What first drew you to YHA, and what has most surprised you since joining?
There were two things. First and foremost, the mission. I’d loved my time working in social housing, where I saw first-hand what it does to a young person's sense of possibility when opportunities aren't evenly spread. YHA tackles that challenge through a different door: travel, nature, heritage, independence, and the confidence that comes from stepping outside your
comfort zone.
The second was the transformation agenda. I could see an organisation with an incredible purpose that was also ready for significant change. I joined because I wanted to use everything I'd learned throughout my career to make a meaningful difference through an organisation whose purpose I genuinely believed in.
What has surprised me most is the depth of feeling people have for this organisation. I've spoken to staff who've devoted twenty or thirty years of their careers to YHA, and to members and guests who can tell you exactly which hostel they stayed in, and exactly when, because the experience changed how they saw themselves and what they thought was possible. You don't find that kind of connection in many organisations. It's a real privilege to be trusted with something that means so much to so many people. That's why helping shape YHA's next chapter feels so personal to me.
YHA has described itself as being in a period of recovery after the pandemic, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. What are the biggest pressures you are dealing with now?
I'd be doing readers a disservice if I called this simply a recovery story. The Recovery Plan did what it needed to during an extraordinarily difficult period – it stabilised YHA's finances and protected our ability to keep delivering impact. But that period necessarily limited what we could invest, and the pressures haven't let up: higher costs, a tougher funding environment, guests and groups with more alternatives and less to spend.
So the work now is two-fold: fixing how we work using better systems, better data, decisions made on evidence rather than instinct, and just as importantly, catching up on the investment in our buildings that the hardest years didn't allow. When I tour our network, I am struck by the history carried within our buildings that deserves preservation through proper investment. That's the work that sits at the heart of this year’s priorities.
What gives you hope that YHA will continue to impact young people?
There's too much to name here. Every time I visit a hostel and see a school group arrive nervous and leave loud and confident, or watch a Festival of Walking group made up of people who'd never have called themselves walkers a year before, I'm reminded that what YHA offers hasn't gone out of fashion. Young people need it now as much as ever, arguably more, given how much of childhood has moved indoors and onto a screen. The need is there, undiminished.
What developments are you most looking forward to?
We're reaching the point where some of the investment and change we've been working towards is starting to be felt in everyday experiences for guests and staff.
We're already seeing early benefits from getting smarter about pricing, rewarding guests who book ahead while helping us plan better and keep costs down. The bigger shift is still to come: new booking technology planned for 2027, designed to take the admin weight off hostel and YHA Partner teams. For guests, it should mean greater flexibility when booking; for us, better information to guide where we invest next.
Just as importantly, I'm looking forward to colleagues seeing the results of everything they've worked so hard to deliver. People across YHA have carried a huge amount through some genuinely demanding years. Seeing that effort translate into better experiences for guests, stronger hostels and a more confident organisation is something worth celebrating.
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