Our DNA

Stephen McCall

Stephen has spent most of his 25 year career indulging his passion for hospitality, with roles in operations, finance and governance across several continents . Before joining SACO in 2018 (which he later rebranded to edyn), Stephen held a number of executive roles at IHG including CFO for Middle East & Africa, MD for UK&I and most recently European COO. Stephen has led edyn to become one of the fastest growing pan-European lifestyle hybrid platforms of its kind anywhere in Europe. A chartered accountant by training and Scotsman by birth, Stephen enjoys fast cars and malt whisky…but never together.

Nick Barton

Eric Jafari

Eric Jafari leads edyn’s pan-European real estate development platform and the broad creative direction of our brands, and was one of the original co-founders of Locke. His multi-disciplinary team comprises acquisitions, asset management, construction, design, investment finance & planning. Eric previously served as the Managing Director of Union Hanover Securities where he founded Urban Villa and oversaw a £500m Hotel development platform. Born in Los Angeles, raised in Paris but living in London, Eric would tell you that his nomadic nature and insatiable curiosity explain his passions which range from travel to food and wine, to wellness, learning and of course his family. We think he just enjoys ‘la dolce vita’.

Di Gwinnell

As Group People & Culture Director Di leads our people, culture and learning agenda across the organisation. Di’s passion is in helping our colleagues to realise their potential – particularly if it’s potential they didn’t know they had. She has been shortlisted for the ‘HR Manager of The Year’ Award and has recently been named as one of the top 100 ‘Women to Watch in Hospitality’, but she doesn’t let this go to her head (she says…). Di says she feels most alive when she is travelling to far flung places, although she admits that with two boisterous little boys to care for, it's easier to dream and plan than actually go anywhere.

Daniel Carre-Bishop

Daniel Dickinson

Dan is responsible for all things tech-related across the edyn Group, ranging from on-property ecosystems to reservations architecture and technical security, and has a passion for harnessing the power of data and technology to drive innovation across the group. His career has covered everything from building mail servers, to multi-million pound data centre migration projects to deploying augmented reality apps. Dan is passionate about travel and has dragged his family from snail shell rooms on the Valencian coast to treehouses in Hanoi. For a tech guy, he’s surprisingly hard to contact when on holiday.

Maddalena Padrin

Maddalena is edyn’s General Counsel responsible for overseeing all our legal matters ranging from compliance and risk management, corporate structure, tax, trademark and data protection, to property, finance, commercial agreements, employment and leases. Maddalena works closely with the acquisition, investment, finance, development and operations teams at edyn, providing strategic advice and managing teams of external legal advisors across multiple jurisdictions. Prior to edyn, Maddalena was a Senior Counsel at Taylor Wessing, where she worked for 17 years. When Maddalena isn’t keeping the business safe and us all out of jail, she spends what little time is left with her family and her passion for discovery.

Paul Spencer

Operations is where the rubber hits the road: and Paul is the driver. Since the age of 16, hospitality has been Paul’s life. So, having spent most of his life in boutique hotels across Europe, Russia and Israel, he knows a thing or two about hotel operations – it also explains why he started going grey at 25. Genuine and unique experiences are what makes Paul tick, that and a love for 90s hip-hop and electronica (his favourite group is Massive Attack which should earn him some brownie points with our Bristol cohort). On the odd occasion he’s not at a Locke, you’ll find Paul in Edinburgh with his wife Arlene and sons Jack and Charlie (not forgetting Cooper the dog) or, on another whirlwind adventure, probably adding to his extensive tattoo collection.