Brian Bagnall Non-Executive Chairman
Alongside being the Non-Executive Chairman of Purple Story Brian is also a Non-Executive Director of the Northwest Family Brewer and Pub Retailer Hydes.
With extensive commercial and leadership experience within Retail and Hospitality he is passionate about delivering innovative and inspiring solutions to businesses alongside developing real talent.
He lives in Bramhall with his Wife and has Two sons. Loves great beer, good wine and an Indian curry
Karen Turton (KT) CEO & Founder
KT is awesome, fearless & brilliant. But you shouldn't just take our word for that, just ask anyone who’s met her! She’s an operator at heart and brings three decades of commercial and leadership experience to Purple Story. In her former life, Karen was a Regional Director for Nandos & the Ops and People Director for Turtle Bay before answering her calling and launching Purple Story. As someone who’s founded a business based on Leadership Development, you’d expect KT to be a superb leader, and you’d be right. Oh, and she also loves Sci-Fi and secretly wishes she could be Seven of Nine (old Star Trek reference).
Lynda Merryweather COO
Lynda is a Yorkshire Lass who likes few things in life better than a good cup of tea (and maybe the odd G&T) She forged a trade in the world of travel and had a career spanning over 20 years working in different roles and across various sectors within the industry, before accidentally finding her forever home at Purple Story.
Now COO, she spends her days steadying the ship and developing the business as it continues to grow at pace.
Lynda is wildly passionate about delivering the best possible experience to every client and invites everyone she meets for (you’ve guessed it) a chat over a brew!
Jody Bennett Non-Executive Director
Originally from Newbury Berkshire, Jody moved to Cardiff over a decade ago where she lives with her husband and two young boys. When Jody’s not entertaining the boys at parties and soft plays (whilst drinking copious amounts of coffee!) she loves nothing more than a good stomp in the Welsh countryside.
With over 25 years’ HR and operational experience in both Food Retail and Hospitality, Jody is the People Director for Brewhouse & Kitchen. Having won multiple awards for providing developmental and educational opportunities to all, Jody prioritises putting people first, raising capabilities and creating career pathways for everyone.
Jody is currently studying to become a Master NLP Practitioner, along with developing her skills in Coaching.
Matt Howcroft Head of Ops
Matt describes himself as passionately purple and we couldn’t agree more! He brings a wealth of operational experience and success to his role of Head of Ops. Throughout his career, which has largely been in the hospitality industry, Matt has delivered results through people by being creative, genuine and authentic. He prides himself on being described as thoughtful, curious and trustworthy.
Matt is a qualified executive coach and you’ll find him putting his skills to great use with Purple Story delegates, as well as Team Purple!
As a true northerner, Matt’s a rugby fan who loves spending time in the Yorkshire countryside with his partner and two daughters.
Richard Tudor-Thomas Purple Storyteller
Richard brings service excellence and experience from his time spent in the Royal Navy, and with Waitrose and the National Trust. As an operator and service leader, RTT has seen it all and has learnt from some of the best in three different industries and walks of life. A calming influence on many, he loves to share his passion for operational excellence through storytelling and real life scenarios.
A keen rugby player (just touch rugby now as a proper tackle would break him!!!) he spends his spare time devoted to his family and friends.
Andy Goram Purple Storyteller & Culture & Values Specialist
Andy brings two decades of senior management experience from marketing to customer & brand director to Team Purple. He’s a real gentleman with a genuine passion for the people he is developing, and an all round nice guy with a wicked sense of humour.
Andy previously worked as Chief Brand Experience Officer at Buzz Leisure, Commercial Director at Gala Coral Group and MAD Director at Spirit Group (this was about aligning brand, employees and the customer, not about actually being mad).
Verity Milns Purple Storyteller
Verity is our carer and sharer, and she's never happier than getting right under the skin of people to understand how to help them fly. With a background in business communications, she has now found her purple passion for coaching and mentoring teams. Loving nothing more than delivering lightbulb moments and seeing the penny drop, she will challenge you - and support you - to become the best you can be. A massive rugby fan, she's a regular cheering on England at Twickenham. Her other newly-found passion is swimming, either at the local pool or in the wild!
