“Raising the bar in the Channel Islands”

Statutory Board

Graham Turner

Chairman

From January 2005 until July 2012 Graham was the CEO of the Tragus Group one of the UK's largest independent restaurant companies with more than 290 sites across the country serving over 22 million meals every year. Tragus's portfolio of brands includes Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada.
He was previously the Managing Director of the Unique Pub Company with some 4,000 leased pubs in the UK. Graham was part of the initial management team that grew the business through acquisitions and operational improvements.

Bill Priestley

Investment Director
Bill joined Barclays Bank in 1990 and then moved to N M Rothschild & Sons in 1993, where he worked in a variety of banking roles, latterly providing acquisition finance to mid-market private equity deals.

In 2000 Bill joined LGV. With a focus on the leisure sector, he has been involved in a number of deals, including Vue Cinemas, taking private of The Club Company and the acquisition of The Unique Pub Company, South Lakeland Parks and Verna Group. He is a Managing Director of LGV and is also a council member of the British Venture Capital Association.

Bill worked on the acquisition of The Liberation Group with Mark Crowther and sits on the board as the LGV Investment Director.

Mark Crowther

Chief Executive Officer
Mark was backed by LGV to lead the acquisition of the business in July 2008. His previous experience is from across the European pub, restaurant and drinks sectors, with previous roles including CEO of London Town tenanted pubs, On Trade MD for Carlsberg UK, General Manager Northern Europe for Diageo and General Manager with Allied Domecq managed pubs.

Mark is married with three children. He is also a Non-Executive Director sitting on the Board of Close Investments CTC and EIS schemes.

Declan Hearne

Finance Director
Declan qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1986 and moved to Jersey where he spent 6 years in the accountancy profession with Coopers & Lybrand. In 1992 he joined Ann Street Group/CI Traders, previous publically quoted owners of this and other businesses, where he was Group Accountant and Company Secretary in a head office role. He was appointed Finance Director of the pub estate and drinks wholesaling businesses in April 2003, following a group reorganisation, a role that has continued with the formation of the Liberation Group in 2008.

Kenrick Brooks

Pub Operations Director
Kenrick was appointed Operations Director in March 2006 and continues in this role following the formation of the Liberation Group. Prior to this appointment, Kenrick spent three years as a Director of the UK based Blubeckers and Edwinns Restaurant Group, being heavily involved in the expansion of the Blubeckers brand. The first eleven years of his career was spent in hotel management, rising to Regional Business Manager, before moving to a variety of both small and large pub, bar and restaurant companies, holding a number of senior management positions.

Geraldine Davies

Company Secretary
Originally from Dublin Geraldine started working with our businesses in 1994 and following a transfer to the then quoted company's head office in 1999 she undertook the ICSA examinations to qualify as a chartered secretary in 2003. Following various mergers, acquisitions and group restructures in her role as Deputy Company Secretary, and having been heavily involved in the due diligence process for the sale of the pub estate and drinks businesses to The Liberation Group in July 2008, Geraldine left shortly thereafter to join The Liberation Group as Company Secretary.

Ed Daubeney

Non-Executive Director
Ed joined Ford in 1989 and worked in Industrial Relations. In 1995 he moved to the Le Riche Group, the Channel Islands' largest commercial employer and became HR Director. Ed completed an MBA at Ashridge Business School in 2002 and subsequently became Managing Director of CI Hospitality.

He was responsible for leading this business until its acquisition by the Liberation Group in 2008. He now acts as a consultant to a number of Channel Island and UK organisations.