Meet the HDI Team

Darroch Bagshaw

Managing Director

Darroch has spent over 25 years providing insight to hospitality businesses of all types. Prior to joining HDI, Darroch worked for Mitchells & Butlers and Greene King in Director roles responsible for Insight, Location Planning, Digital Marketing and Pricing. When he’s not juggling data, he loves sitting in the pub, running up hills and Darlington Football Club.

Rob Thursfield

Operations Director

Rob has spent over 18 years within the hospitality industry specialising in insight and analytics. Before joining HDI, Rob worked for some the UK’s leading Pub Companies in various roles across FP & A, Commercial Finance, Pricing and Insight. During his spare time he enjoys rambling around the Peak District with Archie the Miniature Schnauzer, plotting which pub they’re going to ‘accidentally’ stumble across next.

Tommy Williamson

IT Director

Primarily focused on Grocery, Tommy has over 30 years’ experience working on finding innovative ways to extract measurable value out of Big Data. He has held several Director/Head of Department roles managing IT Teams all around the world and was instrumental in designing and building availability systems for Walmart Global. Tommy is a blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do spending his spare time training or entering competitions. He is currently working towards competing in the 2023 World championships!

Mark Bentley

Business Development Director

Mark has spent over 8 years in the hospitality sector, having led the Category Management team for the On Trade at Molson Coors before joining HDI in January 2023. Prior to this, he has worked in various Category, Insight & Marketing roles at Somerfield, Lyons Seafoods and Danone, giving him a real breadth of experience across both sides of the retailer-supplier divide. A qualified beer sommelier, he loves talking about all things beer-related and spending time outdoors, frequently running with his dogs at either Canicross or Agility events.

Ben Wooler

Director of Insights & Analytics

Ben has spent the best part of the last 15 years within the hospitality industry specialising in pricing, analytics, and insight within the some of the UK’s leading Pub Companies. When not knee deep in data, Ben’s likely to be found either climbing in the peak district or complaining about how it’s too wet to climb.