SSP UK & Ireland CEO Kari Daniels lands prestigious hospitality and retail inclusivity award

UK & IRELAND. SSP UK & Ireland CEO Kari Daniels has been named Most Inclusive Divisional/Regional CEO in Hospitality, Travel, Leisure and Retail at the 2025 Inclusion In Awards, recognising her leadership in driving diversity and inclusion across one of the sector’s largest and most complex businesses.

The awards ceremony, held on 14 October at the London Hilton on Park Lane, London and hosted by television presenter June Sarpong OBE, celebrated individuals, teams and organisations championing inclusivity across the industry.

With more than 200 nominations and a panel of independent experts tasked with selecting the winners, the evening underscored the growing momentum for meaningful change across hospitality, travel, leisure and retail.

Transforming culture 

Since joining SSP UK & Ireland – which operates more than 30 brands across around 200 travel locations – in 2023, Daniels has reshaped the company’s culture and positioned inclusion at the heart of its business.

Her leadership has overseen the SSP UK & Ireland Executive Board become made up of 50% women – the highest proportion in the company’s history – while employee engagement on fairness and belonging has surged, outperforming recognised global benchmarks in independent surveys conducted with Gallup.

Daniels’ approach has been rooted in listening and measurable action. She hosts regular ‘Coffee with Kari’ sessions to hear directly from colleagues – from long-serving employees to male general managers and female leaders – ensuring that decision-making is informed by real experience across all levels of the business, SSP noted.

She has also overseen a dramatic expansion of SSP’s colleague networks, which now count nearly 1,000 members across six communities: Global Senior Women Leaders, Women, Ethnicity, Menopause, Neurodiversity and LGBTQ+.

Every senior leader in SSP UK & Ireland has completed ‘Inclusive Leadership’ training, embedding accountability into the company’s management culture.

In 2023, Daniels signed the LEAD Network CEO Pledge, committing to increase female representation at director level and above by at least +5% over three years.

SSP has also used ED&I metrics to inform succession planning and drive progress towards pay parity.

At the same time, a revitalised SSP apprenticeship strategy has delivered record numbers of participants, supported by mentoring, coaching and flexible working initiatives to strengthen retention.

Influence beyond SSP

Daniels’ impact reaches well beyond SSP. She sits on the WiHTL Advisory Board, is a vocal advocate for the organisation’s Global Women Leaders and Ethnic Future Leaders programmes, and serves as a Non-Executive Director (NED) at Topps Tiles, where she leads on employee engagement.

There, she introduced NED Listening Groups to promote inclusion and ensure that employee perspectives inform board-level decision-making.

Reacting to the award, Daniels told The Moodie Davitt Report the recognition was shared with the 8,000 colleagues who make up SSP UK & Ireland.

“I’m extremely proud to be recognised personally, but this award is a win for the whole of SSP UK & Ireland,” she said. “We have around 8,000 colleagues across the region from many backgrounds and cultures, and our teams do a fantastic job day in, day out, to ensure that everyone feels valued, respected and recognised.

“Diversity, when embraced by organisations, can become a real strength and foster colleague and business growth.

“I hope that what we’re doing at SSP is demonstrating to other organisations that initiatives to drive inclusion should not just be hygiene factors, but when fully embedded and continuously lived by every colleague in the organisation every day, can drive true business value.”