Meet the Team

Joint Managing Director and Co-Founder

Andrew Wall

Background

Andrew has over 25 years’ experience in London’s luxury hotel market. Prior to launching Pineapple with Jackie in 1996, Andrew’s roles included Reception Manager at The Berkeley and Head of Corporate Sales at The Savoy Group promoting Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Savoy and The Berkeley.

Andrew believes in continual development for him and the Pineapple team and he recently enhanced his skills at Cranfield University Business School.

At Pineapple

Andrew continues to build a highly successful business that provides creative and effective sales and marketing solutions to the world’s finest hotels. Alongside Jackie Cowell, he is jointly responsible for the overall leadership and direction of Pineapple.

One of Pineapple’s services is fully outsourced sales and marketing. Andrew has been Sales and Marketing Director for The Goring in London since January 2014 and for One Aldwych in London since May 2018. Past roles at Pineapple have included Sales and Marketing Director for Dukes, London and for Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.

Contributing to Our Clients’ Success

Founding the fully outsourced sales and marketing model for the luxury hotel industry is considered to be one of Andrew’s greatest achievements at Pineapple. Born from a discussion on how best to serve a prospective new client, Andrew turned this idea into a reality and it has since gone on to generate a wealth of success for clients like The Goring where room revenue has increased by an impressive 31% since Andrew was appointed four years ago.

Joint Managing Director and Co-Founder

Jackie Cowell

Background

Jackie has over 30 years’ experience in sales and marketing in the luxury hotel sector. Following a degree in Hotel and Catering Management at the University of Surrey, Jackie studied for a Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma. The early years of her career were spent with Hyatt International. She then joined The Savoy Group of Hotels and Restaurants and became Director of Sales where she centralised and managed the sales team for The Savoy, The Connaught, Claridge’s, The Berkeley, The Lygon Arms and La Trémoille in Paris.

At Pineapple

Alongside Andrew Wall, Jackie is jointly responsible for the leadership and direction of Pineapple UK & USA. Jackie also applies her expertise to short-term strategic projects such as marketing plans and budgets, feasibility studies and sales & marketing audits.

Jackie was Sales and Marketing Director for One Aldwych, London from before the hotel’s launch in 1998 to May 2018. She was also Sales and Marketing Director for Carlisle Bay, Antigua until 2013 and directed the sales and marketing for the resort’s launch in 2003.

Jackie has developed a great deal of experience at Pineapple launching city centre, country house and resort hotels across European, North American and Caribbean markets.

Contributing to our Clients’ Success

Jackie’s broad experience and her analytical strengths enable her to provide expert advice to Hotel Owners and General Managers. Her hands-on knowledge of luxury hotel sales and marketing, business channels and markets, enables her to put the correct sales and marketing resources and procedures in place for a hotel and to direct the team’s time to the markets and channels that will deliver the best return on investment.

Marketing Director

Paula Rison-Gray

Background

Prior to joining Pineapple in 2006, Paula worked at the British mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, on the marketing and implementation of their incentive and loyalty schemes. In addition to her CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, she brings many years of consumer marketing experience to Pineapple’s clients and has solid experience across all marketing disciplines including digital marketing, branding and marketing partnerships. Having started as a Marketing Executive at Pineapple, Paula has built her career to become Director of Marketing for the agency in March 2014.

At Pineapple

As Director of Marketing, Paula works across all of Pineapple’s marketing accounts directing strategy, budgets and planning. Her day-to-day responsibilities are changeable dependent on client requirements and you will often find Paula leading on multiple marketing projects from website re-designs and product launches, to partnerships, and branding. She is also responsible for managing and directing Pineapple’s team of skilled marketers.

Contributing to Our Clients’ Success

Paula’s marketing experience and knowledge allows for exceptional creativity and delivery of client campaigns. Voices at One, a location based campaign for One Aldwych, is the perfect example of originality, vision and resourcefulness. Bringing together six high profile cultural personalities, from Actress, Joanna Lumley, to CEO of the British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, the fully integrated campaign was designed to put Covent Garden back on the map as the number one destination for those seeking the best of London and required delivery from conception and branding to digital designs and direct mail.

Director of Sales - North America

Andrea Riesen

Background

Andrea was born in Switzerland and grew up in Liberia and Zambia. She received her hotel and tourism education in Switzerland, as well as NYU and Cornell in the USA. Andrea has over twelve years’ experience in the luxury hotel market in New York with Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and The Dorchester Collection. Prior to this, she worked for ten years with several travel firms including Kuoni and managed operations in numerous global destinations including Dubai, Thailand, Italy, Maldives, Mauritius and the UK. This gave Andrea a deep understanding of our travel partners’ operations and the best ways to maximise their potential. Andrea joined Pineapple in 2010.

At Pineapple

As Director of Sales at Pineapple’s New York office, Andrea works hand-in-hand with her hotel clients to understand their financial goals and translates that into a tactical sales strategy with actionable steps. Working across leisure and corporate markets, on a day-to-day basis, Andrea is responsible for delivering top line revenue within the assigned portfolio.

