Steve Kelly - Owner/ Managing Director

Biography: Steve has 13 years experience in corporate sales and business management, including international roles based in USA, Australia, and France. His previous role prior to founding Rising Star was managing the UK VP of an American customer relationship management consultancy. He has been running RSL for over 4 years.

email: steve@risingstarleisure.com

Sam Surl - Co-Managing Director

Biography: Sam Surl cut his teeth in the industry as a moonlighting History teacher, working as a bartender at Brahms and List, and as member of floor staff at what was The Grill Restaurant - both in London's Covent Garden. In the Late 1980s he managed the soon to be iconic Market Bar in Portobello Road, followed by The Beach Blanket Babylon in Ledbury Road and was at the cutting edge of a revolution in the renovation and repositioning of the humble London pub.

There followed a brief stint with Como Holdings – time spent at the Met Bar with Joe Wolfe and at Albero y Grana with the legendary but frightening Spanish chef, Angel Garcia. In 1997, Sam was invited to become Managing Director of the team opening the truly ground-breaking Alphabet Bar in Soho, later joined by its sister bar, Amber, in Poland Street. When these bars were successfully sold in 2003, he moved to a battered farmhouse in Suffolk, raising his own livestock and vegetables. Tempted back by the bright lights, Sam joined Rising Star in 2005, when Iniquity Bar was its only outlet and has been at the heart of the development of the business. For at least a decade, Sam has also worked as a qualitative researcher with blue-chip drinks-industry clients, to assist in the development their product portfolios and their on-trade strategies.

email: sam@risingstarleisure.com

Tim Oakley - Group Beverages Manager

email: tim@risingstarleisure.com

Laura Birkby - Marketing Executive

Telephone: 02079781333 email: laura@risingstarleisure.com

Naomi Liddle - Administration Executive

Telephone: 02079781333

email: Naomi@risingstarleisure.com