EUROPEAN SUMMIT

Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.

Katy is founder and MD of KAM. She is passionate about pubs, bars and restaurants and helping KAM’s clients understand their customers. Katy founded KAM Media in 2014 as she saw a gap in the market for a hospitality and grocery insight agency that puts creativity at its heart.

Katy is also a Bii Trustee, an advisor for both Pub Aid and Only a Pavement Away charities. She is also a judge of the Bii Licensee of the Year award & the Quality Food Awards and the Scottish food and Drink awards, as well as being proud to be a Plan B Mentor. Katy and KAM created Pedalling for Pubs, the annual hospitality initiative that raises money for the LTC and OAPA.

Professor Charles Spence is a world-famous experimental psychologist with a specialization in neuroscience-inspired multisensory design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies across the globe since establishing the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University in 1997. Prof. Spence has published over 1,100 academic articles and edited or authored, 16 books including, in 2014, the Prose prize-winning “The perfect meal”, and the international bestseller “Gastrophysics: The new science of eating” (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique from Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie. His latest book Sensehacking was published in 2021.
Much of Prof. Spence’s work focuses on the design of enhanced multisensory food and drink experiences, through collaborations with chefs, baristas, mixologists, chocolatiers, perfumiers, and the food and beverage, and flavour and fragrance industries. Prof. Spence has worked extensively in the world of multisensory experiential wine and coffee and has also worked extensively on the question of how technology will transform our dining/drinking experiences in the future.

Amanda Mason is a seasoned marketer with over a decade of experience across various industries. Currently, she is the Head of Marketing at Roadchef, one of the UK’s largest motorway service station operators. Since taking on the role in January 2021, Amanda has been instrumental in driving Roadchef’s marketing strategy, focusing on optimising customer experience and driving brand growth.

Beyond her role at Roadchef, Amanda is a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. As the Vice Chair of the UKHospitality EDI Committee, Amanda has been at the forefront of promoting DEI practices within the hospitality sector. Her efforts have been recognised in the industry, with her being named in the RMI 30 under 30 Marketers and Innovators 2019.

Amanda’s marketing career has seen her hold a variety of roles within leading brands such as Cobham, Compass Group, and Frost & Sullivan. Her expertise spans across a range of marketing disciplines, including brand strategy, digital marketing, and customer experience optimisation.

James has worked in hospitality for over 20 years. He started washing pots at the age of 13 and has worked as a chef, front or house and as a manager before moving into marketing roles. James spent 2 years working with Ann Elliott before then heading to New Zealand where he spent 2.5 years living in Wellington as Head of Commercial & Marketing for the largest hospitality group in New Zealand, opening 12 venues in that time. After stupidly deciding to return from New Zealand nearly 7 and a half years ago now, James enjoyed a brief stint as Head of Insight at Airship before moving to Head of Marketing at Ego Restaurants where he oversaw the full re-brand of the business as well as their joint venture with Mitchels & Butlers. He opened another 12 sites in 3 years there before Covid hit and has now spent the last 2 plus years working as Sales & Marketing Director of East Coast Concepts who operate 2 brands with 6 sites. James is as fanatical about data as he is guest experience and equally happy analysing large sets of data as he is speaking with guests and team members on the floor.

Anthony founded the first incarnation of Yummy Collection in 2007 and has evolved the business over time adapting to an ever changing hospitality landscape. In October Anthony and the Yummy team launched Faber, their first full restaurant after many years honing skills in the pub trade. The team now plan to develop and grow their sustainable seafood restaurant concept giving equity to team members and focusing on an ethical offer they can all be proud of.

Dan Burns is Natural Selection Design’s founder and managing director. Dan formed the agency after many years working as a designer, photographer and food stylist for industry press. Dan may be the head honcho, but you’ll just as likely see him setting up props and making tea, as you will directing filming and leading creative strategy.

Pizza Pilgrims started life in 2011, after driving a three wheeled Piaggio Ape back from Italy on a 6 week “Pizza Pilgrimage” of discovery. Once home, we installed a Neapolitan pizza oven and sold our first pizza on Berwick St Market. Since then, we have traded at a huge variety of events across the country, and opened pizzerias in London and Oxford (so we can make pizza in the rain). We are only interested in making the best quality pizza possible - with handmade, 48 hr proved dough and ingredients shipped in from Naples. The pizza is accompanied by Italian wines & craft beers - as well as fussball, arcade machines and tunes you have not heard in a while.

