Mairead Gleeson appointed hotel director at the Pig in the South Downs

Mairead Gleeson has been appointed hotel director at the Pig in the South Downs in Arundel, West Sussex, which is the the latest property to join the Pig family of hotels and is due to open in September.

The project and hotel, formerly Madehurst Lodge (pictured), is being overseen by Lora Strizic, regional operations director of parent company Home Grown Hotels, who has been with the company since 2009, having joined as hotel director of the first Pig hotel in the New Forest, Hampshire.

Gleeson, meanwhile, will join this month having previously worked as head of operations at Market Halls. She has also held general manager roles at Soho House’s Shoreditch House in east London and the Tom Aikens Group.

The remaining senior team at the 30-bedroom hotel has been appointed internally, including head chef Kamil Oseka, deputy general manager Charlotte Storey, restaurant manager Lydia Rigby, head housekeeper Hayley Weatherill, bar manager Tean Bradford and head sommelier Luke Harbor.

Home Grown Hotels was founded by chairman and chief executive Robin Hutson in 2011. The group has seven – soon to be eight – properties across the south of England, including the Pig in the Wall in Southampton, the Pig near Bath, the Pig on the Beach in Dorset, the Pig at Combe in Devon, the Pig at Bridge Place in Kent and the Pig at Harlyn Bay in Cornwall.

Hutson also oversees the Lime Wood Group, co-founded Hotel du Vin with Gerard Bassett in 1994 and was the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Catey in 2020.