Founder and owner of Blyde Tae Bide, a Shetland born 2003 Entrepreneur of the year award winner, a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a Member of the Tourism Management institute and a member of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland. Her company Blyde Tae Bide has been running for over 20 years now and with her wealth of experience of over 35 years in food and tourism fro
m living and working both nationally and internationally around the world, is clearly reflected in her Award Winning Guest House. Born in Lerwick Shetland in 1971 Amanda spent her first 20 years emersed in local trades working in the hospitality sector as a qualified chef, the fishing sector as an expert filleter and managing the upstairs of the Lounge Bar most famously known for its musical magic of local and visiting musicians, an obvious choice as she was brought up in a very musical family where she thought it was quite normal to grow up with a ceilidh in your house every weekend, which undoubtedly was the reason she enjoyed learning the piano and accompanied her friend musicians at music events herself. After 11 years of working as an Environmental Health Enforcement Officer in which time she had taken a long sabbatical and travelled to the far east exploring Thailand, Vietnam and secured work Internationally as a head chef in Australia for quite some time she developed the culture bug and decided to undertake cultural study at great length. This took her to the Robert Gordon University where she gaining a Degree in Hospitality management and a Master’s Degree in International tourism Management. In-between her Degrees Amanda was appointed as a representative for a large British travel company where she implemented the companies health and safety policies to their children’s clubs in Turkey as well as being appointed as the lead emergency and disaster coordinator writing and implementing an evacuation policy during a troublesome year of earthquakes within the Country. Amanda was appointed as a Project Manager to Scottish Enterprise in Aberdeen specialising in food, tourism and events management where she wrote, tendered and delivered a portfolio of projects to the public and private sectors, she juggled this role while finishing her Master’s Degree so became an expert in time management and working under pressure. This enabled her to take Scottish businesses to areas of excellence in the UK and the USA on food and tourism excellence learning journeys, oversee service achievement awards to hundreds of businesses and manage food excellence conferences and events throughout Aberdeen city and Shire, where she gained exceptional people skills and first class understanding in economic development. It was no surprise when she was invited to take part in Channel 4’s Come Dine with Me television series where her culinary dishes where put in the spot light. Amanda returned back to Shetland in 2010 to raise her son and immerse herself back into the culture of her homeland where to date she has worked in many sectors of the community, working in palliative care for almost a year before undertaking a role of Project Manager to Disability Shetland. In 2012 she opened her award winning Guest House and actively connected with the Lerwick Community Council before standing in the local elections where she was elected twice over the next 10 years as a local councilor. During those 10 years she actively took ownership of her appointments which included, executive board member of Scotland Excels Executive committee the Centre of Procurement expertise for the local government sector where she was invited to judge the National business awards in procurement over her 10 year appointment. Vice Chair of Audit committee, the Development Committee, Social Services committee, Education Committee, Appointed member to the Children’s Panel area support team, KIMO, The License Board, The Planning Board, Chair of the Legalised Police Cells, appointed to the Visiting Committee, served as the elected member appointed as a Trustee of the Shetland Charitable Trust, twice appointed board member of the Harbour Trust and a five year appointed term as Director of the Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation. Amanda felt she could offer more and took on several volunteering roles, since 2015 she has been appointed three times from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland as an Independent Prison Monitor, her role holds statutory authority under the Public Services Reform (Inspection and Monitoring of Prisons) (Scotland) Order 2015. An essential role within the Scottish justice system as it helps ensure prisoners’ human rights are upheld and that life in prison contributes to their rehabilitation. Her qualities of being a compassionate, approachable individual who works hard to make a difference in all her pursuits, her passion about inclusion, inequality and justice saw her awarded the Queens Platinum Jubilee Medal for her voluntary service in Scotland’s prisons during the 2020 pandemic. Amanda considers herself an experienced communicator who has the ability to build and maintain a successful network of contacts with a wide range of people globally, in a clear and confident manner. She has worked for the last decade with people building resilience and enabling individuals to achieve goals and is passionate in both her personal and professional life holding a wealth of experience across a variety of sectors, developing and maintaining good working relationships with people, families, community services, the Voluntary Sector, Social Work and the Charitable and Public sectors. Her 30 year work history makes her the perfect ambassador for Shetland with a wealth of knowledge in her new role as a private tour guide offering bespoke private tours in Shetland covering tourism, food, sustainable development, culture and heritage and a wealth of knowledge of every subject for her VIP visitors, clients and holiday makers.
