, working with the UK government and writing countless articles in Newspapers and magazines across the world that I was awarded the DBA honour in August 2002 through acclamation (honoris causa), a Doctorate at the Revans University, which was set up for distance learning. I also became a Life Companion of IMCA.
The educationalist, Reg Revans was an advocate of Action Learning, similar to the blended learning used during my time at Les Roches. One might say that one is reactive to a situation at work, while the latter is more proactive, using many delivery avenues to help learning.
With my background it is perhaps predictable that my philosophy for teaching is from a practical - DIY tools basis.
David Wood