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Behind The House

The People Behind The Category
Strategy, story and the eye behind both.

The Director's House brings together a carefully selected group of specialists across hospitality, strategy, cinematic storytelling, photography and creative direction. Every collaboration is built around one shared belief: when guests emotionally connect before they arrive, hotels stop competing like commodities and start being chosen like destinations.

Strategic Direction Financial Diagnostics Cinematic Storytelling Photography
Founder & Strategic Director

Carol Evans

Carol Evans, Founder and Strategic Director, The Director's House
22+ years in business

Carol Evans started her hospitality career at 18, working every department of a hotel, from housekeeping, laundry and pot wash to reception, reservations, bar work, guest experience and management. Six years later, she left as Assistant Manager.

That hands-on foundation led to a career spanning hospitality, healthcare, operations, business turnaround and growth. She went on to manage hotel renovations and extensions, build high-performing teams, turn around struggling businesses, lead multi-million-pound operations and secure government contracts that resulted in invitations to Downing Street, HM Treasury and St James's Palace, and a speech at the House of Lords.

As Hospital Director for The Priory, Carol led business transformation projects, developed national growth initiatives and became known for her ability to see opportunities others missed. She later secured a €16 million investment offer for a destination spa project in Ireland, before founding her own consultancy business to help owners build stronger, more profitable businesses.

For the past 16 years she has worked closely with an independent hotel group, recently helping reposition them from the crowded "messy middle" of coastal tourism into a category of their own through strategic direction, operational improvement and emotional visual storytelling. The result has included premium positioning, stronger guest loyalty, industry awards, national television exposure and the production of almost 100 films designed to help guests feel the experience before they book.

Today, Carol brings together commercial thinking, operational expertise, guest experience, positioning and creative direction through The Director's House. She doesn't look at hotels through a single lens. She looks at the whole picture.

Career Highlights
€16m investment offer received, for a destination spa project in Ireland
Invited to Downing Street, HM Treasury and St James's Palace
Spoke at the House of Lords
Turned around failing businesses and teams
Managed multi-million-pound operations
Founder, Iconic Impact Studios
Ufinity destination spa concept renders, Lough Derg

With Martin Hulbert, reviewing the Ufinity plans in the Library at The Grove Hotel, a room Martin also designed.

Also Behind
Iconic Impact Studios
Carol Evans
Consultancy and Coaching
As featured in: The Telegraph, The Guardian, Mail Online, Business Insider, Woman&Home, i, Daily Express and others

Carol's media coverage, shown here as background, not a Director's House service.

Finance Director

John Evans

John Evans, Finance Director, The Director's House

John Evans has spent his career helping businesses understand not just where money is being spent, but where opportunity is being missed.

His hospitality experience includes playing a key role in the development of Sketchley Grange Hotel, helping support its growth from a family-owned property into a successful four-star hotel, leisure and conference destination.

Having held senior finance and commercial leadership roles across multiple sectors, John brings a practical, commercially minded approach to business performance. He's equally at home scaling a business and rescuing one that's in real trouble.

At The Director's House, his focus is simple: where is money being left on the table, and what can be done about it?

£100k → £4m Turnover growth, single hotel
−£40k → £250k Loss to profit, before new rooms had even started earning
2 weeks To turn around a seven-figure business on the brink of administration
25 Wedding bookings in year one, from a campaign he built and ran himself

Figures from real engagements across John's career. Business names withheld to protect client relationships.

Track Record
  • Identified fraudulent accounts kept by a previous Finance Director
  • Identified quantity surveyor errors that had cost the business £1.2m in job losses
  • Navigated a business through its own bank collapsing
  • Managed the fallout after a business was mis-sold an interest rate swap, paying 7.75% against a normal rate of 0.5%
  • Raised the finance behind an 18-bed, multi-award-winning leisure and spa extension
Creative and Video Director

Tim Hetherington

Tim Hetherington, Creative and Video Director, The Director's House

Tim has spent more than two decades photographing and filming people, brands, places and stories. His client list includes Volkswagen, Fairline Motoryachts, American Golf, Sony, Barbour, Thomson Holidays, the NHS and Bank of America, alongside editorial and advertising commissions throughout the UK and internationally.

