Steve Norris

Chairman, Arena

Steve Norris, sales director at Nestlé Professional, is a well-known, liked and respected figure within the foodservice and hospitality industry. His extensive experience and passion spans over 30 years and his impressive foodservice career includes national account manager at Bidvest Foodservice, national account controller, RHM Foodservice, and wholesale controller leading to sales director at Nestlé Professional.

Steve is a long term supporter of Arena and fully understands its role and value within the industry. 

Lorraine Wood

Director, Arena

Lorraine is Arena.  She is a natural networker and knows how to put on a great event!  Her extensive event management expertise and skill is evident at every Arena event.   And having worked in the foodservice and hospitality industry for over 20 years, most notably as director of The Restaurant Show and Head of Events for the Publican Awards, it’s also clear that there aren’t many industry names that Lorraine doesn’t know.  

Andy Kemp

Lifetime President, Arena

Andy Kemp is group sales director of Bidfood and is responsible for all corporate/group accounts.  He is the past Chairman of Arena and has sat on the Executive Committee for 18 years. 

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, a Founder Director of the One and All Foundation and Board member of Springboard UK.

Peter Green

Treasurer, Arena

Peter Green is the managing director of FusionFSM a company specialising in the foodservice market place, providing outsourced sales resources and research services to food manufacturers and suppliers.  Peter is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and prior to FusionFSM had an extensive career in contract catering. He has been in foodservice for 39 years and a member of Arena for 10 years.     

Tim Adams

Director of Marketing and Corporate Sales

Tim began his career in foodservice back in 2002 and has gained invaluable experience from a variety of roles over the past 16 years.  In his early career, Tim worked within the buying team before moving into customer development, which ultimately led to his current role as Director of Marketing & Corporate Sales.  Tim oversees the corporate accounts team and customers, as well as the contracts and tenders, corporate marketing and customer and channel marketing teams.  Tim joined Bidfood back in 2004 having spent the previous two years at foodservice provider, Brakes in their purchasing department.

Andrew Allen

Commercial Director and Partner, Biff's Kitchen

Andrew represents the challenger brand side of the industry on the committee.  Having co-founded his first business, Snaffling Pig, as a passion project, he grew it to a nationally known brand before leaving to focus on plant-based business.
 
Andrew is currently Commercial Director and Partner at vegan ‘junk’ brand Biff’s, in addition to being an advisor, NED or investor in a number of other F&B businesses including Oggs and Olly’s Olives. 

Mark Aylwin

Mark has over 40 years’ experience in wholesale and retail, having recently been Chair of Unitas - the UK’s largest buying group and serving on the Boards of Safeway, Musgrave GB, Blueheath, Matthew Clark/Bibendum and Booker. Prior to joining Unitas Mark was COO of Carrefour Business in the Middle East.  
 
Mark is also a board advisor and investor in a number of start-ups.

Peter Backman

Peter enlightens his clients about the opportunities in foodservice. He works closely with senior people in operating companies, investors and suppliers.  He has been involved in the foodservice sector for over 30 years. He founded Arena and, together with Naomi Arnold, was the inspiration behind its development.

Frank Coughlan

Executive Head Chef, BaxterStorey

Frank is an exceptional leader who has extensive experience working in challenging and thriving environments. He has experience of managing teams of up to 200 chefs taking responsibility for their training and development resulting in them leading the way in the culinary industry. He also successfully leads the culinary planning and execution of large-scale events with multiple audiences which include high volume meals to high end, intimate dining. As well as Arena, Frank is also on the Fundraising Committee for Springboard and won the Chris Beaumont Special Award 2018.

Coral Rose

Managing Director, Fairway Foodservice

Coral has extensive experience in the food wholesale industry and has been working with foodservice wholesalers and manufacturers for more than 30 years.  As MD of Fairway Foodservice she leads a central team who provide buying and marketing support to their membership of 20 independent foodservice wholesalers who supply to thousands of independent caterers across all sectors of the market.  Coral attended her first Arena event when she worked for Watson & Philip in the early ‘90’s and has been a supporter ever since.  She is a founding supporter of Women in Wholesale and a member of the council of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors, completing a three term as FWD Chairman in 2022.

Paul Whiteley

Food Purchasing Director, Greene King

Paul Whiteley is Food Purchasing Director for Greene King, the country's leading pub retailer and brewer, with over 2,900 pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK. Paul has over 20 years’ experience in the hospitality sector and has been attending Arena events for over 12 years. Paul joined Greene King in September 2018, and prior to this spent 10 years at ISS Facility Services as Procurement Director. Previous to this Paul worked in a number of customer development roles with Brakes and Bidfood before moving into purchasing in 2010. 

Samantha Davis

Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director, Foodbuy

Samantha has had a diverse career in procurement, starting at Safeway Plc and moving to The Restaurant Group Plc, where she led food and non-food procurement and later logistics.
 
Samantha has been a leader at CH&CO for seven years, during which she quickly advanced from Senior Category Manager to Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director. In this role, she oversaw all procurement across the diverse hospitality and catering business, demonstrating a commitment to sustainability and fostering collaborative partnerships internally and with clients and member partners.

As Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director, Samantha leads the integration of CH&CO into the Foodbuy supply chain. She joined Foodbuy following the CH&CO acquisition by Compass Group UK & Ireland. 

Shereen Ritchie

Chief Executive Officer, Buns from Home

Shereen has 25 years of experience in everything hospitality, PR and construction and is a leader with a difference. She can give you a masterclass in how to lead by inspiration, she creates teams with the strength of lions, and her ‘Only Way is Essex’ upbringing taught her to add glitter to everything.

As the former Managing Director of LEON she led the brand through its most successful, as well as its most challenging time. LEON sold to Euro Garages for 100 million pounds during Covid under her stewardship. Prior to LEON and after a stint in PR and Construction she ‘returned home’ to hospitality and joined Las Iguanas where she grew the business and supported the sale of Las Iguanas to the Casual Dining Group.

Shereen is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the independent bakery brand, buns from home. The brand that was born during the pandemic which has taken the city and social feeds by storm. With queues around the block morning, noon and night, the rapidly growing brand is not only expanding its bakeries but launching into retail and cookbooks.