David Cochrane, MBE
Chief Executive, HIT Scotland
After commencing his career at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, David started working for Norfolk Capital Hotels. He then joined Gardner Merchant, now called Sodexo, as a chef manager, progressing to District Training Coordinator.
This training experience led him into the Hotel and Catering Training Company, working with Youth Training and unemployment projects. He also undertook a Leonardo da Vinci European project to help implement Vocational Qualifications in Scottish prisons!
David has been the Training Manager at the internationally renowned Gleneagles hotel. He developed his passion for people development, and this led him naturally to take on the role of Chief Executive of HIT Scotland.
In 2004 David was awarded the Industry Award for services to the hospitality industry in Scotland. Since working with HIT Scotland the Trust has awarded over 5000 scholarships for the emerging talent of the industry and 14,000 student bursaries. He took part in the successful Kilimanjaro challenge in 2011, The Gran Paradiso Challenge in Italy in 2014 and the Great Wall of China Challenge in 2017! In 2012 he was awarded an honorary degree in International Hospitality Management from Higher Institute of Education – Glion and he was honoured with the Education and Training “Catey” UK award the same year. Later in 2019 he organised another successful fundraising trek to Machu Picchu. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and Strathclyde Business school.
David was awarded an MBE in the Queens Birthday Honours list 2020 for services to hospitality and tourism.