Emma Sedgwick Purple Storyteller
Emma brings 25 years of experience in driving performance & communication excellence in both the hospitality and healthcare sectors to Purple Story. She has a speciality and passion for helping senior business and commercial leaders to thrive. Her career began in travel as a holiday rep & Emma still loves to explore.
Emma describes herself as flexible and fun! She has a boundless energy for work and life & thrives on facing new challenges. When she’s not busy working and being ‘Mum’s taxi’, Emma loves to travel and eat in fabulous restaurants.
Warrick Hegarty Purple Storyteller
Warrick is a rock, caring and inquisitive. Very little is left to phase him after a decade of leading teams delivering offending behaviour programmes for the Prison Service. He took a leap of faith after becoming an executive and left this career to return to his roots and follow what he truly cared about, helping people and teams make honest, impactful changes for the long term.
He tends to juggle 5 books at a time, lives for his rock music, and loves a good old debate about the meaning of life.
Joe Whibley Purple Storyteller
Joe has over 25 years of experience in leading retail and sales teams. Much of this at a senior level including work with High Street brands Hilton Hotels and Boots.
Throughout his leadership career Joe has consistently put people growth and development at the top of his agenda. He believes that this approach not only improves business performance, but helps to drive the culture of an organisation, whilst retaining and attracting the best people.
Never short of a story or two, Joe’s experience readily enables him to align theory with practice.
Married to Claire and with two teenage boys, Joe loves spending time with his family. He’s a huge football fan (he’s a Brighton & Hove Albion supporter) and has been a grassroots football coach for over 15 years.
Dan Symonds Purple Storyteller
For Dan life is all about people – connecting with them, developing and supporting them and helping them to become the best possible versions of themselves.
With over 20 years’ experience as a facilitator and coach, he has worked with and within a wide variety of regulatory and legislative organisations, as well as multi-national businesses within the retail and finance sector.
He loves nothing more than giving participants practical ‘tools’ to take back into their workplace to improve their relationship management skills. His focus is on helping workplaces provide safe and supportive learning environments that are free of fear, judgment and criticism.
As a New Zealander he is a massive rugby fan, but also loves to travel - trying new foods, drinks and new experiences with new people!
Amy Depuis HQ Chief
Amy has probably the most challenging role in Team Purple and has the unenviable task of keeping us all in line! With a background in the Hair and Beauty Industry, Amy has a wealth of experience in delivering operational excellence, client relations and understands the importance of time and diary management. When she’s not at work, Amy loves embarrassing her kids by winding down all of the car windows and singing Tina Turner songs very loudly! Amy is the cement holding up the foundations of Purple Story.
Sara Parry Digital Coordinator
Sara is our Purple Wizard and has an outstanding ability to teach herself to do anything! She looks after our creative design, techy stuff and plays a huge role in our partnership with Sideways. Basically, if there's anything we don't know how to do, we challenge Sara to find a way and she makes it happen!
Sara started her career in the Nail & Beauty Industry where she managed a salon business and led her own team. She joined Team Purple with a background in making her own clients look and feel fabulous. A big fan of fantasy fiction, Sara can often be found with her head buried in books and loves all things horror!
Angharad Gray Office Assistant
Angharad is our Support Superstar and is based in Purple HQ. She joined us in 2023 and is an invaluable asset providing multiple support services to our team, suppliers and clients alike. Angharad is an animal lover and dog groomer by trade. She studied Animal Behaviour and Welfare before embarking on her Purple Story journey. With a passion for books and animals, Angharad spends much of her spare time reading or walking her own dog. She's opened up her home to ex-battery hens in the past and is hoping to do so again soon, she's a real life Dr Doolittle!
Charlotte Graphic Designer
Our design guru Charlotte possesses an extraordinary knack for taking our already fabulous branding and imagery to a whole new level. Charlotte sprinkles magic dust to bring us to life!
Beyond her remarkable design skills, Charlotte is an inquisitive and outgoing person with a love for reading. One of Charlotte's quirks is her occasional spontaneous impulse to embark on extremely long walks!
Charlotte started her career with the ODEON whilst she was at university and we are lucky enough to have snapped Charlotte up for her placement year. We can't wait to she she creates and what the future holds!