Galway Races has its first female committee member. Zoë Fitzgerald will attend her first race meetings as a committee member at the upcoming two day autumn festival on Monday and Tuesday September 5 and 6.
Zoë Fitzgerald, a native of Galway city, is marketing manager of the family-owned Renvyle House Hotel.
She holds a BA from NUI Maynooth and worked in a number of marketing, administration and financial roles in Dublin before returning to Galway in 1997 to take up a position in the family business. She was appointed to the Renvyle House Hotel’s board of directors in 2005, and in 2013 was appointed chairman of the board. The Galway woman is involved in numerous tourism initiatives, and is a founding member of the Connemara Loop.
The married mother of two says she has always had a strong interest in the equestrian world and has been attending the Galway Races from a young age. She is looking forward to continuing a proud family association with the race committee as her father John Coyle was also a member, and remains an honorary member to this day.
"My siblings and I would have been brought to the Galway Races every year by my father. It has come full circle as my own two boys love coming racing now, Jack was 10 weeks old when he attended his first race meeting."
Ms Fitzgerald says she was honoured to be considered for the role and is very much looking forward to working with the Galway Race Committee. "I hope my background in sociology, marketing, and hospitality will bring another angle to meetings and in planning the future for the course and the festivals. It is an honour to be the first female member of such an esteemed committee and I hope my contributions will be of help to the Galway Races in the future."
The committee is chaired by Peter Allen and the current members are; Anthony Ryan (vice chairman ), Colm O’Flaherty, Tom McDonogh, Conal Kavanagh, Joe Higgins, Frank Fahy and Donal H Gavin. The honorary members of the committee are John Coyle, Thomas McDonagh, Pauline Gavin, John Moloney, Dermot Weld and Captain Luke Mullins.
