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The Liberty board comprises four non-executive directors and three executive directors. Between them, the non-executives have nearly 200 years‘ experience in the international wine trade, with on-trade and independent off-trade being their areas of speciality.
David’s mother was from Dublin and lived there until her early twenties when, like many of her contemporaries, she sailed to Canada to start a new life in what was promoted at the time as a land of opportunity. It was here that she met his father, who had himself emigrated from Liverpool.
Inheriting his parents’ wanderlust, David returned to Europe and lived in Dublin for two and half years until the end of 1982. Here he regularly visited his maternal grandmother who famously refused to accept that the family could have driven over 2,000 miles from Toronto to Vancouver.
It was during his time in Dublin that David was first bitten by the wine bug, did his first wine course and decided to move to London to do the Diploma, which wasn’t then available in Ireland.
The urge to travel is now satisfied by frequent trips to Italy, where he spends 3-4 months of the year as well as visiting Australia, New Zealand and South America on an unceasing quest for new and exciting wines.
Gary’s honeymoon here was his first experience of Ireland and set the tone for the future. In the wine and drinks trade for many years, Gary’s work at Seagram and Pernod Ricard brought him here but it wasn’t until he joined Liberty Wines in 2005 that he started coming back to Dublin regularly.
Gary became chief operating officer in the summer of 2007. He is responsible for all Liberty’s operation, including Finance, Customer Services, Warehouse, Shipping, IT and HR.
A founder member of Liberty Wines with David, Luciann started as marketing and customer services manager and has worked in almost all areas of the company since then. She has finally ended up as project director, looking after projects which touch different areas of the business.
Ben, Joe and Gerry run Liberty Wines from a little office above a funeral parlour in Dublin. They like the peace and quiet there. Together they cover sales across Ireland and manage a portfolio of over 700 wines from all the leading wine producing countries.
Emily started in the wine trade in 1998, straight from University in her native New Zealand. She worked at Glengarry‘s in Auckland until coming to Europe at the beginning of 1990. She has worked with David Gleave for longer than either of them care to remember, starting in 1992 at Winecellars, the Italian specialist in south west London before moving to Burgundy specialist Adam Bancroft in 1994.
Emily joined Liberty Wines in 2000 and became director of sales for UK and Ireland nine years later. She is one of our Spanish specialists and loves the wines from this country.
Emily can be contacted on emily.macdonald@libertywines.ie
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Ben has been in Ireland since the mid-nineties and started with Liberty Wines in 2006. Prior to Liberty, Ben’s background was in restaurants, hotels and food and wine retailers both in Europe and Australia.
He continues to support Australia’s world domination of sport even after suffering through the last two Ashes’ series and various World Cups but is quick to switch his sporting allegiance to Ireland whenever he feels necessary. Ben looks after sales to both on and off trade customers in Dublin.
Ben can be contacted on ben.reynolds@libertywines.ie
Joe started in the wine trade in 1986 with Oddbins in his native Glasgow. He was then involved in the start-up of Novum Wines before moving to Ireland to join Gilbeys in 2006. With parents from Achill and Gweedore, this was more a homecoming than a migration.
In late 2009, Joe set up WinePulse, offering a range of wine services to the trade and consumers, before becoming the newest recruit to the Liberty team in May 2012. Joe is working alongside Ben and Gerry to grow our on- and off-trade account base.
Joe can be contacted at joe.coyle@libertywines.ie
Gerry has been working in the wine trade for twenty years - in London, Alsace, and back in his native Ireland since 1996. He joined Liberty in January 2008 and looks after sales to both on- and off-trade outside Dublin, as well as some off-trade within Dublin.
As well as having a passion for wine, Gerry also has a keen interest in the world of technology and gadgetry. He looks after the Twitter account for Liberty (@libertyireland), or you can follow his own ramblings on (@ggunnigan).
Gerry can be contacted at gerry.gunnigan@libertywines.ie
Christmas Day might see Lizzie energetically slicing through the chilly waves at the Forty Foot during one of her regular visits to her grandparents and family who live around Dun Laoghaire and Sandycove. Lizzie joined Liberty Wines in 2007 from UK company Berkmann Wines and has been looking after marketing here for the last two years, working closely with Ben and Gerry on our tastings and events.
A fluent Italian speaker, Lizzie looks after all our Italian producers as well as being our olive oil and honey guru.
Lizzie can be contacted on elizabeth.burton@libertywines.ie.
Simon spent most of his life training as an actor and moved to London in 2005 to attend drama school. A hard old slog which eventually led to him working in the West End as an understudy which involved a lot of sitting around waiting for the lead to fall ill, but also freed up plenty of time for temping. One chance temp job took him to New Zealand Winegrowers for a few months and slowly his head was turned away from the boards and towards the grapes.
He joined Liberty Wines in January 2010 and now works closely with Emily and the sales team. Frequently found in the office with his head buried in a spreadsheet, at home, he is most often found with his nose buried in a glass of something he hasn‘t tried before, with his Oxford Companion open for reference.
Simon can be contacted on sales.admin@libertywines.ie or simon.perry@libertywines.ie
Driver John Enright is the cheerful public face of Liberty Wines. Always punctual, always smiling, John‘s been with us for four years and knows Dublin and the outskirts like the back of his hand.
