Our Team
Leadership
Warren Scott
Group Chairman
Fortitude Spirits Group
Warren is Chairman of Kliro Capital Partners and Fortitude Spirits Group. He was the Founder and CEO of Quintessential Brands Group, one of the UK and Ireland's largest independent spirits companies selling 9 million 9L cases pa. His previous career was as an investment banker with JP Morgan, KPMG and Jefferies across Europe, the US and Africa.
Ed Cottrell
CEO
Fortitude Spirits Group
Ed spent 14 years at Diageo leading its prestige business; Justerini & Brooks and then the industry’s first innovative Customer Collaboration Centre. In 2012 he was appointed Commercial Director of Stonegate Group before moving to become MD of William Grant & Sons' Global Travel Retail in Singapore in 2016. He then joined as Head of Caegory for MMI in Dubai, a $1BN revenue company across 7 Asian markets.
Nick England
Managing Director
Fortitude Drinks UK
Nick was formerly Customer Planning Director of Carlsberg UK with whom he spent 5 years leading the company's UK off-trade strategy. Prior to that he was the UK Customer Director for Mars. Nick‘s early career was spent with Treasury Wine Estates prior to William Grant & Son's where he was Senior Business Manager for key UK retailers.
Chris Tait
CFO
Fortitude Spirits Group
Chris has over 15 years of experience as an International CFO and Finance Director. He has spent the last 10 years in London leading both finance and operation teams in international FMCG companies, with Topps and Velcro Brands. He specialises in developing and expanding fast growing International business through time in Singapore and Ernst & Young in London.
Caroline Huntrods
Group HR Director
Fortitude Spirits Group
Caroline has over 20 years of HR experience in the UK and Middle East. For the last 8 years Caroline has held leadership roles in UK Manufacturing businesses, leading the people strategy, company culture, employee experience and developing high performing teams. Previously she was Head of HR (UK) for INEOS Enterprises where she led on strategy and was part of the team that launched the company’s first FMCG business.
Simon Witham
Head of Legal and Business Development Director
Fortitude Spirits Group
Simon is a qualified lawyer with extensive UK and international in-house commercial, legal and general management experience across FMCG, high-tech manufacturing, consumer electronics and computer industries. Simon's career includes over 10 years in the tobacco industry, a seven-year tenure as General Counsel & Company Secretary at Bakkavor where he managed the IPO of the Group and his most recent position as Group General Counsel at Quintessential Brands Group.
Paul Cornell
Premium Brands Director
Fortitude Spirits Group
Paul has many years experience leading international brands at Molson Coors and before this at Asahi. He transformed brand strategy, marketing assets and global sales across a number of renowned brands – Peroni, Grolsch, Miller and Coors. Prior to this he spent 13 years at Diageo where he established the European Customer Division and led the Guinness advertising leading to record market share.
Distribution & Sales
Ash Corgat
Head of Off Trade
Fortitude Spirits Group
Ash Corgat is a senior commercial leader with over a decade of experience driving growth & transformation across FMCG in multiple categories & sectors. He has managed & led major customers across Grocery, Discounters, Wholesale & Out Of Home sectors delivering growth, market share gains with award-winning execution. With a track record spanning Mars & Carlsberg, Ash combines a customer centric approach with strategic vision, sales leadership and commercial acumen to unlock long-term growth focused customer partnerships.
Brand & Marketing
Charlie Poutney
Commercial Marketing Manager
Fortitude Spirits Group
Charlie has a 12+ year career in alcohol sales and marketing, launching, and managing the growth of a huge variety of brands across all sectors in the UK. As an all-round marketer, Charlie is adept at brand management, brand strategy, digital marketing, customer marketing and execution; supporting performance across on-trade, off-trade and e-commerce.
Tom Ashby
Head of Product
Fortitude Spirits Group
Tom is a creative, commercially driven strategic leader with extensive experience in brand development and product management across the drinks and consumer goods industries. At Fortitude Drinks UK, he leads the development of innovative brands and products, shaping the company’s commercial portfolio and driving category growth through market insight and strategic planning.
Deena Brown
Senior Brand Manager
Fortitude Spirits Group
Deena spent her formative and most latter part of her marketing career working on the Jack Daniel’s portfolio at Brown-Forman in regional and global roles. Her passion for animals led her to Lily’s Kitchen where she was responsible for international marketing and she also spent 3 years working on the market-leading chapatti flour Elephant Atta at Westmill (Associated British Food). She sees her role at Fortitude as the perfect blend. Award-winning Rum and Turtle protection – what’s not to love!
Manufacturing & Bottling
Ian Tindall
Supply Chain Director
ICB Distillers
Ian has over 18 years of supply chain management experience within FMCG businesses. Most recently, for 13 years, he was Head of Supply Chain for FUNKIN Cocktails overseeing their supply chain function through a period of substantial and consistent growth. Ian's expertise lies within the commercial aspects of supply chain and at ICDB he is responsible for leading the procurement, planning, warehousing/logistics, contract manufacturing and NPD teams.
Ben Carthy
Technical Development Manager
ICB Distillers
Ben has led the technical development team at ICB Distillers for 8 years. Ben has a wealth of knowledge in all areas of product development and manufacturing and has developed exceptional relationships with our supply chain partners. Ben’s expertise in these areas allows ICB Distillers to consistently develop cutting-edge liquids and find innovative packaging solutions to customers challenges.