Management team
Senior team
Richard Hall, Chairman and founder of Zenith International, is an economist who was made a Director of the Dairy Trade Federation at 28 and has since become a world leading expert on the international food and drink sector. He regularly chairs industry conferences and client company strategy reviews. He is a respected presenter and writer of numerous industry and market studies.Visit his beverage blog at bevblog.net
Philip O'Brien, Finance Director and Company Secretary, is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years' experience in the bottled water and water cooler industries. Having qualified with KPMG, he worked as Finance Director and Company Secretary of Nestlé Waters UK (formerly Perrier Vittel) from 1982 to 2006. He joined Zenith in 2007 and is responsible for its financial management, administration and IT.
Duncan Finlayson, Operations Consulting Director, is a Chartered Engineer and earth scientist with over 25 years’ project experience around the world. Brought in to restore export production at Perrier after the 1990 global recall, his international expertise ranges from water quality and source development to business modelling, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence and crisis protection.
Gary Roethenbaugh, Market Development Director, is a law graduate who heads up an international team of 20 analysts and researchers producing market reports, news services, global drinks insights and information management solutions. He previously worked in corporate recovery and investigations for KPMG and in information security.
Dr Ric Horobin, Water & Environment Director, is a PhD and MSc qualified Hydrogeologist with more than 8 years' experience in water resource hydrogeology and shallow geophysics, including project management. He also has specialist knowledge of Chalk hydrogeology. His recent focus has been on resource development and management, due diligence, impact assessments due to groundwater abstraction and borehole remediation. His experience includes managing projects in UK, France, Iceland, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey.
Anne Hall, Non-Executive Director, worked for House of Fraser after graduating in business administration. She was Deputy Store Manager of D H Evans Oxford Street before becoming Manager of two department stores in South West England. She was a founder Director of Zenith in 1991 and its Finance Director for its first 16 years. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Foodbev Media.Other directors
Isabel Lightfoot, Events Director, is a graduate in history and politics, completing an MBA in 2002. With a background in event management, marketing and public relations for the food and drink industry, she now heads up the team responsible for the company’s international congresses, conferences, trade fairs and seminars. She previously worked for associated company Zenith International Publishing as Special Projects Manager.
Esther Renfrew, Market Intelligence Director A graduate in International Management and Modern Languages and a fluent French speaker, Esther joined Zenith in January 2003. Since then she has become Zenith's dairy specialist, project managing our major studies and co-ordinating a growing number of projects in whey, cheese and fresh dairy. She has written articles for dairyinnovation and is charged with developing our dairy activities. Esther is also in charge of the Market Intelligence department which includes global databases for beverages, water and dairy alongside other food.
Philip Coverdale, Operations Consulting Director, Philip manages the Operations Consulting group at Zenith, carrying out complex technical and strategic projects across multiple continents and beverage sectors including bottled water, juices and other flavoured drinks. Philip has a masters degree in Manufacturing Engineering & Management and a career before Zenith with Accenture. He has a wide range of technical and commercial skills. His recent responsibilities have included managing projects in Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, UK and US.
Mark Groves, Mergers & Acquisitions Director, has an MBA from Manchester Business School and over 20 years of senior management experience in bottled water, soft drinks, juice and confectionery for Cadbury Schweppes, Hutchison Whampoa, PepsiCo and Powwow. He has managed business operations in China, Denmark, Portugal and UK plus business start ups in Austria and Germany. 
Ross Colbert, Managing Director - M&A Americas, has 26 years of beverage industry experience and has completed more than 60 transactions across numerous industry segments including soft drinks, bottled water, juice, beer, contract filling, equipment supply and packaging. He has advised leading groups such as Nestlé, Cadbury Schweppes, Heineken and PepsiCo as well as many privately owned companies. Ross works closely with private equity funds and financial institutions in structuring beverage industry acquisitions and divestitures.
Sally Withers, Human Resources Director, A psychology graduate with 20 years experience in Human Resources. Sally's experience has been gained through working in the finance, telecoms and retail sectors both UK and internationally.
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