MYA Consulting LTD

06/03/2026

Last night, the MYA team had the pleasure of attending the Semi-Finals of the Hastings International Piano Competition, and witnessing an evening of genuinely superlative music, the kind that makes you stop fidgeting and simply listen.

Our congratulations to Adria Ye and Ryan Zhu, and to all the semi-finalists for performances that combined technical precision with real musical intelligence. We were proud to sponsor the evening, and grateful to the Competition team, judges, volunteers, and White Rock Theatre staff for making it run with such calm assurance.



Watching it, I kept thinking about the quiet lesson the stage offers to anyone trying to run a serious operation. An orchestra works because every person knows their part, but also because everyone is alert to everyone else, adjusting in real time. The soloist, the conductor, the sections, the pauses, the pace, the timing, the discipline, it’s a system built on preparation and trust.

And it’s a reminder that rigour isn’t “intellectual” or “practical”, it’s both. From the plan to the delivery, it’s the same mindset: clarity, rehearsal, responsiveness, and standards that don’t wobble under pressure. The audience’s delight is real, but it’s also almost a side effect.



That’s not far from what makes a kitchen, a venue, or a service team genuinely excellent: craft, rehearsal, clear roles, and a shared sense of what “good” looks like.

Photo Credit: Matthew Andrews
Catering: Coquina food & wine

06/03/2026

MYA is very pleased to welcome Elizabeth Clouting. She's joined MYA as a Revit Technician.

With two years’ experience in Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment design and space planning across education, hospitality, commercial and healthcare. Elizabeth brings a sharp eye for coordinated, inclusive environments.

As Elizabeth puts it: “I joined MYA because of my passion for designing practical and functional spaces… I was particularly drawn to MYA by the diversity of sectors the practice covers and the opportunity to contribute to a wide range of exciting projects.”

She’s keen to support the design team while building her technical skills, expanding her industry knowledge, and working closely with clients to support high-quality outcomes.

03/03/2026

Last week, our team had the pleasure of visiting the Alto-Shaam, Inc. demo kitchen in Milton Keynes for a hands-on session with their industry-leading equipment.

And for those of you who don’t know, Alto-Shaam is a global manufacturer of commercial cooking, holding, and regeneration equipment, best known for its solutions that help kitchens deliver consistent results quickly, without consuming excessive labour, space, or compromising standards.

It was a great opportunity to get close to the technology, explore best-practice techniques, and deepen our understanding of how Alto-Shaam supports efficiency, consistency, and quality in busy professional environments.

A big thank you to the Alto-Shaam team for the warm welcome and for sharing their expertise.

Days like this keep us sharp, so we can continue recommending solutions that are practical, performance-led, and genuinely useful for our clients.

02/03/2026

On Thursday 26 February, members of the MYA team, Carla, Mark, Ben and Max, were honoured to attend the breaking of the fast at Husainy Masjid. The evening brought together the Dawoodi Bohra community and distinguished guests, including the High Commissioner of India and representatives from Ealing Council, among them the Mayor of Ealing, Anthony Kelly. It was a generous, thoughtful celebration of faith, tradition and shared community, with warmth, lively conversation and exceptional food.

We’ve been fortunate to be welcomed to this gathering on several occasions, and each invitation matters. It’s a chance to strengthen relationships beyond the practical realities of project delivery, to listen, learn, and better understand the values and aspirations that shape the community’s work, and the ambition behind what we’re delivering together.

Our sincere thanks to the Dawoodi Bohra community for their hospitality and continued trust in MYA. We value the partnership, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration in the years ahead.

23/02/2026

Huge congratulations to the Hastings-based Dance Collective: their Children’s Classical Ballet Group, “The Prayer”, has qualified to represent Team England at the Dance World Cup 2026 in Dublin.

The Dance World Cup is the world’s largest dance competition, bringing together thousands of dancers to compete at an elite international level. What makes this even more impressive is that this was Dance Collective’s first year entering, and the organisation is only two years old. Qualifying at this stage isn’t luck; it’s talent, discipline, resilience, and a frankly heroic number of training hours.

At MYA, we’re proud to support local talent on journeys like this. When young people earn the right to step onto a global stage, they deserve a community behind them that says: yes, go further.

We’ll be cheering you on all the way to Dublin.

09/02/2026

Our CEO, Carla McKenzie, reflects on her recent trip to Saudi Arabia.

As the Prince of Wales heads to Saudi Arabia to strengthen UK–Saudi relationships, I’ve been thinking about what that actually looks like when you’re there, rather than reading about it from a safe distance.

I was back in Riyadh in January with the MYA team, moving between meetings, presentations, and site work. What stayed with me wasn’t the schedule, it was the sense of a place mid-stride: building at speed, but not sleepwalking into a generic “global city” future. We spent time at the King Abdullah Financial District, and it’s hard not to be struck by how deliberately Saudi it still feels, in the motifs, the social intent, the confidence. Whatever your assumptions, it doesn’t present as timid.

