Des Gunewardena:
Non-Executive Director

Des Gunewardena is the Chairman and Chief Executive of D&D London (formerly Conran Restaurants) and the Deputy Chairman of Conran Holdings. Founded in 1991, D&D London is one of Britain’s most dynamic restaurant groups and currently  owns and operates 26 restaurants in London, Paris, Copenhagen, New York and Tokyo.

Des has worked with Terence Conran since June 1991 in founding and developing the Conran Holdings group from a business employing 100 people with one restaurant and one store in London into a group which in 2006 had sales (including licencees) of some £150m p.a. and over 2000 staff. Des was appointed Conran’s CEO in 1995 and became Deputy Chairman of Conran Holdings and Chairman of the restaurants following the buyout of the latter by D&D London in September 2006.

Des was born in Sri Lanka and has lived in London for most of his life. He went to school in Wimbledon, London. He is a graduate of Bristol University and a Chartered Accountant who qualified with Ernst & Young in 1981. In the mid 1980’s he was responsible for financial planning at Heron International, a £1billion privately owned group of companies with activities in property, trading and financial services in Europe and the USA. He subsequently held directorships in operating companies within the Heron group. He was also, for a number of years, a non-executive director of Fitch plc., a leading international design business.