Where tech meets hospitality
We bring together hospitality, data and tech leaders to create intuitive solutions driven by the hospitality and restaurant industry’s current needs.
Our automated back of house processes not only reduce administration and streamline operations, they also give you a powerful view of the future.
Senior leadership
Jorge Lurueña
Chief Executive Officer
Jorge began his career in mergers and acquisitions at Merril Lynch Boston, SBC Warburg and Alpha Corporate. He moved into the hospitality industry in 2002 as CEO of Lurca, Spain's second-largest Burger King franchise, and later founded Grupo Montalur, the country's largest franchisee of 100 Montaditos, in 2004.
After founding MAPAL in 2007, today Jorge focuses on modelling the company's culture, values and behaviour. He also defines the product vision, global strategy and the direction of the company – as well as building a great team to help him achieve it.
When dining out: Barbecued steak
Favourite drink: Gin and tonic
John Wolfenden
Chief Financial Officer
Starting his journey in finance with Credit Suisse, John spent time in Private Equity with Apax Partners and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, before leading International Development in EMEA for Restaurant Brands International (RBI). Most recently, he was CFO of ION Corporates, a SaaS platform focussed on the Treasury Management and Commodities Risk Management spaces.
Bringing a wealth of experience with SaaS-enabled products and a passion for process optimisation and strategy, John joined the Mapal Group as CFO in January 2024, where he oversees all financial operations of the business across our international teams.
When dining out: Asian fusion or steak
Favourite drink: An Italian red
Daniel Brandi
Chief Technology Officer
Daniel is a C-level professional with hands-on experience in development, architecture, security, and infrastructure. Daniel has experience in design and deploying large, high availability and scalability production cloud-based systems.
With previous experience as a bank CIO, Daniel has acted as a CTO for a number of high growth startups since 2007, he has built and managed several successful agile teams of developers, DevOps, data architects, security architects, and testers, including internationally distributed teams.
Daniel combines technical and business skills, always striving to achieve business objectives with the best possible technical solution.
When dining out: Rare ribeye steak with potatoes and peppers
Favourite drink: Beer
Daniel Fitzgerald
Chief Product Officer
Daniel has spent the bulk of his career in B2B SaaS. After some early excursions in both technical and commercial roles he then found his calling and passion in the muti-disciplinary world of Product and Design. Working as a product leader in companies such as Expedia and Medius, he has since established a strong track record of building and scaling products that excite customers, drive growth and deliver impact. A Cambridge Computer Science graduate, he currently lives in Paris with his wife and children
At Mapal, Daniel is responsible for the development and execution of the Product Strategy across the Group.
When dining out: Anywhere where the best strategy is to trust the chef and take the day's "special"
Favourite drink: Negroni
Carlos Gamallo
Chief Sales Officer
Passionate about how technology can reshape and improve society, Carlos has worked in the industry since the beginning. He started his career at Lucent Technology (now Nokia) and Nortel networks. He founded his own tech company in 2003 and sold it in 2008, when he joined the Madrid government's global IT agency as telecommunications manager.
Carlos joined Mapal in 2014 when the team will still only five-strong. Today he is responsible for scaling MAPAL in strategic international markets and positioning our product in line with our business objectives.
When dining out: Asian street food
Favourite drink: Beer or wine from Spain's Toro region
Mandy Kempenich
VP of Marketing
Kicking off her career in marketing for ChannelAdvisor and Worldpay, over the past 12 years, Mandy's tech and SaaS experience has spanned eCommerce, fintech and the supply chain across start up, scale up and corporate stages.
Mandy now leads global marketing efforts for MAPAL. Her specialist knowledge in demand generation and growth marketing brings a focus on driving measurable revenue at-scale.
When dining out: Japanese food - particularly, Osakan dishes
Favourite drink: Whatever comes with good conversation
Damien Laurelli
Chief People Officer
Damien began his career in Human resources in Compensation and Benefits roles at Plastic Omnium in France, moving to Apple Inc and later on Alstom. In 2009, he relocated in Spain working as Talent Director. He moved to the Travel Tech sector joining Hotelbeds, worldwide leader of the bed bank industry as Sr HRBP in charge of Tech, Product, Operations and Support functions. He joined Mapal in 2023 as Chief People Officer.
Passionate about People and Organizations, rich from a strong international experience, Damien focuses on supporting the overall Mapal strategy by defining HR priorities, caring for the people experience and co-implementing added value processes and projects
When dining out: The good company makes the good diner
Favourite drink: Bourgogne Red wine