Meet new inspirational CEO at Macdonald Aviemore Resort
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Dedication, excellent customer service and a community focus are essential when working in the hospitality industry. Such qualities can be found in Natalya Macholla, the new chief executive of Macdonald Aviemore Resort.
Originally from Dunblane (she went to school with tennis ace, Andy Murray) the 35 year-old is one of the youngest chief executives in hospitality in the UK, and has an impressive career to date. Outside of this she has even managed to fit in playing rugby for Scotland.
We had the chance to chat to Natalya about her career path, her values and what her plans are for the Macdonald Aviemore Resort.
Natalya said: “I have had an interesting route into hospitality.
“I actually started work with Prudential when I was at Stirling University where I was studying accountancy and playing a lot of sport.
“I then applied for a trainee role at Henderson Loggie where I studied to become a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS).
“What I enjoyed about working there was their great ethos in adding value for clients and the fantastic way that they invested in their staff across the business.”
Natalya’s career then took a self-described “interesting move” after being head-hunted by Govan Housing Association, to become their director of finance and IT.
“Social housing was a new sector for me, but it had a real social purpose which I really liked, as well as giving me a great insight into the corporate world”, she smiled.
Within six months of being there Natalya was promoted to deputy chief executive, where she become involved in both community projects, investment and maintenance programmes for social housing properties, prevention of homelessness and the development of new social housing.
During her time there she led on the introduction of a Community Interest Company to deliver repairs and maintenance to the Housing Association and much-needed local employability. This further supported the Housing Association to achieve Investors in People Platinum and Investors in Young People Gold Accreditations.
“I loved the fast-paced environment”, she said.
“But more so, I loved that I was able to give something back as part of my job and work to improve people’s lives.”
However, as an ambitious individual, managing 1,600 units of stock (houses) and factoring 600 properties was not quite big enough for Natalya. She then turned her eye to the Wheatley Group.
“I’ve always been ambitious,” she said.
“There was a job that came up as a locality housing director with the Wheatley Group, and I thought that would be a great opportunity to use my skills I had developed on a bigger scale.
“I joined the Wheatley Group in August 2019, where I was initially responsible for managing around 5000 homes in the north east of Glasgow.”
However, when the pandemic came along in March 2020, Natalya took this opportunity to thrive and took on the role of director of customer service for the Wheatley Group.
“We had to move our contact centre from an office-based team to home-based team overnight, “ she said.
“I remain extremely proud of what my team and Wheatley achieved as a whole during the pandemic. Their response and foresight to support some of the most vulnerable people in Scotland during those challenging times, was nothing short of exceptional.
“We were answering calls 24/7, delivering food packages and had teams mobilised in the communities to carry out essential repairs and maintenance.”
Natalya talks very fondly of her time at Wheatley and said: “Wheatley is a fantastic organisation and I am extremely grateful for the opportunities that they afforded me during my time there.
“One of the greatest achievements of my career to date came with Wheatley where I worked with the chief executive and wider executive team to create a new operating model which set out to transform the customer experience at Wheatley.
“We called it the Customer First Centre and it had one key focus – to deliver a quality customer experience at the first point of contact.
“On the back of this I was also delighted to be promoted to managing director of customer service which expanded my remit for customer service across the group.”
Natalya has now taken on the position of chief executive at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort alongside some other key roles within Macdonald Hotels.
She said: “I wouldn’t have moved from Wheatley if it wasn’t for such a career and life-changing opportunity with Macdonald Hotels.
“This is all new to me just now but I want to work with people, the communities that we are part of and use my experience to bring something different to the sector.
“It is an exciting time for the hospitality sector and for the Highlands area and I’m really looking forward to being a part of it.”
It is not just Natalya’s textured career which will help her in this new role, as her experience with sport has given her many learning opportunities also.
“Sport has been a big part of my life since I was a wee girl”, she said.
“It has been rewarding and has helped me bring a lot of skills into my career.
“I have learned how to build and motivate a team, create camaraderie, and nurture a team for the future, that is going towards a shared goal.
“I still play a lot of sport, but it is now non-contact. I’m not sure it’s a good look to turn up to work with black eyes and bruises!”, she joked.
Speaking about how this will help her with her new role, she said: “There is a big focus on building jobs for the future at Macdonald Hotels.
“Mr Macdonald has created a fantastic legacy, and remains heavily involved today – the board of Macdonald Hotels are a great support mechanism for developing vision and implementing new ideas”.
“The big thing for me is to build a strong team for the future, to have pride in what we are delivering for our customers and communities we are part of and create a career pathway for people who work for Macdonald Hotels.”
Natalya added: “There is a great career in hospitality for people who want it – we just need to make that dream a reality for people and support them to achieve their potential.”
In her new role, Natalya is determined to ensure that the local community is taken on the Macdonald Hotels journey and will benefit from what the Macdonald Aviemore Resort has to offer.
“At the heart of it, I want to make sure that we connect with the local community”, she explained.
“The Resort has a key role to play within local tourism, sustainability, renewables, etc. and it has been great to see the fantastic work that is happening across the Highlands to support these critical areas.”
“I have also been amazed by the wide array of activities and landmarks that the Aviemore and wider area has to offer. I’m personally looking forward to trying out some quad biking on the Rothiemurchus estate and some zip lining”, she smiled.
With such an impressive résumé, and bold visions for the future, we asked Natalya about the values and characteristics that she’s held onto to get her to where she is today.
She said: “I am one of the most competitive people you will meet.
“I always strive to deliver the best I can.
“I always believe that you should aim as high as you can and hopefully you won’t be disappointed.”
“I also believe that you always have to continually adapt yourself. All sectors are under pressure to develop in a challenging backdrop at the moment, and you have to be ahead of the curve and work out how to deliver in all circumstances.
“The other quality I believe in is customer service – there is nothing more rewarding than seeing people enjoy an experience. And if we do get it wrong, it is how we fix it that matters and how we learn from it.
“I always think people remember how you fixed something and the last experience you have with them. At its core, to go above and beyond for people to make them feel special and truly valued – that’s always worth striving for.”
Having played and worked in teams all her life, Natalya is very much about valuing her team.
She said: “You need to take everyone with you and make sure that they are supported and empowered to achieve their potential.
“Having a good relationship with staff, taking the time to meet with them and talk about their ideas, quickly builds a rapport and allows them to be empowered to bring positive change to the business.
“It is important to me that my team feels inspired by a genuine consideration and acknowledgement – that’s where the meaning of being a team truly has its origins.”
