Our Team

Anthony is the driving force behind The Johnstown Estate and all it stands for. He is an outstanding leader that has cultivated the loyalty of a very talented team, helping them deliver on the warm, professional service that has set the hotel apart. Anthony has vast management experience across a career which spans three continents and many national and international luxury and premium hotel brands.

Not only is Anthony exceptional in his strategic vision for the hotel, attention to detail and business acumen but he’d ask no one to do a job that he hasn’t done himself throughout his career. He is a purebred GM through and through, and cuts a sartorial dash through the hotel. In his spare time, Anthony breeds national hunters, a keen equestrian and is married with a daughter.

Mary Fitzgerald has created and executed the strategy which has positioned The Johnstown Estate as the independent, four-star deluxe hotel brand that our clients have come to know and trust.

Mary has extensive experience both in Ireland and abroad, in hotel sales and marketing, for both national and international hotel brands.  She brings this expertise to the large, tightly knit sales and marketing team at The Johnstown Estate.  Her maternal care and sense of fun has developed great loyalty and friendship within her team.

Mary is a bon viveur who loves to try new restaurants and spends many weekends sampling spas – partially as research for the development of The Spa at The Johnstown Estate and partially because she just loves spa-days.

Raghu Vallamkonda ensures that everything is in its place financially – which is no mean feat with a hotel the size of The Johnstown Estate.  His stewardship of the hotel’s finances allows him to manage the finances around big refurbishment projects like The Spa at The Johnstown Estate, alongside the continuous investment in the maintenance and upkeep of the hotel.

Raghu has an MBA, specialising in Finance and HR, and has worked in several premium and luxury brand hotels in Ireland throughout his career.

Raghu is devoted to his wife and children and his constantly calm demeanour is down to his practice of meditation, yoga and mountain climbing – sometimes combining all three.

Executive Chef, Declan Cronin runs his kitchens with the precision required to produce up to 1000 delicious meals served every day across the various food outlets at The Johnstown Estate.  Declan’s professional strength is in his culinary vision for each menu and his commitment to the freshest, seasonal ingredients sourced from local suppliers.  He avoids food fads and intuitively designs dishes with broad appeal.

His talent has been honed in leadership positions in the kitchens of numerous premium and deluxe hotels and catering services around the world.

When he can, he likes to fish and golf – pastimes which neutralise the heady freneticism of the kitchens in The Johnstown Estate.

James is Head Chef at Fire & Salt, specialising in a sophisticated, fine-dining experience.   He is a stickler for detail and designs each of his dishes to reflect this dedication to precision, taking customers on a journey through their courses.

Over a 25 year career, James has been a key part of the success of high profile restaurants including La Stampa, One Pico and L’Ecrivain.  He was formerly Executive Head Chef at Luttrellstown Castle and also opened both the G Hotel and The D Hotel as Sous Chef.   He started his career in Munich when he was 19, falling in love with a job he took initially because it required no German.

Life outside work revolves around James’s wife and his gorgeous young daughter.  He also loves music and has recently dipped his toe back into art, something which allows him to express his creativity in another form of fine detail.

At the helm of The Coach House Brasserie, Andrew took the reins when the restaurant’s seating nearly doubled with the opening of ‘The Loft’.  Andrew knows what customers want and has designed a menu of firm favourites which keep customers coming back for more.

Andrew honed his culinary skills in numerous well known Irish hotels.

He hails from Port Elizabeth in South Africa and as a result is the BBQ-King at home (despite the Irish weather), revealing some of his trademark recipes on Youtube.  He loves rugby and enjoys seeing the SA Cheetahs when they stay and train at the hotel.

His secret passion and favourite pastime is Lego, spending hours decompressing from the high pressure of the kitchen by constructing the most complex and complicated Lego projects.

As Director of Leisure and Spa, Kevin has overseen the full refurbishment and expansion of The Spa and the development of Gloss at The Spa.

Kevin has been instrumental in the success of a number of high profile leisure centres in premium hotels including the Shelbourne Club on St Stephen’s Green and The Spa and Leisure Club at The Osprey.

Kevin also won five national boxing titles and represented Ireland on a number of occasions in European and World Amateur Championships.  In his free time he is a keen golfer, but this passion is somewhat curbed by all the activities involved in running his two lovely kids to all their sporting activities.

Like our Spa, our Director of Spa  is award-winning and was recognised as Spa Manager of the Year by the 2017 Irish Hotel Awards.  Dara is devoted to creating the ultimate guest experience and has worked closely with the team at The Spa to ensure that every individual guest experience is the peaceful journey which was hoped for.

Dara’s education spans computing, beauty and psychology and she likes to spend any free time she has with her friends and family.  Dara’s unshakeably calm disposition and overall approach to life may be somewhat attributable to the energy and self-care workshops she regularly attends.