Originally from New Zealand, Tortilla’s Marketing Director Megan Burton-Brown joined the fast-casual brand in 2017 and has fallen in love with the UK’s hospitality scene. With 85+ burrito and taco joints globally, Tortilla continues to grow with the help of an effective and down-to-earth marketing and digital strategy; from harnessing the power of brand and influencer collaborations, to maximising awareness through social media and reputation through Google and delivery.

Simon Potts is CEO of The Alchemist, the UK’s leading creative cocktail bar and restaurant brand which was established in Manchester in 2010. He has worked in the industry for over 20 years and joined the business in 2015 as part of a management buyout backed by Palatine Private Equity. The business operates 24 venues in the UK and Germany.

Growing up in the restaurant business, by her father’s side, Natasha Sideris cultivated a profound passion for hospitality that would become her life's calling. She opened the original tashas in South Africa in 2005 and is now the CEO and Founder of Tashas Group, a name synonymous with excellence in the hospitality industry. Under her leadership, the Group now boasts nine concepts under its umbrella with 34 locations in South Africa, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and has recently opened its first tashas in London.

Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.

Based at Hilton’s MEA Regional Office in Dubai, Emma Banks is responsible for F&B strategy and development across EMEA, supporting Hilton’s trading and future pipeline of hotels. Over the course of Emma’s career, she has seamlessly transitioned from independents to large global hospitality companies. She joined Hilton in 2019 with a mission to make the company the clear leader in F&B. In but a short time she has made a big impact, bringing a wealth of exceptional F&B talent into the business while being actively involved in Hilton’s various diversity initiatives. Emma recognizes the critical responsibility that F&B plays in protecting the planet and has been involved in several market-leading initiatives to reduce single-use plastics, track food waste and source ingredients locally, which was recognised at the recent launch of Gault & Millau in the UAE, when Emma was shortlisted as a finalist in the category of ‘Sustainability Champion Of The Year’. Emma is also a role model to women in the industry, ranking #1 in Caterer Middle East’s “2020 Women in F&B” Power List. At the end of 2020 Emma was elected a Member of the Board of Governors and Member of the Board of the Academic Committee of Dubai College of Tourism (DCT) and in 2022, she was selected to be one of HSBC’s ’75 Faces of the UAE’. Most recently Emma was acknowledged with a Middle East Women Leader Award at the World Women Leadership Congress Awards Middle East, for her contribution to the promotion of empowerment and social change. Emma holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Leeds University and lives in Dubai with her husband Jon, daughter Lily (when home from university) and a menagerie of rescue cats and dogs!

Since leaving his career as a corporate lawyer in 1999, Downey has become a highly influential voice in hospitality - opening over 20 bars, clubs, restaurants and a hotel in London, Ibiza, Chamonix and Melbourne. In 2015 he was named by Debrett’s/Sunday Times as one of the 20 most influential Brits in food and drink and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Spirited Awards in New Orleans.

In 2012 Downey brought his drinks expertise to Street Feast, a street food night market founded in east London. Downey has since organised several events and street food arenas under the Street Feast brand (including Model Market, Dinerama, Hawker House, Giant Robot and Public) all over London; taking derelict and disused spaces and filling them with food, booze, music and vibes.

Fiona Richmond has been actively promoting and supporting quality food and drink production for more than 18 years, working with industry leadership organisation Scotland Food & Drink since 2009 managing various projects across food tourism, regional food development, foodservice and major events. Named one of the UK's top 20 icons of the industry by Speciality & Fine Food magazine 2019, she previously worked with the Slow Food movement, including a period in the international headquarters in Italy. She is currently Guest President of Les Dames D'Escoffier London, a branch of the international philanthropic association of leading women in the world of food, drink and hospitality, was named one of the Top 100 Women in Tourism and The Scottish Women’s Awards Best Professional in Business 2022.

