After attending Oxford University, he fell into hotel management, then spent 10 years working for the health service before deciding he wanted to be a dot com millionaire. Thankfully for the pub sector, that didn’t work out and he entered the on-trade working as a consultant for Scottish & Newcastle.
He joined Heineken in 2003 holding a variety of strategic and commercial roles. These included regional managing director Newcastle Breweries for John Smiths to head of business change to commercial director for the on-trade.
With a move to the pub sector within Heineken as Star Pubs & Bars director, he delivered a £75m investment programme to revitalise the business.
Experienced operator
His final role at the global brewer and pub operator was as on-trade director, where he also joined the board in January 2016, taking on responsibility for the leadership of the on-trade division of the UK market then he joined Admiral Taverns in July 2019 as CEO.
In an interview with the Morning Advertiser, he revealed he wasn’t looking for a new position but phone calls from people he respected made him look at the opportunity and “the rest is history.”
As well as running the pub estate at Admiral he also oversaw the acquisition of the Hawthorn estate in 2021, which comprised of 674 sites. More acquisitions followed with sites from Star, Marston’s and Fuller’s bringing the Admiral estate to over 1,600 pubs.
Vital assets
He has strong views on the benefits of community pubs calling them “a force for good.” He considers them vital community assets that bring people together, look out for the vulnerable and isolated, support charities and those in need.
During the Covid pandemic he was one of the most vocal in his opinions and made repeated calls for support for wet-led pubs.
He is a family man, married to Debbie and is a father of four as well as being a Newcastle United football fan.
He is also a non-executive director with T&R Theakston’s and is a board member of the British Beer & Pub Association.
