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

Mark Bentley

Business Development Director

Mark has spent over 7 years in the hospitality industry, 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

Head of Analytics

Hobby: Climbing, especially in the eastern peak district

Superpower: Finding a reason for a trip to B&Q or Screwfix

Helene Robinson

Head of Insight

Hobbies: Eating and cooking, holidaying in the sunshine and running

Superpower: Innate ability to binge watch TV series – once finishing 22 episodes in just 1 day

Tim Balcombe

Tech Ops Lead

Hobbies: Music, gigs and festivals

Superpower: Can sense the imminent arrival of takeaway delivery drivers

Tom Freeman

Senior UX/UI Developer and Design Lead

Hobbies: Food and travel

Superpower: Iron stomach… will try eating anything, unless it’s spicy

Vishnupriya K P

SQL Developer

Hobbies: Marathon running and travelling

Superpower: Can sleep more than 12 hours during a nap

Will Hall

Head of Development

Hobbies: Ultrarunning and UltraTriathlon

Superpower: Can eat 4000 calories in a single sitting at McDonald’s

Sally Brown

Senior Developer

Hobbies: DIY, pub sheds

Superpower: Master of the circular saw

Jon Lees

Senior Developer

Hobbies: DIY home improvement

Superpower: Banging a few nails into some wood since 1990

Jack Hill

Data Analyst

Hobbies: Playing guitar, running and writing a bit of Python

Superpower: Breaking and fixing my PC on a near-daily basis

Dan Wyles

Business Analyst

Hobbies: : Long walks, football and travelling

Superpower: Ability to get a good night’s sleep anywhere, including airport floors

Tahira Jamil

Business Analyst

Hobbies: : Music &driving – preferably at the same time

Superpower: Tripping over flat ground

Corey Hunt

Insights Analyst

Hobbies: Watching and playing football, hiking and travelling

Superpower: Ability to lose the entire day to the PlayStation