QSR Media UK Conference & Awards 2023

Alasdair Murdoch has been Chief Executive Officer of Burger King UK since 2018. Mr Murdoch has over 25 years of experience in the casual dining sector as the former Chief Executive Officer of Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Chief Executive Officer of Pizza Express International, Pizza Hut UK and General Manager of Pizza Hut France. Prior to that he was the Operations Director of KFC UK and Ireland and Pizza Hut.

Mr Murdoch studied at the Cranfield School of Management.

Jon Lake is Managing Director of Chopstix, and has been at the helm of the company since 2018.

Highly respected within the hospitality sector, Jon has 30 years’ experience in a number of key roles within multinational organisations, including Fine Food Capital, where he was Development Director, and Deloitte, where he was Director of M&A specialising in the licensed retail sector. Prior to that, Jon held senior management posts with both Punch and Whitbread.

Working closely with Chopstix co-founders, Sam Elia and Menashe Sadik, Jon has overseen the rapid growth of the group, which comprises Chopstix Noodle Bar, the UK’s largest Asian QSR brand, Yangtze and now Chozen, following a recent acquisition. The group’s total number of Asian QSR sites currently sits at over 125. The fast-growing group, which opened 26 Chopstix sites last year, comprises locations across the UK and Ireland through a mix of company owned and operated locations and franchise sites, and has long-term ambitions to reach 500 sites.

Guy Meakin is UK Shops & Franchise Director at Pret A Manger. In his role, Guy is responsible for overseeing all of Pret’s operations in the UK and Ireland including Shops, Franchises and Property, helping to deliver the business’s ambitious growth plans. Guy has been at Pret for six years and has held various roles including Interim UK and Ireland Managing Director, Head of Commercial, UK Food & Coffee Director and UK Trading Director. Guy is passionate about foodservice and retail, boasting a wealth of experience with other major brands including Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's and Gü.

Duncan Fielding has a long history serving and working in the QSR market place. As Head of POS for Panasonic Europe worked with accounts such as McDonalds, KFC, Subway, and many more.

Duncan has worked in both hardware and software solutions for QSR including Keystations, CCTV, Biometrics, and Security.

At DTiQ Duncan is responsible for Enterprise and Tier 1 accounts and growing the brand in UK and Ireland and beyond into mainland Europe.

Casper Doorten is the current International Commercial Development Director of Amorino since 2022. 

Before this, he held the role of Corporate Counsel Legal EMEA and moved to the position of Strategy & Business Planning Manager at Starbucks Coffee. 

He was a corporate lawyer for CMS Law and Allen & Overy before he entered the QSR scene.

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 80+ 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 online reputation through Google and delivery.

Malachy O’Keeffe is the Head of Marketing at Wingstop UK, one of the fastest growing and most popular QSR brands in the country.

Prior to that, Malachy was at Pho for over five years, supporting their expansion throughout the UK.

Malachy has over ten years’ experience across all things marketing and has worked extensively across the food and drink sector as well as the third sector.

Sara McKennedy is Commercial Brand Director at Coco di Mama, the UK’s leading Italian-to-Go brand. Since joining the brand in 2018, she has overseen the brand's growth strategy which started with expanding to 30 sites in Central London in 2019, and since Covid expanding to 140+ nationwide delivery kitchen locations, launching a retail partnership with Sainsbury's and forming a franchise relationship with Roadchef and MFG. 

Coco di Mama has been recognised with 6x Great Taste awards, 5x QSR Awards and finalist for the Peach Reimagined Brand and MCA Brand Evolution Award. Sara has 12+ years of experience in brand strategy across hospitality, FMCG, start-ups and social enterprise. She is an alumni of the Marketing Academy and Marketing Week Mini MBA. 

Dinesh Dixit (EVP of Account Excellence), the leader of the Account Management practice at LogiNext, sits at the intersection of clients, product and business development teams to operationalize and scale the LogiNext transportation automation platform. His direction and leadership have helped clients save millions of dollars in operational costs and provide a unique customer experience. His prior experience across Asia, Europe and North America provides a keen sense of understanding of geographical nuances and considerations, enabling hyper-growth at LogiNext.

Before his journey at LogiNext, he held leadership positions across multiple organizations, including Deloitte and Apple, and served as a trusted advisor to Fortune 100 clients across the globe. With a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Dinesh brings a strong technology foundation to bridge the gap between business and technology teams to implement large-scale organizational change. 

LogiNext, under Dinesh’s leadership, has gained renown as a thought leader in the industry, moving the needle in technology and product innovations, while solving real-world problems. His focus on instituting a customer-first mindset has enabled LogiNext to understand, identify and solve some of the biggest challenges in the industry.

Rosalind is a Partner at Simon-Kucher in London and leads the UK Restaurant practice. She has over 11 years’ experience supporting companies to develop and implement sustainable growth strategies. To achieve this her projects combine strategy, analytics and primary customer research to create pragmatic and actionable solutions, working from the initial inception through to implementation.

Florian is the co-founder of The Salad Project which operates 3 brick & mortar locations and a dark kitchen in Spitalfields, Bank, Battersea and Oxford Circus. After graduating from hospitality management University in Switzerland, Florian partnered up with his best friend and they built The Salad Project with one simple mission: to become the go-to place for a healthy, hearty and entirely customisable meal in London.

Nick is a co-founder of SushiDog. A fast casual, grab and go concept that is revolutionising the sushi market with freshly prepared, made to order sushi rolls, bowls and salads. The idea for SushiDog was conceived in 2017 and the first site opened in Westfield London in May 2018. The brand has now grown to 4 sites in London. A further 3 stores will open this year with plans to continue expanding to 30 sites by 2027.

Andreia has 20 years of hospitality experience across QSR and casual dining, across the UK and international markets. In her current role, she manages over 40 restaurant brands across Leisure (Highstreet brands) and concessions (international airports).

Joining TikTok in 2021, Rameez heads up the restaurant & travel accounts, supporting brands across their respective industries with marketing campaigns on TikTok. In his role, Rameez 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.

Head up the social media team within the Marketing Hub at Costa HQ. Responsible for all content, strategy, paid media and influencer activity within the UK&I business. Have been with Costa 13 years, originally starting via a temp role placing coffee and cup orders, after 18 months travelling Australia and SE Asia. Since then I’ve done every social media role within the business to get to my position now.