The 37-year-old has a soft spot for Canada, where she was able to indulge her passion for skiing, and along with a group of friends, she will be heading back for a summer holiday in a lakeside cabin. But as a self-confessed shopaholic, living in London is no hardship and she is pleased that her latest passion - learning to play golf - has given her an excuse to buy a new wardrobe.
Tilling exudes a sense of fun and appears to embrace a hedonist lifestyle, but behind this easygoing persona lies a steely businesswoman; her globetrotting has been made possible only by her knack for kicking into shape faltering Yum! operations.
In Canada, she reversed the fortunes of the foundering Pizza Hut chain and returned it to sales growth through a combination of fresh advertising, NPD and a reinvention of its marketing strategy.
The reason behind her return to the UK is similar. Before her arrival in January 2006, KFC was in dire straits. Families, traditionally its biggest spenders, were deserting the brand and sales were in freefall.
Tilling has brought about a remarkable turnaround in a short time and sales growth is now running at 12% year on year, which is no mean feat for a fast-food chain in the current climate of obesity concern.
Being true to the brand has been the overriding theme of the turnaround, she says. 'We have secured the biggest success from saying we sell the best-tasting chicken and are fantastic for family meals.'
The 拢30m promotional budget no longer goes on 'Soul food' ads featuring good-looking 20-somethings. A family-focused TV strategy talking directly to mums now takes the lion's share, while outdoor is the preferred medium for communicating with young adults. NPD including boneless chicken pieces and lunchtime products such as the Wrapstar have proved popular.
'The challenge with retail marketing is that you need to build a brand, but you also need to make sure that the food remains the hero,' explains Tilling. We probably went a little bit too far toward the brand and we needed to make sure we had the right balance of retail news and brand.'
The chain has also started to discuss on its website the quality of its chicken, perhaps in response to the stomach-churning urban myths and half-truths that surround all fast-food restaurants. 'The chicken is delivered fresh in-store every day and hand-breaded in the restaurants. It doesn't come in frozen or fried,' insists Tilling. 'We buy A-grade chicken and it is breast meat. It is what you get at Waitrose or Tesco, except we get the first pick as we are the biggest chicken buyer.'
A sizeable proportion of Tilling's time is spent coaching and developing her 10-strong marketing team, a side of the role she finds fulfilling. As both Yum!'s chairman and UK managing director are former marketers, Tilling says the discipline is respected throughout the business and, unlike other fast-food chains, KFC marketers are not centrally controlled by the US, so there is room for innovation and creativity.
When asked how long she intends to stay in the UK this time, Tilling quips 'Until I master my golf game', before pledging to stay for the foreseeable future. 'I like it here, it's a good job. I live in central London, so there's always a lot going on. I'm in no rush to go,' she says.
But if another Yum! outfit needs licking into shape, it is more than likely that Tilling will get a call to whisk her away. KFC's UK bosses are no doubt hoping their sister companies enjoy unprecedented growth for some time to come.
CAREER HISTORY
1993-1994: Assistant brand manager rising to brand manager, Cussons Australia
1994-1996: Brand manager, ice cream, Nestle Australia
1996-1999: Marketing manager, Go Ahead and Penguin, United Biscuits
1999-2003: Director of marketing strategy rising to senior marketing manager, Pizza Hut, UK
2003-2005: Director of product marketing, Pizza Hut, US
2005-2006: Chief marketing officer Yum! Brands, Canada
2006-present: Vice-president marketing, KFC, UK and Ireland.