Harrogate International Centre

Born and raised in Bradford Irene joined the civil service after leaving school but it wasn't long before she realised there was a big world out there waiting to be explored, and so her two year life as an au pair in Barcelona began.

Realising this was not a long-term career prospect Irene then sought fame and fortune in London with the hope of using her newly acquired linguistic ability in Spanish. This didn't quite come to fruition but a change of tack saw Irene once again taking up the call of working overseas.

Initially working as a holiday rep. in Ibiza dealing with the 18-30 age group Irene swapped her clientele for something a little calmer in the Greek Islands where she was also introduced to a role in sales through target led excursion sales.

Four years later Irene ventured into the hotel industry as Front of House Manager and over a period of ten years worked for several hotel groups in various UK locations.

After ten years in the hotel business, and still eager to learn something new, Irene took up a sales position in the events industry and along the way moved to Harrogate and joined the Yorkshire Event Centre as Sales Manager. Irene stayed at the Event Centre for seven years before joining the Harrogate International Centre in the summer of 2008 joining the sales team in the newly created role of Sales Executive for Entertainment and Corporate Hospitality. For Irene this brings new and exciting challenges and she can honestly say, "Life just keeps getting better".

In her spare time Irene escapes to her holiday home in the beautiful Polish city of Krakow and she will soon have a mountain retreat in the Polish spa town of Krynica (a Polish version of Harrogate), but also a very good ski resort in the winter. Irene enjoys tap dancing, Latin and ballroom dance, eating out, and theatre - as well as attending the many shows that she will now be responsible for organising.