Our Team

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.

David
Milburn

Operations Director
ICB Distillers

David has over 20 years of experience within the FMCG Food and Beverage sector, with a proven track record of driving strategic operations efficiency and productivity across all areas of manufacturing and operations. Prior to joining ICB David held numerous posts within TATA Global Beverages covering Engineering, Procurement, Manufacturing, NPD and CAPEX implementation.

Paul
Cornell

Premium Brands Director
Fortitude Spirits

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.

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.