I grew up in the family restaurant business, so hospitality was never really something I discovered later in life. It was around me from the beginning. After completing my degree in Food Service Management and Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University, I headed to New York, where I spent the next 15 years building a career across some of the city’s restaurants, hotels and hospitality groups, with a few years in Washington DC along the way.

I started where a lot of people in this business do, in the kitchen. From there I moved into front of house and beverage, eventually becoming a certified sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. That combination of kitchen, service and beverage experience gave me a pretty good understanding of what makes a hospitality business work, and just as importantly, what can make it fall apart.

Over the years my focus naturally moved toward operations. I worked with restaurant groups including ThinkFoodGroup, Mike Isabella Concepts and Anejo Restaurant Group, opening new restaurants, developing concepts, building teams and taking responsibility for the financial side of the business. In New York I went on to run The Clocktower at The Edition, where we earned the group’s first Michelin star, before taking on the Food & Beverage operation at the Four Seasons Downtown with the Wolfgang Puck Group.

I eventually made the move to London, where I have continued working across restaurants and hotels, including D&D Restaurants, The Cumberland and Lore Group. Most recently, as Global Head of Food & Beverage for Lore Group, I was responsible for seven hotels across the UK, Europe, and the US.

After more than 20 years in the industry, I have probably learned that there is no single formula for running a great hospitality business. The best results usually come from getting the basics right, having the right people in the right positions, understanding the numbers and creating places that people genuinely want to come back to. That is the approach I bring to JHospitality, with plenty of experience, a healthy amount of opinion and a genuine love for the business.