The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) has elected Laura Moriarty of the Bracken Court Hotel, Balbriggan as their new Chair. Laura succeeds Alison Kealy of Kealy’s of Cloghran in the role.
The new Vice Chair will be Willie Aherne of The Palace Bar, Fleet Street.
Laura is the Group Operations Director of the Moriarty Group, which includes the Bracken Court Hotel as well as the Court Yard Hotel in Leixlip amongst its holdings. Overall the group employs over 500 staff across its hospitality and retail businesses. She has been working in the hospitality sector for over 20 years.
Before taking up the role as Chair, Laura was Vice Chair of the LVA last year and has also served on a range of different LVA committees as well as the council and board for several years. She has previously served on the SuperValu Council and holds a Diploma in Hospitality Management from Cornell University in the US as well as a Degree in Business from Technological University Dublin.
Speaking about her new role, Laura Moriarty said, “It is a great honour to have been elected Chair of the LVA. This is a historic and storied association which has an amazing track record of strongly representing its members and being the voice for the pub trade across Dublin. During the course of my term I will do all I can to continue that legacy and to help support the LVA’s efforts to protect and promote the amazing hospitality provided by all our members across the capital,” she said.
The election of Laura and Willie Aherne was also strongly welcomed by Donall O’Keeffe, CEO of the LVA, “We are lucky to have two fantastic people in Laura and Willie who are steeped in the business taking up these important roles. Both are very well known throughout the trade and are keenly aware of the various challenges facing our industry.
“In Laura we have a very successful businesswoman who has forged a strong career path across both hospitality and retail and will bring a wide range of insights to our work supporting the Dublin trade over her term in office.
“She is also taking over from a fantastic Chair in Alison Kealy who has been an immense servant for the LVA over her term in office. On behalf of all members of the LVA I would like to extend our deep thanks to Alison for all her energy and efforts over her time as Chair and to wish Laura and Willie every success for the year ahead,” Mr. O’Keeffe concluded.
