---
title: "Jon Cullen appointed chief development and recruitment officer of Hero Brands"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/b72183c3-4da4-4389-b946-ded8b5523a24
source: "Global Franchise"
original_url: https://www.global-franchise.com/news/jon-cullen-appointed-chief-development-and-recruitment-officer-of-hero-brands
author: "Raghav Patel"
category: "Franchisors"
industry: "Franchise Industry"
segment: "Franchisors"
topics: ["Development & multi-unit","People"]
published: 2021-11-02T11:19:39.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T16:26:43.079Z
image: https://cdn.global-franchise.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GDK_restaurant.png
---

# Jon Cullen appointed chief development and recruitment officer of Hero Brands

**TL;DR:** Jon Cullen has been appointed chief development and recruitment officer of Hero Brands, tasked with driving the growth of the company's brand portfolio. Hero Brands has a portfolio of food brands, including German Doner Kebab and Choppaluna, and recently acquired Island Poké.

*By Raghav Patel, originally published in Global Franchise on 2021-11-02. [Read the original](https://www.global-franchise.com/news/jon-cullen-appointed-chief-development-and-recruitment-officer-of-hero-brands).*

## Story

Jon Cullen has been promoted to Hero Brands’ chief development and recruitment officer from his previous role at German Doner Kebab, where he was the group franchise recruitment and development director. This promotion follows on from the recent appointments of Christian Bradford and Steven Turner.

Hero Brands is looking to build the food brands for the future and is doing so by assembling a leadership team from leading global food and beverage brands. Amongst Hero Brands’ portfolio is the fast-casual kebab concept, German Doner Kebab and the fast and fresh, Choppaluna, which recently opened a location in Berlin. The franchisor also recently acquired Island Poké, the U.K.s leading poké operator.

In the last 15 years, Jon spent most of his time working with international brands looking to enter the U.K. market to find master franchisees, area development franchisees and distribution partners for Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and the U.S.A.

“I am excited to be moving into this role to drive the growth of our brand portfolio,” said Jon Cullen.

“We have a family of game-changing brands that are responding to the needs of the modern consumer and I’m looking forward to working with our team to drive global growth.”

“Jon has been a key figure in establishing German Doner Kebab as the fast-casual brand of the future,” said Imran Sayeed, group CEO.

“His experience has been invaluable in developing our partnership strategy and we are excited for him to move into this new role that will lead the growth of our game-changing brand portfolio.”

## Entities

- Franchise Industry (sector)
- Global Franchise (publication)
- international expansion (topic)
- Raghav Patel (person)
- leadership team (topic)
- franchise recruitment (topic)
- German Doner Kebab (company)
- brand portfolio (topic)
- Steven Turner (person)
- food brands (topic)

---
Originally reported by Raghav Patel, Global Franchise (https://www.global-franchise.com/news/jon-cullen-appointed-chief-development-and-recruitment-officer-of-hero-brands). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/b72183c3-4da4-4389-b946-ded8b5523a24).