A long-standing member of the AOP, Tim has won multiple industry awards and has served as both an AOP Judge and Committee Member. His work spans advertising, editorial, documentary and commercial photography, alongside an increasing focus on film-making and short-form documentary production.

What makes Tim particularly valuable to The Director's House is his ability to connect with people and capture the character of a place. Whether filming a hotel owner, a member of the team or a guest experience, he has a rare ability to put people at ease and reveal the story beneath the surface.

Over the past few years, Tim has helped create almost 100 films for independent hotels, alongside documentaries, interviews, event coverage and long-form content. His work has appeared on national television and has helped transform the way hotels communicate their experience before a guest ever arrives.

At The Director's House, Tim works closely with Carol to bring stories to life through photography, film, documentaries and legacy projects that help people feel a place before they've even stepped through the door, a role he has held for seven years. He also works as video director for Iconic Impact Studios, Carol's live-audience interview format for women founders, and shoots all photography and video for I Am Carol Evans.

Credentials
  • Aesthetica Art Awards; Portrait of Britain Award
  • Association of Photographers (AOP): 2024, 2017, 2015, 2009; former AOP Judge and Committee Member
  • SUN Awards: 2024, 2023, 2018, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, across Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle upon Tyne
  • PDN New York; Images Festival Arles
  • Client work for Volkswagen, Sony, Bank of America, Barbour, Fairline Motoryachts, American Golf, Williams, Thomson Holidays, the NHS, Working Man, Working Woman and Takeda Pharma
  • Filmed the closing ceremony of the Special Olympics World Games, Abu Dhabi
  • Creative, Video and Photography Director, The Director's House, 7 years

Selected work. TODO-CONFIRM: title/caption for this one, confirmed not the Special Olympics film.

Selected work. TODO-CONFIRM: title/caption for this one, confirmed not the Special Olympics film.

Special Olympics World Games, closing ceremony, Abu Dhabi.

Director of Photography

Tom Keen

Tom Keen, Director of Photography, The Director's House

Tom Keen is an internationally experienced photographer and film maker whose work spans luxury hospitality, travel and premium brands.

Over the last two decades, his work has taken him across the globe, photographing hotels, destinations and people from Egypt to Ethiopia, Italy to the UAE, São Paulo to Sweden and Tokyo to Taiwan. Along the way he has been commissioned by some of the world's most exclusive wedding venues and luxury hotels, alongside a wide range of commercial and editorial clients.

Specialising in portraits, interiors and moving image, Tom has developed a reputation for capturing the atmosphere, character and sense of place that make destinations memorable. His work has been recognised through numerous industry awards, including AOP Open, Portrait of Britain, Shot Up North and Portrait of Humanity.

Today, Tom works with hospitality brands creating both photographic and video content designed to help guests feel the experience before they arrive.

Credentials
  • Award-winning: AOP Open, Portrait of Britain, Shot Up North, Portrait of Humanity
  • Two decades' experience across luxury hospitality, travel and premium brands
  • Commissioned internationally, from Egypt and Ethiopia to Italy, the UAE, São Paulo, Sweden, Tokyo and Taiwan
  • Specialist in portraits, interiors and moving image

Want to meet the team behind your category of one?

Every project starts with a conversation about your hotel, not a pitch about ours.

Free, and no obligation.

The Director's House

Ufinity Ltd. is registered in England and Wales.

Company No. 05158276

Registered office: Robert Whowell & Partners. Westwood House, 78 Loughborough Road, Quorn, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE12 8DX

VAT No. 401468131

Download The Category of One Provocation

For independent hoteliers who suspect the market isn't yet seeing what they've built.