Over the years I have made several contributions to various business committees, working parties, European business forums, writing for trade journals etc; as well as chairing a large User Group which included blue chip organisations such as the BBC, Mercedes Benz, Motorola, BT and Shell UK.

1. Every week we will feature the adventures of one amazing woman. We aim to celebrate the varied and colourful roles
women play within industry and business. Experience inspirational, real stories by real women; Interested in being
featured? Please send your adventures to info@zarsmedia.com For previous adventures please click here
How appropriate that I should be writing this article because my career has indeed been a real “adventure”! I hope the
women reading this (and hopefully some men too!) will be inspired to achieve more; as well as being heartened to hear
that hard work does pay off……here’s my story……
After I qualified with a Business Degree from the University of Surrey I initial utilized my skills within the facilities
management, contract catering and purchasing areas; starting out working as a middle manager and then aspiring to
director level within both large corporate organisations and also proprietor owned businesses. My unique selling point
is that I have been both a service provider (contractor) and also a client, a role I am told that many managers in
contracted service organisations secretly wish to aspire to!
I was amazed to be offered a senior role at the Automobile Association (AA) - as a client; at a time when their
recruitment policy was to recruit primarily ex colonels and majors from the armed forces. At the time I was a single
mother raising two young daughters so I had a lot of professional and personal pressures to cope with whilst shaping
my career. It was during this period that I first became acutely aware of the difficulties women can suffer working
within a male orientated workplace. That said, I can honestly say that I enjoyed the twelve years that I worked for the
AA enormously; they taught me a lot about ‘strategy’ and ‘team-working’. Part of my role was helping to organise and
participate in the Annual Employees Conference and also editing their internal staff magazine.
After the AA I spent eighteen months working for a procurement company interfacing with
schools and universities including all the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, before returning to
working for a large American catering contractor, Aramark, where I was their Training &
Foodservice Director. Whilst challenging, this was an extremely rewarding time which
brought me two “Catey Award” nominations, for “Best Marketing Campaign” and “Trainer
of the Year”. Cateys are regarded the ‘Oscars’ of the catering and hospitality industry so an
honour indeed!
Whilst at Aramark I also earned the accolade of being the only non-American to win the
company’s prestigious “Mission One Award” relating to the contract management and
business retention of their prestigious BP account. My work on this project culminated in me
being part of the winning team for the “PFM Partnership award”.
Over the years I have made several contributions to various business committees, working
parties, European business forums, writing for trade journals etc; as well as chairing a large
User Group which included blue chip organisations such as the BBC, Mercedes Benz,
Motorola, BT and Shell UK.
Adventures of Trisha Proud
Managing Partner
Partners in Solutions Ltd
Catey AwardCatey Award

2. After a substantial career working ‘corporately’ seven years ago I decided to set-up my own Training and Business
Consultancy firm, Partners in Solutions Ltd. What a joy it has been delivering training, working and consulting on all
types of business issues from strategy or tendering to management development, inspirational leadership and team
building with small businesses, start-ups as well as savvy organisations and cool brands such as Virgin Media, BP,
Defra and Jamie Oliver’s 15 Foundation, to name but a few.
During the seven years that I have been running my own business I have been nominated
for several awards by clients and other people that I have worked with, which I find
extremely humbling and recently became a finalist in the “Shine Small Business Award”.
In addition I was nominated and accepted the invitation
to join the elite group of women within the “Women 1st
Top 100 Club” for my
contribution to catering, hospitality, travel and tourism; alongside such high profile
women as Angela Hartness and Prue Leith.
Since running my own business I have become more active as a “mentor” where I
coach and mentor a whole range of people from senior and middle managers of large organisations and start-up
companies, which I fund hugely rewarding. I believe that everybody should have a mentor! So much so that more
recently I have just agreed to become a mentor for the winner of the Best Woman Sales Manager Award at the Women
in Sales Awards (WiS); a role I am really looking forward to and feel uniquely able to fulfil especially as I am trained
to deliver strategic selling and have my own copyrighted strategic sales programme called “Sigma Selling”. I often
give free mentoring sessions and provide business tips on my business twitter; feel free to join me there!
I regularly contribute to various on-line groups, such as Adventures of a Working Women, and
also write my own blogs as well as blogs for other people that I work or interface with.
In addition I have also written my first chick-lit novel “Soulmate” which is about love, lust and
psychology! The novel gets into the mind of the main character, Tillie Anton, as she details the
highs and lows of life, when trying to find her "Soulmate" and all that this has taught her;
Lessons on false flattery, betrayal, injustice, deceit and the hardest lesson of all, the lesson of
love; Was Pluto right do we only ever have one “Soulmate”?
I would love you to check “Soulmate” out on Amazon and feel free to read my “Soulmate”
blogs and also join my Soulmate on twitter.
Live hasn’t always been easy, juggling bringing up the family as the main breadwinner, building a career and
maintaining friendships along the way, but it has been worth it. So what, looking back at my career has life taught
me….well I guess the answer to that would be threefold:
 Never let life’s “takers” deter you from life’s “givers” as there is always something new to learn each day and
there are some fabulous people out there to learn from…..
 Always step-up to the challenge as you will be amazed at what you can achieve
 And finally…….never say “can’t”….. because in my world there is no such word - if I can do it …so can you!
Trisha Proud
Owner & Managing Partner
Partners in Solutions Ltd
FinalistofShineSmall Business AwardFinalistofShineSmall Business Award