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Des Gunewardena
Des Gunewardena is the Chairman and Chief Executive of D&D London 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 30 restaurants in London, Paris, Copenhagen, New York and Tokyo. Des worked with Terence Conran from 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. 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 has also, in the past, held non-executive directorships of UK quoted companies involved in the restaurant and design sectors. Des currently holds non-executive directorships of London First and Visit London.