New SRA CEO challenges industry to become best in the world

1st August 2016

The new Chief Executive of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) starts work today with a threefold mission: to challenge its members to be even bolder; inspire diners to turn their passion for good food into action and lead the whole UK hospitality sector to be the most sustainable in the world. 

Andrew Stephen joins an organisation that has grown from 50 Member sites at launch in 2010, to more than 6,000 under the stewardship of former Managing Director, Mark Linehan, who left the SRA last month.

Excited by the challenge of engaging the whole industry and consumers alike, Andrew said: “The Sustainable Restaurant Association has already in its short history played a hugely significant role in guiding the UK hospitality industry along a progressive path to the point where it’s on the verge of being a world leader.

“While the challenges are greater than ever before, more people want to eat genuinely ‘good’ food when they dine out.  It’s our job to make sense of the complicated and complex issues, frame the debates and present solutions for chefs, restaurateurs and the public, so that together we can make the progressive, positive changes needed. Restaurants and food service businesses can do so much more than just feed people and are absolutely key to creating solutions to the challenges we face.”

The SRA will, through its Food Made Good programme, provide its members and other forward-looking businesses in the industry with a simple, structured means of breaking down the big issues, turning them into a series of engaging and manageable campaigns, working alongside the relevant partner organisations who will help provide expert advice and information.

Andrew added: “From 2017, we’re planning a lot more impact and we will be working flat out to help organise the issues, challenges and solutions for consumers and foodservice businesses, providing the platform for a progressive, ongoing conversation between the hospitality sector and the Great British dining public.”

Giles Gibbons, who along with restaurateurs Henry Dimbleby and Mark Sainsbury founded the SRA, said: “Mark Linehan helped the SRA become a genuine partner for restaurants and hospitality businesses across the UK and beyond. We are delighted to have Andrew joining us with a clear mandate: to lead the sector to be the best and most sustainable in the world.”

Most recently, Andrew was a director at 2degrees, the world’s largest platform for sustainable business, helping major food businesses and retailers overcome supply chain challenges. Prior to that, he has worked for film production companies, social enterprises, and advertising agencies that specialized in opening up the sustainability conversation to new audiences and new markets.