Welcome

Heartstone Inns is a group of individual Free Houses, each with their own distinct character in enviable locations across Southern England which offer a delicious and interesting choice of food and drink wrapped up in a relaxed pub atmosphere. A number of our Inns also offer comfortable en-suite accommodation for our guests. We hope that you will visit us soon!

Our people

Andrew Haining - Chairman

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James Birch - Managing Director

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Jon Jenssen - Operations Manager

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Robin Black - Founder Director

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Edward Beale - Non Executive Director

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Andrew Haining – Chairman

Andrew has been the chairman of Heartstone Inns since it was established in 2007. He has over 25 years of private equity and property fund management experience as CEO of Botts & Company and Balmuir Partners. Andrew is currently Chairman of Chrysalis Investments, a London listed private equity vehicle, PraxisIFM, a TISE listed trust and fund administration company based in Guernsey operating in 15 jurisdictions and has previously held directorships of, inter alia, Malmaison and Norcros.

James Birch – Managing Director

James is the Managing Director of Heartstone Inns having founded the business in 2007. Prior to establishing Heartstone Inns James, a Chartered Accountant had been the Finance Director of Refresh UK, a brewing and brands business and before that was Finance Director of InnSpired Pubs and its predecessor, Ushers of Trowbridge. James trained with Ernst & Young in Edinburgh and worked for an international packaging company before moving into the pubs and brewing sector in 1997.

Jon Jenssen – Operations Manager

Jon joined Heartstone Inns in 2016 as Operations Manager. Jon has a wealth of experience in the hospitality sector having owned his own pub for 10 years which was followed by 10 years as Operations Manager at Butcombe Brewery in Somerset. Jon is responsible for the day-to-day operations across the Heartstone Inns estate.

Robin Black – Founder Director

Robin was both a founder and director of Heartstone Inns since it was established in 2007. A Chartered Accountant with KPMG, he has over 35 years of private equity experience as a senior partner of Balmuir Partners, Botts & Company and, before that, as an investment officer with Bankers Trust. He was the CFO of Corbin & King Restaurant Group and subsequently the CFO of The Ink Factory. He is currently chairman of Malvern College and a NED & Chair of the Audit Committee of both The Ink Factory and Future Biogas and was previously an NED of a number of unquoted companies in the hospitality, leisure and media sectors including Malmaison, Cineworld and Primesight.

Edward Beale – Non Executive Director

Edward Beale is a Chartered Accountant and is the Group Financial Director of Marshall Monteagle PLC. He was a member of the UK’s Accounting Standards Board and the Accounting Council of the Financial Reporting Council for six years until August 2013. He is currently a member, and previously was chairman, of the Corporate Governance Expert Group of the Quoted Companies Alliance. He is also a member of the QCA’s Financial Reporting Expert Group. He is a non-executive director of London Finance & Investment Group PLC, Brand Architekts Group PLC, Western Selection plc, Industrial & Commercial Holdings PLC, and City Group PLC. After obtaining an engineering degree from Cambridge in 1983, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London and then worked at a variety of retail, import and distribution businesses. In 1999 he joined City Group, a provider of outsourced regulatory compliance services to small quoted companies, and in 2013 he joined the Board of Marshall Monteagle plc, a diversified investment company.