Senior Management Team
Francesca Fowler, BA (Hons) Grad (CIPD)
Director of Organisational Development and Business Improvement
Francesca Fowler began her career in HR following her graduation from Leeds University in 1983 with a degree in English. She joined Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) as a graduate trainee and, following an initial period at head office, undertook a number of Personnel Manager roles across their various manufacturing businesses. This covered both established stable businesses (British Bakeries, Newcastle-upon-Tyne), newly-acquired private businesses (Tiffany Sharwoods) a business facing constant change (RHM Foods), and a project role in a cross-company project introducing a major new computerised personnel system across all RHM Foods sites.
Francesca’s next career move saw her leave RHM in 1991 to take up a position with Northern Foods at their new recipe dish business in Sheffield. As a Marks & Spencer’s dedicated business built on a green field site, it offered the opportunity to operate innovative and flexible HR arrangements within a commercially challenging environment.
Promotion in 1992 led to the role of Personnel Manager at Rawmarsh Foods in Rotherham - another Northern Foods business but one facing significant commercial difficulties leading to the closure of half of the business, with all the resultant HR challenges. The final career move in Northern Foods took place in 1994 when she was promoted to Personnel Director of Pork Farms Bowyers, a large meat business with a turnover of £120 million. As a member of the board, the key focus was on facilitating the transition from profit decline to a flexible, responsive and profitable business. This required restructuring, rationalisation and some major staff development initiatives.
In 2001, Francesca was appointed as Director of Human Resources for Nottingham Trent University. Having introduced a professional Business Partner approach to HR, and established HR as an essential partner at an operational and strategic level, Francesca was asked to take on additional responsibilities in 2007. The new role of Director of Organisational Development and Business Improvement saw the retention of HR responsibilities but the addition of a new team dedicated to business improvement. This new team exists to challenge and facilitate improvements in NTU’s business processes to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness. In 2011, Francesca took on further responsibility for the key area of student employability. This encompasses strategic and line management responsibility for all those areas directly impacting the student’s ability to secure graduate-level work when leaving NTU.