People often ask how I find working in the Kingdom as a woman. The honest answer is: positively. Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in its young people, men and women, and you can feel the results everywhere. There’s a generation coming through that is highly educated, outward-looking, and increasingly in the driving seat. The UK media tends to default to a single-note story, usually the darkest one. On the ground, what you encounter is more complex: a society in significant transition, full of capable people who want to build something better and are getting on with it.

MYA has been working in the Kingdom for the last four years. We keep client work discreet because trust matters, but we’ve seen first-hand the ambition, the pace, and the seriousness of intent across hospitality, tourism, and cultural projects. It’s challenging, it’s fascinating, and it’s a privilege to contribute to work that aims to create places where people will genuinely want to spend time.

04/02/2026

Delighted to be backing Hastings International Piano. Serious artistry, real community reach, and a tangible boost to the local economy.

23/01/2026

Friday thoughts; Newly-recruited MYA Graphic Designer, Alex Thornton, reflects on the life of a creative in the modern working landscape, and what MYA as a company of creatives do to harness our top talent.

Read more below:
https://www.mya-consulting.co.uk/creative-life-its-a-serious-business/

Newly-recruited MYA Graphic Designer, Alex Thornton, reflects on the life of a creative in the modern working landscape. MYA: Creative Life. It’s a Serious Business – Jan 2026

14/01/2026

MYA are delighted to welcome Alex Thornton to the team as our new Graphic Designer.

Alex joins us after eight years at Great Western Railway, moving from Designer/Artworker into Brand Designer, with a track record that includes brand guidelines, campaign art direction (TV, OOH, B2B), partner toolkits, social assets, publications, logo development, and giving colleagues the kind of design feedback that improves the work rather than just decorating the room.

What we like most is the combination: proper corporate rigour paired with a genuinely creative sensibility, plus an attitude that’s calm, curious, and refreshingly unprecious. He’s also coming home to Hastings, which matters to us. We grow internationally, but we’re serious about building talent and opportunities in our local community.

Welcome aboard, Alex. Plenty to do, and we promise not to waste a single pixel

14/01/2026

We’re very pleased to welcome Sara Clamp to MYA Consulting as a Senior Consultant. Sara brings over 20 years’ leadership experience across hospitality, maritime, and retail environments, with a strong track record in project delivery and operational transformation. She has led complex, large-scale design and investment programmes from early concept through to fit-out and operational readiness, with the calm competence that keeps big projects moving when reality starts to argue back.



Her background includes senior roles with P&O Ferries, Five Guys, Punch Taverns, and Welcome Break, where she consistently bridged creative intent, commercial performance, and operational delivery, often alongside international stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams.



Sara is known for a people-focused approach, a sharp understanding of guest experience, and an ability to translate strategy into practical, buildable, workable outcomes. We’re genuinely pleased to have her on board as our consultancy continues to grow.

09/01/2026

MYA has been working with the Dawoodi Bohras of London, a Muslim community that has lived in the UK since the 1960s, as we help develop a new kitchen for their mosque in Northolt. On major occasions, that kitchen needs to deliver at scale, serving a large amount of meals in a single event.

What’s stood out from day one is that their cooking isn’t “traditional” in the soft-focus sense. It’s technically exacting: large cauldrons, layered cooking, hand-blended spices, flavour developed patiently across the full cooking cycle. The vessel, the heat, the sequence, it all matters, because the method honours centuries of practice.
The mosque leadership team set a proper challenge: could modern equipment match that depth and authenticity, without sanding off what makes it theirs?

On Friday 19th December 2025 , MYA’s Creative Director Benjamin Donaldson joined the mosque leadership team at Jestic Foodservice Solutions to test the community’s signature Bohri biryani using an MKN FlexiChef. The Jestic culinary team had already run multiple trials, keeping the same layered approach applied in a modern context.

The result was a genuine match on taste and character, with significantly reduced cooking time and a better working environment through sealed, controlled cooking. Credit to the Jestic team for meeting the brief with real care and rigour.

As we head back to the drawing board, the direction is clear: a hybrid approach, traditional and modern equipment side by side, chosen to protect what matters while improving delivery at volume.

07/01/2026

With exceptional growth through 2025, MYA enters 2026 with momentum, and we’re scaling the team to match.

We’ve added three new roles, a Senior Consultant, a Graphic Designer, and a Revit Designer, to strengthen delivery across hospitality, catering, housekeeping and FM, from concept and brand through to technical design and mobilisation.

This expansion reflects our expanding client portfolio in both the UK and internationally. It's a clear direction of travel: more capability in-house, faster turnaround, and better continuity from strategy to implementation.

MYA is headquartered in Hastings. It’s one of the UK’s most economically deprived areas, but it’s also packed with creative talent. Our aim is simple: bring global work home, create skilled, purposeful jobs locally, and help build a stronger economy here, in a practical, measurable way.

If you’re a designer, creative, maker, or analyst and you’re looking for work with real standards and real-world complexity, reach out.

Happy New Year.