Big Easy gears up for expansion with a raft of senior appointments
Big Easy Bar.B.Q & Lobstershack has announced a series of key appointments as it gears up to launch its first site outside London later this year.
Big Easy has three sites in the capital, with a fourth site planned for Edinburgh later this year.
Joining the Big Easy brand as it expands will be Jean-Baptiste Requien in a newly created position of operations director south.
Requien has previously worked for D&D London Group as a senior general manager, where he looked after both Bluebird and Quaglino's, and also spent six years in restaurant manager roles at Gordon Ramsay Group.
Meanwhile, Damon Kestle has joined the team as operations director north, overseeing the new site set for Edinburgh, and future openings in the north of the UK.
Kestle has worked in operational roles all over the UK as well as abroad, having worked in Toronto for the past six years as regional director of restaurants for Service Inspired Restaurants.
Helen Cook has also joined the Big Easy team as marketing & commercial director. Having originally started her career in the hospitality industry on the operational side, Cook moved across to marketing within Novus Leisure.
And Dinuka Bandara Gunasekara has been appointed to the newly created role of director of coffee.
Gunasekara has previously worked at brands including Harris + Hoole and Knot Coffee and Pretzel.
His role will initially focus on a brand new project at the Canary Wharf site, ensuring that the new coffee offering at Big Easy is of the highest quality. His role will then move into a development role across the whole of the Big Easy group.
In the kitchen, new group executive chef, Marcos Georgiou joins from Jamie's Italian, where he has worked as chef director for the past three years. During his time there, Georgiou has overseen 21 restaurants in the UK, and opened a further 22 sites internationally.
Also new to the team is human resources director Elisabete Gomes Taveres. Taveres has worked in the hospitality human resources sector for over 15 years, including positions at Nando's, Gondola Group and most recently as HR business partner at Zizzi Restaurants.
Big Easy Founder, Paul Corrett, said: "As the Big Easy brand continues to grow in popularity, I am absolutely thrilled to bring in new members of the team to help elevate the whole Big Easy experience. Big times are ahead for the restaurant with our next opening in Edinburgh as well as some exciting and totally unique projects that we can't wait to share."
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