A seasoned hospitality leader with extensive experience in global corporations. He has developed restaurant concepts in 20 countries. Customer experience and satisfaction are at the heart of everything he does.

Gary began his career in the hotel industry in the mid-1980s, before joining Allied Domecq as a trainee pub manager, moving through its ranks into Area Management. He progressed to Head of Concept Development for Eldridge Pope before joining Merlin Entertainments in 2003 holding a number of senior positions before becoming Global Food and Beverage Director in 2009. Gary left Merlin in 2014 to lead the merger of Peppercorn and Swan.

During his career, Gary has formed and led teams to achieve outstanding financial and customer satisfaction results through implementing strategies, structures, and processes that grow sales and profit.

Paul’s expertise lies in both design and branding, his career has expanded across a diverse range of creative roles from creative designer, to studio manager, then art director. He has the vision and experience to create and develop multiple brands with strategic precision.

He built his career at leading national agencies before moving on to support the creation of Swan Graphic Arts, whose diverse range of blue chip clients spanned across the retail and business to consumer (B2C) industries. Swan Graphic Arts then evolved into Swan Creative, leading with more brand focus and design reach, winning projects from Virgin Active, Butlins to Old el Paso and Merlin Entertainments where he met Gary and Lee.

Swan Creative have worked on many online and offline branding projects and embraced the digital arena, which has further expanded Paul’s expertise, building an in-depth knowledge of digital environments from brand strategy, design, print, and marketing to website design and innovation.

Lee’s experience in the Food & Beverage sector means he understands the challenges facing hospitality businesses every day. He has the creative vision to tell a brand story whilst making sure all stakeholders are aligned for the journey.

Lee learnt his trade in branded and unbranded restaurants with Allied Domecq, where he served as both area chef then progressed to responsibility for national openings.

He then moved on to become Food Development Manager for Eldridge Pope, responsible for Food Development across 133 UK sites. Lee then joined Merlin as Global Food Development Manager where he was also responsible for planning the food propositions for new hotels and theme parks globally along with playing a key role in the removal of high street brands through the creation of in house concepts.

Lee left Merlin in May 2014 to fulfill a long held ambition to run his own company. After just six highly successful months, he was approached to merge his business with Swan Creative to form Acacia Holdings.