Board of directors

Duncan brings extensive leadership and board-level experience across hospitality, leisure and multi-site consumer businesses. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Empiric Student Properties PLC and has previously served as CEO of Punch Taverns, Bill’s Restaurants and Ten Entertainment Group. He has also held board roles as Chair of Small Beer Brewco and is currently Senior Independent Director for the Brighton Pier Group.

In addition to his UK operational expertise, Duncan brings substantial international franchising experience gained through senior roles with Alshaya, BAA and Eathos, Tortilla’s franchise partner in the Middle East. This combination of operational leadership, board governance and global franchising experience will be invaluable as Tortilla enters its next phase of growth in the UK as well as internationally.

Brandon founded Tortilla in 2007 and led the business as Chief Executive Officer until 2014, establishing Tortilla as one of the pioneers of the fast-casual Mexican category in the UK. Following a period as a Non-Executive Director, he returned as Group Chief Executive Officer to lead the next phase of the Company’s development.

As Group CEO, Brandon is responsible for overall Group strategy and performance, with a focus on long-term growth, brand and concept development, food innovation, technology roadmap, property strategy, business development and investor relations.

In addition to Tortilla, Brandon has founded and led several consumer businesses, including REVL. He has served as Chairman of Red’s True Barbecue and Interim Director of E-commerce at Arcadia Group. He currently advises TriSpan’s Rising Stars fund and serves as a Non-Executive Director of Thunderbird Fried Chicken Ltd.

Brandon began his career in Silicon Valley and has worked as a consultant at Accenture and Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from London Business School.

Usman represents the interests of Auctor Group, Tortilla’s largest shareholder.

Usman is Managing Partner at Auctor, a holding company that builds and supports companies at the forefront of emerging technology. Auctor owns and operates strategic assets where there are long-term opportunities to disrupt and transform legacy industries by leveraging technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

Usman serves on the Board of Kaikaku, a company reinventing the quick-service restaurant industry with proprietary hardware and software. Prior to joining Auctor, Usman was a Partner at emerging markets investment firm Mobius Capital Partners and an Investment Analyst at New York based equity fund Caravel Management.

Richard brings extensive finance leadership in international public and private multi-site hospitality, retail and consumer businesses. He has broad experience in financial governance, capital markets, business transformation and driving growth in fast-paced environments.

Most recently Richard was Chief Financial Officer of Nightcap plc. Previously he was Chief Financial Officer of Future plc and held senior finance roles at Trainline plc, William Hill plc and Tesco plc. Richard is a Chartered Accountant and spent the early part of his career at KPMG.