Mikala Kofoed Rasmussen has worked with the restaurant industry on-off since 2008. From Meyers (Claus Meyer co-creater of noma) where she did events/masterclasses to promote the qualities of the Danish food culture and operates at all levels in the value chain from farm to table. And now at her position at Wonderful Copenhagen, working to promote and develop both business and leisure tourism. She works through several networks and development projects with restaurants across Copenhagen, have launched  a new gastro narrative for Copenhagen and a digital magazine “Craving Copenhagen” where the purpose is to shine a light on some of the many new and exciting things happening in the kitchens and restaurants across the capital.   

Her aim is always to work closely together with the big and small “players” to make sure that Copenhagen continues to have a worldclass gastronomy offer for the enjoyment of both local and international guests.

www.cravingcopenhagen.com

Rory Sutherland is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, where he has worked since 1988. This attractively vague job title has allowed him to form a behavioural science practice within the agency dedicated to uncovering the hidden business and social possibilities which emerge when you apply creative minds to the latest thinking in psychology and behavioural science.  He is the author of three books: The Wiki Man, the best-selling Alchemy - The surprising Power of Ideas which don't make Sense, published in the UK and US in May 2019, and, co-written with his former colleague Pete Dyson, the newly released Transport For Humans on the behavioural science of transport.

Check out Rory's session at RMI 2023 HERE.

Matt is a creative marketing professional with over 10 years experience in marketing the food & beverage sector, having started working with The Restaurant Group, then SSP UK, Crêpeaffaire and most recently Krispy Kreme UK & Ireland. Opening 50+ new locations across multiple brands including Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito, Ed's Diner and The Beer House as well as introducing new concepts to the market such as Garfunkel's Coffee House, Coast to Coast and Crepe & Roll with marketing spend spanning from shoestring to blockbuster budgets across different concepts. Recent launches have balanced bringing Joy to communities, with the sales halo effect of a successfully implemented launch and the current focus is expanding Krispy Kreme in the Irish market.

Eljesa Saciri is truly making her mark in the industry. From winning Acorn’s 30 Under 30 Awards in 2023, to being recognized as one of the women paving the way in the hospitality sector. Having worked in the industry for almost 10 years, previously holding a number of roles at The Doyle Collection, Eljesa has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the hospitality sector and understands the grassroots of the industry. Now in her role as General Manager of The Zetter Townhouse Marylebone, Eljesa has been integral to the hotel achieving an annual turnover of £2.7 million, a high guest satisfaction with a 92% rating on GuestRevu and 4.5 stars consistently on Google Reviews. She has also led the project to completely revitalise the hotel’s cocktail bar, Seymour’s Parlour to become a sought-after destination, as well as ensuring that The Zetter Townhouse Marylebone is one of the premier hotels in central London.

As a restaurant and bar experience driver and emotion designer, Hilari has been developing F&B experiences for hotels around the world for the past 8 years. Her passion for the curious art of creating great spaces has led her to the UAE, joining Fairmont Hotels & Resorts to drive F&B experiences globally. With 90 hotels in operation and a healthy hotel opening pipeline, her time is split between researching what makes consumers tick and defining the tools to bring F&B to the forefront of the Fairmont portfolio.

Michael has a deep and extensive experience leading and improving businesses across Europe. Working hands-on with investors and management teams in the food and hospitality sectors on developing ambitious but achievable strategies, and then getting all the business elements right for executing the plans and achieving the goals.

After completing his MBA from Dartmouth College in the US, he spent a number of years with the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, as founder/CEO of technology firms in Scandinavia and the UK, and working with private equity firms across Europe.

He’s the chairman, director or advisor of a number of restaurants (from casual to Michelin starred), food, tech and communications companies in the UK, Scandinavia, the US & South America, giving him a unique perspectives on what works and what doesn't -and a deep respect for the unique qualities and challenges of each individual business.

