The Regulus Council
Deniz Opal
Senior Partner – Applied Intelligence
Deniz Opal is a multi-disciplinary technology leader and software engineer based in Cambridge, UK. As the Co-Founder and Technical Lead of Hologram LTD since 2008, Deniz has built a career at the intersection of complex engineering and creative media. He has consistently operated on the cutting edge of technology as a very early adopter of AI, VR, and AR. His diverse portfolio includes everything from financial software to high-profile entertainment projects for global clients such as Disney, BBC, Samsung, and Sega. A recognized voice in the developer community, he has lectured at leading Universities, and remains active in software innovation. Deniz holds a BA in Economics and a postgraduate qualification in AI and Machine Learning from the University of Texas at Austin.
Hatice Caglar
Senior Partner – Creative Strategy
Hatice Caglar is a brand strategist based between London and Istanbul. After studying cinema, she began her career in publishing, editorial work, international rights management, copywriting, and production for film and advertising, bringing this multidisciplinary background into the field of brand strategy. She is a co-founder and Strategy Director at Monroe Creative Studio, where she works on brand positioning, brand identity, narrative development, and long-term brand systems. She is also the co-founder and director of ARt by Chance Ultra Short Film Festival, a public art initiative taking place in over 20 countries worldwide.
Her work approaches brands not merely as visual identities, but as structures that require continuity and consistency over time. She focuses on bridging the gap between strategy and implementation, ensuring brands operate in a coherent and sustainable way in everyday contexts.
Dave Sheppard
Partner – Digital Growth & Performance
Dave Sheppard is a seasoned digital and commercial strategist with over 25 years of experience advising complex organizations across technology, consumer platforms, and the public sector. His work has spanned global brands and senior leadership teams alike, grounded in a deep understanding of how digital systems shape behavior, decision making, and value creation.
As a co-founder of Big Bear, Dave has spent the last decade focused on hospitality, working closely with owners and executive teams to rethink how brands show up, connect, and perform in increasingly crowded digital environments. His approach moves beyond marketing execution, centering instead on clarity of intent, commercial focus, and long term brand strength.
At Regulus Collective, Dave contributes to shaping digital and growth strategy across the platform bringing a sharp, grounded perspective on how marketing, distribution, and technology intersect to drive sustainable performance. Known for his ability to translate complexity into focus, he helps ensure that digital efforts are not just visible, but meaningful, measurable, and aligned with the wider business.
Can Aras
Partner – Culinary Systems EMEA
Can Aras views gastronomy through the lens of structure, rhythm, and continuity as a living system shaped by discipline, seasonality, and time.
With a background spanning fine dining, casual concepts, and layered hospitality ventures, his work centers on building kitchen ecosystems that are conceptually aligned, financially grounded, and operationally sustainable. From pre-opening architecture to stabilization and long-term quality control, he designs culinary frameworks that scale without losing identity.
His projects, including Onno, Red Balloon, and his own restaurant Amavi have been recognized by the Michelin Guide, reflecting a methodology rooted less in spectacle and more in disciplined execution and sustained excellence.
At Regulus, Can leads Culinary Systems across EMEA, establishing the structural foundations of gastronomy within the platform’s advisory vertical. His role operates beyond culinary direction, encompassing kitchen architecture, operational standards, brand narrative integration, and the calibration of gastronomic identity with financial and spatial realities.
As a foundational partner in Regulus’ EMEA expansion, he brings a systems driven discipline to the region’s hospitality landscape shaping not only how kitchens operate, but how brands mature, experiences resonate, and value lasts across time and scale.
İnanc Eray
Senior Partner – Architecture & Spatial Experience
Inanç Eray is a New York based architect and urban designer, and partner at SOUR, a multidisciplinary creative design studio operating between New York and Istanbul. As co-founder of the practice, he has built a body of work centered on human-centered, socially responsive, and urban-scale solutions that challenge conventional design
thinking.
Beyond practice, he has served as a guiding architect and urban mentor for Global Citizen’s Young Artists Collective in Detroit, reinforcing his belief that design carries civic responsibility. Recognized in international competitions and known for advocating accountability and critical engagement within the profession, Inanç positions architecture not as form-making, but as system-shaping.
At Regulus Collective, Inanç contributes to the spatial and architectural vision of both proprietary and advised portfolios. He helps translate brand philosophy into built experience, ensuring that hotels and mixed-use environments are not merely visually compelling, but socially aware, inclusive, and contextually intelligent. His perspective
anchors Regulus projects in dignity, belonging, and long term urban relevance.
Viola Mueller-Guttenbrunn
Senior Partner – Commercial Strategy EMEA
Viola Mueller-Guttenbrunn brings over two decades of international expertise at the intersection of revenue management, distribution strategy, and commercial transformation across Europe’s leading luxury hospitality brands.
Her career spans Revenue systems implementation and property consultancy at Starwood Hotels & Resorts globally, regional revenue governance for FRHI Hotels & Resorts across Europe, and group-level commercial strategy at Rocco Forte Hotels and Sunstar Hotels. Throughout these roles, she has operated not only as a revenue leader, but as an architect of pricing philosophy, distribution frameworks, and performance governance within complex multi-property environments.
As Senior Partner – Commercial Strategy, EMEA at Regulus, Viola contributes to the design of scalable commercial systems, market intelligence architecture, and value focused growth frameworks across the region.
Edward Leos
Partner – Luxury Programs
Edward Leos is CEO & Publisher of The Hotel Guide and host of the Travel Talk Podcast, where he explores the evolving intersection of hospitality, leadership, and
market authority. With more than three decades in the industry, Edward has established himself as a respected voice at the crossroads of hotel strategy, media influence, and executive decision making. Through The Hotel Guide’s global platforms and partnerships, his work reaches more than 24 million travelers, industry leaders, and decision makers each year.
At Regulus, Edward contributes to the development of the Luxury Programs initiative, supporting executive level leadership conversations and educational frameworks
designed for owners, investors, and senior hotel leaders. His perspective reinforces a core Regulus principle: that great hospitality brands are built not only through capital and design, but through disciplined leadership and clear strategic thinking.
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