About
Who we are
Hoople is a public sector owned company based in Hereford, specialising in providing support services to the public sector as well as commercial customers. We currently employ over 400 employees and cover a vast range of service areas including:
- IT Services
- Training
- Education
- Recruitment
- HR & Payroll
- Finance
- Revenues & Benefits
- Care
- Building, Cleaning & Maintenance
- School MIS Support Services
The business was established in April 2011 to provide services to its shareholders. These are Herefordshire Council, Wye Valley NHS Trust and Lincolnshire County Council.
Our customer base is hugely varied as you can imagine and includes:
- Public sector and NHS
- Schools and academies
- Private sector and not-for-profit organisations
Our board of directors and executive management team
Hoople's Board, which has a non-executive role, is comprised of representatives from our shareholders; Herefordshire Council, Wye Valley NHS Trust and Lincolnshire County Council, supported by our Executive Management Team.
Board members
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Cllr David Hitchiner has a wealth of knowledge in law, business strategy and leadership. After qualifying as a Solicitor and Chartered Secretary with a Law Degree from the University of Birmingham, Cllr Hitchiner has worked both locally and worldwide in senior commercial and company law positions. Since moving back from USA in 2000 Cllr Hitchiner has settled into rural Herefordshire. Cllr Hitchiner is now a Governor of Hereford Cathedral School and chair of Caplor Horizons, which is a charity, inspiring and equipping leaders for a sustainable future.
Cllr David Hitchiner
Herefordshire Council representative
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Andrew joined Hoople as a Non-Executive Director in January 2015. He trained as an accountant in the West Midlands Regional Health Authority area and pursued a very successful career just across the border in NHS Wales. Andrew has worked at a very senior level in complex NHS organisations, covering most aspects of the NHS. This has been in both urban and very rural settings, the latter being in Powys where he was Chief Executive of the Powys Health Board for four years. Following a national role he undertook on a part time basis, Andrew left the NHS at the end of August 2014 to enable him to spend more time on voluntary work, mainly associated with his local church in Abergavenny. He is also a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee for Wye Valley NHS Trust.
Andrew Cotton
Wye Valley NHS Trust representative
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Andrew joined the Hoople Board in September 2021 and brings with him a wealth of experience in local government financial management and service commissioning. Andrew has also led a number of complex service transformation projects and is currently overseeing Lincolnshire’s ambitious council-wide Transformation Programme.
Andrew McLean
Lincolnshire County Council representative
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Andrew has been the Chief Finance Officer (Section 151 Officer) at Herefordshire Council since March 2017. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant who started his career in public practice. After qualifying, he has worked in industry and the charity and registered social landlord sectors. He has worked in Local Government since 2004. He has held a number of Non-Executive Director roles including nine years on the board of the Paradigm Housing Group.
Andrew Lovegrove
Herefordshire Council representative
Management team
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Audrey has been with Hoople since its inception in April 2011. Audrey is a ACCA qualified accountant and has 25 years experience of finance services in both the public and private sectors. Audrey became the COO of Hoople in November 2020 and is very proud of the company Hoople has become. Audrey has a passion for developing staff and delivering high quality services to all customers.
Audrey Clements
Chief Operating Officer
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Tracey has worked in HR across the region in health and local government for 25 years. Since July 2016 Tracey has led HR, recruitment and payroll services across Hoople and she is a member of the Executive Management Team. Tracey is really proud of the care Hoople takes of its workforce and in turn how much Hoople staff care about its customers.
Tracey Sampson
Assistant Director for People
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Simon joined Hoople in 2020 bringing over 25 years of IT experience, having led both dedicated and shared IT service provision to world-class Higher Education, Charitable, Medio-legal and Property services, among others. He leads an IT team with a passion for finding great business solutions and providing excellent experiences of technology engagement.
Simon Mortimore
Head of Information Technology
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Working within training, education and care sectors over a number of years, Stephen brings a wealth of experience to support his service areas and the Senior Management Team. He has held a number of roles throughout his career from frontline delivery to senior posts, building relations with key stakeholders including the ESFA, Ofsted and CQC.
Stephen Weller
Head of Commercial Development
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Mark brings a wealth of Construction and Project Management experience to Hoople gained from working at all levels on construction projects in Europe, Africa and Asia, before transitioning into the Facilities Management Sector. He has fulfilled roles in Contract and Operations management posts for both private Chartered Surveyors Practice and major contractors within the defence and public sector.
Mark Aldsworth
Head of Building Operations
Vision, mission & values
Our vision
To provide excellent business support services to the public sector and those who work with them.
Our mission
Creating and building trusted and sustainable relationships in order to deliver business critical services for our key customers.
Our values
- Passion for improvement - Continuous improvement to develop more effective ways of delivering services for our customers
- Customer focus - Satisfying our customers and helping them to support themselves
- Professional integrity - Bringing the best of our shared technical expertise and professional values to our work
- Mutual support - Whether one-to-one or in teams, we encourage and support each other to strive for excellent performance in all that we do
- Ambition - Our staff are committed to the success of our company in delivering effective services to organisations, communities and individuals