Rooney Anand

Rooney Anand is a British-Asian business leader and one of the most decorated executives in the UK hospitality and consumer goods sector. Growing up in Walsall to parents who were doctors, he pursued a different path — completing an MBA at Aston Business School before embarking on a career in brand marketing and consumer goods at United Biscuits and then Sara Lee. It was a career grounded in understanding what makes people choose one product over another, and it would prove unexpectedly well-suited to running pubs.

Anand joined Greene King in 2001 as Managing Director of its brewing division and became Chief Executive in 2005. Over the following 14 years he transformed the historic Bury St Edmunds brewer from a regional operation into the UK's largest managed pub company, quadrupling revenues to over £2.2 billion through a series of landmark acquisitions including Loch Fyne, the Spirit Pub Company, and the Capital Pub Company. He was named Leader of the Year at the 2016 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards and was one of a tiny handful of non-white CEOs in the FTSE 350 during his tenure. When CK Assets acquired Greene King for £2.7 billion in 2019, it was the culmination of the business he had built.

In 2021, backed by Oaktree Capital Management, Anand founded RedCat Pub Company to capitalise on a wave of distressed pub assets coming to market during the pandemic. RedCat has since acquired more than 100 pubs and pub hotels, becoming a significant independent managed operator. In 2024 the company raised a further £52 million from Oaktree to continue expanding its estate. Anand serves as Executive Chairman, bringing his track record in community-focused hospitality to a new generation of British pubs.