Ed Cottrell began his career as an officer in the Coldstream Guards, seeing active service in the Bosnian War in 1993.

Ed moved into the Drinks Industry when he joined Diageo in 1995 as part of their Sales and Marketing team and was then appointed General Manager of Justerini & Brooks. His last role at Diageo was leading the build and operations of a state of the art commercial facility in London called the Customer Collaboration Centre.

In 2012, Ed moved into the UK Pub Industry, becoming Commercial Director for Enterprise Inns PLC (now Stonegate PLC), the UK’s largest pub operator, and developed a programme of commercial support for 5,500 licensees in the UK on-trade. In 2016 he moved back to a brand-owning business in William Grant & Sons and was posted to Singapore as the Managing Director for their Global Travel Retail business, and for 3 years as Chairman of William Grant & Sons Singapore PTE Ltd.

Ed was appointed Chairman of the Saccone & Speed Group of Companies in 2022 and in the same year, he moved to Dubai to head the Category division at MMI, part of the Emirates Group. After 3 years, he returned to the UK to take up the role of CEO of the Fortitude Spirits Group, a distiller, bottler and distributor based in London and Middlesbrough.