Familiar ground for Missenden Abbey’s new Business Development Manager

The career of Missenden Abbey Conference Centre’s newly-appointed Business Development Manager Nicole Sadd has come full circle after she previously studied for a master’s degree at the business’s parent company, Buckinghamshire New University.

Nicole has rejoined the Conference Centre, in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, an active member of Conference Centres of Excellence and the Meetings Industry Association, as maternity cover for nine months and says she is ‘hugely excited’ by the role.

She was previously employed as Business Development Manager at Missenden Abbey Conference Centre for four years from 2004 to 2008.

Nicole said: “In many ways my career has come full circle, after working at Missenden Abbey Conference Centre before and also studying for an MBA at Bucks New University, in High Wycombe. I am now looking forward to helping drive the business forward.

“I have moved on since I last worked here and Missenden Abbey has too and I am relishing the challenge of approaching things with a fresh perspective and a new pair of eyes.

“We are great at what we do and I’m keen to raise our profile locally and nationally and help reinforce Missenden Abbey’s outstanding reputation as an ideal location for everything from corporate events, meetings, training and team building to presentations and conferences, weddings and private functions.  

“I am enormously excited to be working with Bucks New University too and I am keen to help sell more short courses together, which we host at Missenden Abbey, and also get more local people involved in what we have to offer here.”

Missenden Abbey Conference Centre was originally founded as a working monastery in 1133 and its facilities include 20 fully equipped conference rooms and 57 en-suite bedrooms.

Nicole’s return to the Conference Centre follows a busy few years which has seen her travel around the world as crew aboard a variety of yachts.

Her adventures have included being part of a yacht crew sailing across the Atlantic, and taking part in the 600-mile Rolex Fastnet Race, one of the biggest offshore classic races in the world, which goes from Cowes to Plymouth, around the Fastnet rock on the south-east coast of Ireland.

On Saturday 25 June 2011 Nicole will be among crew on board the 53ft Swan Lutine boat, owned by the prestigious Lloyd’s Yacht Club, in London, where she is a member, for the 55-nautical mile Round the Island Race, based on the Isle of Wight. It is one of the biggest in the country, with more than 1,800 entries this year and 16,000 sailors, many of them professionals.

Nicole will also be working as crew and hostess on the Swan Lutine during Cowes Week between 6-13 August, the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world which stages up to 40 daily races for around 1,000 boats.

She added: “My time away from Missenden Abbey has certainly not been quiet. I’ve loved every minute of it and now I’m pleased to be back.”