WSTA announces Rooney Anand as Keynote Speaker for 2020 Industry Summit

Events | 18 August, 2020

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association has today announced that Rooney Anand, former CEO of brewer and pub company Greene King, is to be the Keynote Speaker at the upcoming 2020 Industry Summit in September.

This year, the WSTA’s annual event moves online, with a series of smaller digital events spread out across three days from 15^th September to 17^th September.

This shift has allowed the WSTA to develop an agenda that caters to a broader range of members and their interests, with Anand as Keynote Speaker on the 16^th September and interviewed by returning Chair, Alex Forrest Whiting.

Rooney Anand is Chairman of private equity backed businesses Away Resorts and Purity Soft Drinks. He also serves as Senior Independent Director for Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc, and is Chairman of WorldSkills UK, the skills and apprenticeship Government backed charitable foundation.

Prior to this, Rooney was a director at Greene King plc from August 2001 to May 2019, and most recently served as Chairman of the Casual Dining Group. He is sure to provide interesting insight as the on-trade looks to recover from lockdown.

Anand and the WSTA will look ahead to 2021 and beyond, looking at innovation, re-invention, sustainability and environmental issues, as well as the ending of the UK’s Transition period from the EU on 1^st January 2021.

Miles Beale, Chief Executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said:

“We are delighted to be working with Rooney Anand at our upcoming Industry Summit. Rooney is vastly experienced in the industry, and I’ve no doubt that all those who attend the Summit this year will find his thoughts insightful and valuable as we look to the future.

“Whilst we had hoped to once again return to the British Library this year for a more ‘traditional’ Industry Summit,  the health and wellbeing of all our attendees was our utmost concern, so we took the opportunity to host the event virtually this year allowing us to expand  the agenda and make it more accessible to more of our members. ”

The 2020 Industry Summit is open to members and non-members alike, and also to members of the press. For more information, please see the WSTA events page.