After reaching the rank of Captain after five years in the army, I got married, had a child and found it increasingly difficult to balance family and military life. I was looking for a more sensible job, and a friend recommended a role to me at Tesco. Group Procurement were looking for ex-military candidates, and so I started here as a Buying Manager for PR services. It was surprising to see how similar the Tesco assessment process was to aspects of officer selection for the army! Also, the shared Tesco/army concept of keeping values at the heart of what we do helped ease the transition.

Tesco’s core purpose of “Serving Britain’s shoppers a little better every day” is central to my role; as no matter what happens at our end, the customer needs to have the best experience possible. I’m a big advocate of our seven leadership skills, and I make all my team members receive training in all of them.

I also chair the Tesco Armed Forces Network. Here we look to make it easier for Tesco to recruit from the military, implement policies to enable reservists to serve and have a Tesco career, and support families of those in the armed forces. When I first joined there was no network, but it didn’t take long for things to get some momentum!

It’s great to receive a bonus from time-to-time, to have a target to work towards and gain from. The Colleague Clubcard is a big plus, especially when we have Double Discount week – that's worth having isn't it.