Sarah Gittins is Director of Operations with responsibility for all the charity’s amenity centres across UK, Cyprus, Germany & the Falklands.
Before joining CESSAC in May 2016, Sarah had worked for the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) since 2002, initially as Financial Controller. However, part of RVS’s operation is the provision of charitable cafes & shops in hundreds of UK hospitals with a collective turnover of over £47M. Sarah moved into operations and spent her last 5 years progressing from RVS’s Head of Operations - South & South West, responsible for both Retail and Community, through to Head of Retail Services.
Sarah’s last role with the charity was Head of Transformation, which was primarily ensuring sustainability for the future of a 75-year-old charity that supports older people. This role provided considerable experience in restructuring the operational and support departments, alongside a process and procedure review, all of which was aligned to future technology requirements. This review gave the charity an annual central saving of over £1M and a significant revenue increase of £1.2M from a branded hot drink launch.
Sarah also serves as Chairperson of the charity ‘Food for a Future’, which supports community nutrition and sustainability initiatives in Cambodia
Sarah lives in Chepstow with her husband. She has a son working in the Probation Service and a daughter who works in the pharmaceutical industry. Her interests include travel, cooking, and entertaining family and friends, as well as walking her chocolate Labrador and British Bulldog.