Tue 9th Feb 2021 - Rooney Anand appoints former NWTC boss Chris Hill as CEO at RedCat Pub Company Rooney Anand appoints former NWTC boss Chris Hill as CEO at RedCat Pub Company: Former Greene King leader Rooney Anand has appointed Chris Hill, who was chief executive at New World Trading Company (NWTC), to the same position at his new investment vehicle RedCat Pub Company. Also appointed to the senior leadership team are Sharon Badelek, former chief financial officer and board member of Inspired Villages Group as chief financial officer; Richard Croft, executive chairman of M7 Real Estate, has joined as a non-executive director; and Sir Charles Bowman, PwC adviser and former lord mayor of London, has joined as a non-executive director. RedCat Pub Company executive chairman Anand said: “It speaks volumes about the fundamentals and potential for the sector that RedCat has been able to bring together such a strong bench of talent so quickly after the founding of the company. We are building something completely new and having the right mix of seasoned industry-leading experts and fresh talent is crucial. Sharon, Chris, Richard and Charles have exceptional track records and their highly complementary skills will help underpin our success, ensuring the pubs we buy, and operators we partner with, flourish.” Hill brings considerable experience to RedCat having spent the past seven years as chief executive of multi-award-winning UK pub group NWTC. During his tenure, he grew the business from two sites and two brands, to 28 sites across seven brands. Badelek was chief financial officer and board member of Inspired Villages Group, the Legal & General-backed later-living business. Prior to that she was chief financial officer and chief executive of Novus Leisure, which operates at more than 40 venues across the UK, group finance director at Vue Entertainment, as well as group financial controller of Virgin Active and chief financial officer of Westpoint Veterinary Group. Croft is executive chairman of M7 Real Estate, a leading specialist in the pan-European, regional, multi-tenanted real estate market. He has been involved in more than €10bn of transactions across the UK and Europe during his 26 years of real estate experience. Sir Charles is an advisor to PwC – having joined Price Waterhouse in 1983, qualified in 1986 and was admitted to partnership in 1995. RedCat was founded by Rooney Anand to invest in the UK pub sector and announced it has successfully completed fundraising, backed by Oaktree, last week. RedCat’s objective is to partner with talented licensees, publicans and entrepreneurs to support the recovery of the pub sector. It will look to acquire quality retail and tenanted pubs across the UK but with a focus in the east, south east, and south of the UK. RedCat’s approach is highly flexible and size agnostic, allowing it to acquire single assets, all the way through to larger-scale organisations.