60 seconds with… Kelly Boosey

From hospitality and tourism to innovation and AI, Kelly Boosey has spent her career turning ambitious ideas into commercial reality. With deep roots in Suffolk and extensive experience supporting businesses to grow, she brings a practical, relationship-led perspective to the Suffolk Business Board.

How would you sum up your work and experience in a couple of sentences?

I’m a commercial leader with 25+ years across hospitality, tourism, innovation and now conversational AI, always in roles where I’m building something from the ground up, whether that’s launching an innovation centre during a pandemic, growing a portfolio of 12 sites, or now taking an AI avatar product to market across retail, travel, hospitality, healthcare and the experience economy. The common denominator is turning ambitious ideas into commercial reality through strong relationships and hands-on execution.

What motivated you to join the Suffolk Business Board?

I joined Oxford Innovation in 2020 to launch The EpiCentre in Haverhill, right in the middle of the pandemic and that experience showed me first-hand what’s possible when local authorities, universities and ambitious businesses pull in the same direction. I wanted to be part of shaping that at a strategic level, not just within my own organisation. Suffolk is where I grew up, so this felt like a genuine chance to give back to a region I’m invested in, using the ecosystem knowledge I’d built through partners like New Anglia LEP, Suffolk County and District Councils and the University of Suffolk and Eastern College Group.

You’ve worked across tourism, hospitality, innovation and now AI – what’s the common thread that connects all of those roles?

It’s always been about the experience someone has when they interact with a place, a brand, or now technology and how you make that feel personal at scale. Whether I was managing 800+ team at Center Parcs, launching an innovation centre for SMEs, or now building go-to-market strategy for conversational AI avatars, the job is the same: understand what people need then build the commercial model and relationships that deliver it well.

What’s the most exciting change you’ve seen in how organisations connect with people and customers?

The shift from static, one-way information (a website, a leaflet, a sign) to something you can genuinely have a conversation with. That’s quite literally what I work on now “information you can talk to” but I’ve watched the appetite for it build for years, first in how guest experience became personalised at Center Parcs, then in how innovation centres had to become relationship-led rather than transactional and now in AI avatars that let a customer just ask a question instead of hunting for an answer.

Suffolk has some incredible success stories – what do you think we should be shouting louder about?

The strength of our innovation; what happens at places like centres that sit within Connection Innovation including The EpiCentre in Haverhill, alongside Sizewell C, Freeport East and BT Adastral Park.  This shows Suffolk isn’t just a rural county, it’s genuinely building future industries. We should be shouting about the fact that a business can access serious infrastructure, talent and investment support here without needing to be in London or Cambridge.

You’re given a national billboard for one day to advertise Suffolk: what message are you sharing?

“Suffolk. The engine room you didn’t know was powering, feeding and connecting the nation.”

Find out more about all our board members here.