Maya Orr is an award-winning marketing and communications professional who is known for her work across the #LidlSurprises brand campaign. This 2014 campaign transformed Lidl’s discounter reputation and subsequently has seen the supermarket’s market share double.
Maya began her career in broadcast PR in 2010. Since then, she has worked with several brands across all sectors, both client and agency side, and has been integral in a number of areas of marketing and communications including strategy, event planning, branding, as well as overseeing some of the most memorable above-the-line campaigns including a work for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
At the height of the Pandemic, Maya joined the LADbible Group as Director of Marketing and Communications to oversee all the Marketing, Communications, Design and Licensing across the publisher's portfolio of brands, which include LADbible, SPORTbible, UNILAD, GAMINGbible and Tyla.
Most recently, Maya joined Connect Management as MD, working alongside founder and CEO, Benjy Leslie, in this newly created position. Maya sits on the Board and is responsible for several key areas within the business including all creative, reputation management, strategy, through-the-line marketing as well as expansion for the group.
Aside from Maya’s day job, she holds a WSET accreditation and is a food and drinks judge in many esteemed competitions including the Great Taste Awards and the International Spirits Challenge.

Joining TikTok in 2021, Ram heads up the restaurant & travel accounts, supporting brands across their respective industries with marketing campaigns on TikTok. In his role, Ram is responsible for helping some of the world's most iconic food and travel brands succeed on the platform. An avid ice hockey fan and reader, Ram originally hails from Canada before moving to the U.K in 2018. His British accent has not improved in that time.

Anthony joined Incipio Group in 2020 where in his role as Sales and Marketing Director he leads the group’s marketing strategy and creative direction for venues including Pergola, Lost in Brixton and The Prince. Prior to Incipio Anthony was Managing Director of hospitality strategy agency, Elliotts and has been responsible for launching and marketing some of London’s most popular bars and nightclubs including Mahiki, Steam & Rye and Tropicana Beach Club. Anthony was named Restaurant Marketer and Innovator’s Future Marketing Leader of The Year in 2018.

Romy is a strategic, creative and commercial leader with corporate and agency experience. “I deliver topline growth through team, brand and product, and profitability through commercial leadership. I’m Global Brand Director at KellyDeli, an Asian food business that delights sushi lovers with 1200 artisan-led Sushi Daily branded kiosks across Europe. From 2013-2021 I was at GAIL’s Bakery, and BBH advertising agency from 2005-2013.”

Mark McCulloch, one of the leading Food, Drink & Hospitality brand & marketing minds in the world. An extension of the tigerbond family, having worked together on many projects over the last few years notably Buzzworks Holdings and the industry recruitment campaign, Hospitality Rising. A fellow Scot (Kilwinning, Ayrshire), Mark has over 20 years Brand, Marketing, Digital and Social Media experience holding senior and board level positions at at lastminute.com, Barclaycard, YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger. His experience also includes Dishoom, BrewDog, Costa, Roadchef, Nestle, Red Carnation Hotels, Ibis, Brighton Fringe, Bill’s, Rosa’s Thai, Holiday Extras, Buzzworks, Fourth, Vanarama, SSP. Mark now lives and works by the sea in Brighton, England but has clients all over the world. 

After leaving Pret in 2013, Mark co-founded multi-award winning Brand & Marketing agency WE ARE Spectacular in 2012 which is still going strong today but now works solo as a consultant, NED and advisor to Premium brands in hospitality, tech and B2B with his consultancy Supersonic Inc. 

Mark is also a popular thought leader, speaker and broadcaster, the highlight of which being in 2018 when Mark began podcasting and his hugely successful Mark McC Supersonic Hospitality Marketing Podcast. Mark’s podcast has been downloaded over 100,000 times and has reached the top 10 in the UK iTunes business charts and is a regular Top 100 podcast in multiple countries around the world helping educate, entertain and inspire both the marketing and business community.

Mark is also the Campaign Director for Hospitality Rising which is an Army Be The Best style campaign but for hospitality to help solve the hospitality recruitment crisis forever. He was acknowledged for his tireless work to improve the perception of working in hospitality by receiving the Casual Dining Awards Special Award which is only the third time this has even been awarded.

Managing Director at THINK Hospitality & Co-Founder of Restaurant Marketer & Innovator. James has worked with more than fifty hospitality brands in ten countries as a senior executive & consultant, including Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group, IHG, Thai Leisure Group, Casual Dining Group, Radisson Hotels, Krispy Kreme, Greene King & Sodexo. He specialises in refining and defining brands, understanding the market, facilitating strategic development and maximising growth opportunities.