Andrea is incredibly passionate about cultivating, building and strengthening relationships with travel partners, agents and advisors. She is well known for developing solid partnerships, which in turn increases US production for Pineapples’ clients.

Marketing Manager

Edwina Etheridge-Williams

Background

Prior to joining Pineapple in 2022, Edwina developed her fully-rounded marketing skills within travel and leisure marketing. Her most recent role was at Belmond (LVMH) working within the Trains & Cruises team, prior to this she spent time working as producer both the UK and Australia. Edwina mostly works on marketing projects for The Goring, London.

At Pineapple

Working in collaboration with Pineapple’s Joint Director and Co-Founder, Andrew Wall, Edwina is responsible for driving new marketing initiatives on behalf of The Goring. She is accountable for the overall marketing planning, strategy and budget and manages the hotel’s existing suppliers and partners to ensure a consistent brand image is delivered. Typical marketing activities for Edwina include website management and content creation, directing photography, implementing social media strategies and designing and delivering email campaigns. Since joining, Edwina has been instrumental in the relaunch of The Goring’s social media channels and strengthening external partnerships.

Marketing Manager

Rebecca Beard

Background

Rebecca joined Pineapple in 2018 as Marketing Manager, working on the One Aldwych account. Rebecca is a dynamic marketing professional with a background in multi-channel communications, having previously worked for Corinthia Hotel in London and the luxury river and ocean cruise brand, Viking Cruises.

At Pineapple

As Marketing Manager for One Aldwych, Rebecca delivers both offline and online communications, working closely with the in-house hotel team to deliver results from campaigns. This includes direct mail activity and marketing partnerships, forging relationships with local partners and creating innovative packages and promotions.

Marketing Manager

Rebecca Gatenby

Background

Rebecca joined Pineapple in 2020 as Marketing Manager, working on the One Aldwych account. Having most recently worked for a collaborative marketing consultancy, Rebecca is a diverse marketing professional with a background across all digital and offline marketing communications.

At Pineapple

As Marketing Manager, Rebecca works both with One Aldwych to manage and drive multi-channel campaigns, whilst also working on short-term marketing projects for other clients. Overall responsibilities include marketing partnerships, creating original packages and promotions and driving these results through detailed campaign planning.

Marketing Manager

Amy Atkinson

Background

Following a degree in Fashion Design and Development,  Amy has 12 years’ experience working across many different industry  sectors, including travel. Amy has helped many businesses improve their ROI, customer bases and brand NPS score.

At Pineapple

Amy is responsible for social channels for Mohari, the Global investment firm whose luxury hospitality portfolio includes Four Seasons Madrid, 1 Hotel Toronto and The Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection. For another client Amy focuses on marketing the restaurants and bars which involves electronic direct mail activity, marketing partnerships, and creating innovative packages and promotions.

Director of Sales

Simone Wyse

Background

For 16 years, Simone ran Reads Hotel & Spa in Mallorca with her husband, where she held particular responsibility for the property’s Sales & Marketing and Events. Earlier in her career she worked in Business Development for Corporate Events Scotland and prior to this was an Event Coordinator for Hilton Hotels. She has joined Pineapple in 2017.

At Pineapple

Reporting into the Director of Leisure, Meeting and Incentive Sales, a typical day mostly involves a busy schedule of appointments with various travel agents, concierge services and meeting, incentives, conferencing & exhibitions (MICE) agents and companies. Simone works across all of Pineapple’s clients and her main focus is managing and maintaining existing partner relationships and activities, alongside qualifying new prospective partners.

Poppy Watson-Brooks

Poppy Watson-Brooks

Background

Poppy’s experience spans a range of industries with a background in both agency and for in-house clients. Most recently, she’s been developing sales and marketing strategy for prestigious New Zealand vineyard, Mudbrick on Waiheke Island.  She effectively targets the domestic and international tourism markets to increase awareness and build revenue across a broad range of products including accommodation, restaurant and FMCG. Poppy loves data, with a degree in Economics and a CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing, she’s always on the lookout for new ways to leverage the market and expand the customer experience. Before moving into hospitality, she spent six years in international news and paid advertising focused on high net worth markets.

At Pineapple

Poppy focuses on increasing accommodation revenue, from initial concept planning to execution and analysis. She creates unique, target driven content for digital and print for maximum audience engagement. Day to day Poppy continually improves hotel and partner content for Pineapple’s clients, with an eye for new and exciting ways to encourage growth across experiential stays, wellness and luxury gifting.

Director of Sales

Susannah Donne

Background

Joined Pineapple in September 2022 after seven years as Regional Director of Sales, UK & Europe at The Peninsula Hotel Group.  Susie worked with Pineapple earlier in her career and she also brings with her valuable experience from Swissotel Hotels & Resorts and Fairmont Raffles Hotels.

At Pineapple

Susannah promotes the hotel portfolio to upscale leisure partners as well as corporate travel and event decision-makers.