On this edition of The Little Questions we're talking to Alison Brittain, the Chief Executive Officer of Whitbread - a company known for owning brands such as Premier Inn, Bar + Block and Beefeater.

Prior to joining Whitbread, Alison was Group Director of Lloyds Banking Group's Retail Division, with responsibility for the Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland retail branch networks, remote / intermediary channels / products and the business banking and UK wealth businesses. Before joining Lloyds Bank, Alison was Executive Director for Retail Distribution and Board Director at Santander UK PLC. She has held senior roles at Barclays Bank, was a Member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Group and a Non-executive Director of Marks & Spencer Plc. Alison has an MBA from the Judge Business School, Cambridge, was named 'Business Woman of the Year 2017' in the Veuve Clicquot awards and awarded a CBE in the 2019 New Year's honours list. On this edition of the podcast she talks to Apella Advisors Matt Young and Andrew Brown about the challenges of being a CEO, her successes and learning curves and the vagaries of media training. We'd love to hear what you think. Get in touch on social media or email [email protected] The Little Questions podcast is presented by Matt Young and Andrew Brown. Matt Young is an Apella founder partner with 25 years of experience in corporate affairs. He was Corporate Affairs Director at Lloyds Banking Group, part of the senior team which rescued the bank and rebuilt its reputation following the financial crisis. Formerly communications director at Santander UK and board member of the BBA. Apella partner Andrew Brown is a former Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Ageas Insurance. He has more than ten years' experience leading the corporate affairs functions for global firms across a range of regulated and unregulated sectors, developing considerable experience in issues, crisis and change management. Formerly Director of Communications at Drax Group plc and Group Corporate Affairs Director at Regus plc. Find out more about Apella Advisors at www.apellaadvisors.com and you can get in touch by emailing [email protected] This podcast was produced by the www.thepodcastcoach.co.uk