Dishoom co-founder Kavi Thakrar (pictured left) and sector strategist, investor and multiple board chair Jane O’Riordan (pictured below) are the latest big names to join the high profile speakers’ roster at this year’s CGA Peach 2020 conference in London on November 20.
O’Riordan, formerly group strategy director at Nando’s and now chair at Caravan, Turtle Bay and Flight Club, as well as an investor on TV’s Million Pound Menu, will join other industry leaders on the concluding panel of the day addressing the big question in these uncertain times, ‘What’s the future look-like?’
Meanwhile, Thakrar will be teaming up with other big name brand leaders Chris Hill, CEO of New World Trading Co, James Brown, global retail director at Brewdog, and Mowgli founder Nisha Katona MBE, who will be chairing the session, to tackle another major market challenge – ‘How to nurture a strong people culture’.
Katona is joining CGA vice president Peter Martin to co-chair the 2019 conference sessions. The chef, food writer, TV presenter and driving force behind the Mowgli brand will draw on her experiences as a relative industry newcomer, promoting Indian food and launching a restaurant business, to help shape this year’s conference narratives – spotlighting the issues most important to her, chairing panels focusing not just on people but on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Other big issues on the conference agenda will include the future of food, the political landscape, international opportunities, what’s new and changing and the latest developments in data and insight.
Other speakers on the day include:
- Wendy Bartlett MBE, executive chair of specialist caterer Bartlett Mitchell;
- Karl Chessell, food & retail director at CGA;
- Henry Dimbleby MBE, co-founder of the Leon brand and the man charged by the Government to create a new food strategy for England;
- Phil Hambling, the NFU’s Head of Food and Farming;
- Ollie Hunter, head of development at street food incubator KERB;
- Kate Nicholls CEO of UK Hospitality, the sector’s trade body;
- Phil Tate, group CEO at CGA;
- Julia Wilkinson, group restaurant strategy executive with Shaftesbury, the real estate investment trust which invests in London’s West End.
The invitation-only Peach 2020 event for the sector’s top executives and entrepreneurs will be held at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London on Wednesday, November 20, 2019.
As ever, the conference will be followed in the evening by the annual Peach Hero & Icon Awards dinner, honouring the best in the industry, and hosted by Peter Martin.
The awards will honour dozens of outstanding operators across the out-of-home eating and drinking markets and will include the unique Icon awards, which recognise those individuals who have made an outstanding and lasting contribution to the sector. Final short-lists will be announced next week.
The conference and awards dinner are both strictly invitation-only events, with places reserved for senior executives in operating companies. Only a small number of places now remain for awards finalists.
CGA is grateful to our sponsors of this year’s Peach 2020:
