Mary Harville appointed President and CEO of Kentucky Lottery

Sep 17, 2020, 8:47 pm (3 comments)

Kentucky Lottery

New leadership follows strong sales of more than $1.2 billion for fiscal year of 2020

By Kate Northrop

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After a selection committee reviewed over 350 potential candidates for the position, Mary Harville was chosen from a national pool of potential successors and was appointed President and CEO of the Kentucky Lottery Corporation by Governor Andy Beshear.

Prior to Harville's confirmation by the lottery's board of directors, Tom Delacenserie retired from the position in March after serving in the role for three years. Between his retirement and Harville's promotion, Marty Gibbs, Kentucky Lottery COO, served as interim president while Vice President and Corporate Controller Maggie Garrison took on the role of interim COO.

"I'm honored and deeply grateful to Governor Beshear and our board for selecting me to serve as the next President and CEO of the Kentucky Lottery," Harville said in an official statement. "I'm so proud to be part of the great team already in place, which is proven by our record-breaking fiscal year for both sales and return to our state."

Harville graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1984 and then received her Juris Doctor from the University in 1988.

"As a life-long Kentuckian and graduate of a Kentucky university, I am also proud to lead the organization that funds KEES scholarships for Kentucky college students, and my goal is to ensure we continue to provide this much-needed funding," Harville added.

Starting in 1988, Harville practiced law in Louisville and Jefferson County at Louisville-based law firm Reed Weitkamp Schell & Vice for 16 years. Her work consisted of a variety of commercial litigation matters, such as representing clients in contract disputes, copyright and trademark disputes, antitrust litigation, and employment matters. She has argued cases on the state level before the Kentucky Supreme Court and the Kentucky Court of Appeals and naturally took a leadership role on cases brought to the United States Court of Appeals and the United States District Courts.

She left the firm in 2004 to serve as Senior Vice President, general counsel, and Corporate Secretary for the Kentucky Lottery.

"Based upon her many years of senior leadership with the Kentucky Lottery, as Board Chair I can confidently assert that Mary's selection as CEO is a wonderful step in keeping the Kentucky Lottery moving forward to new and bigger heights," Kentucky Lottery Board Chairman Mark Sommer stated. "We at the Kentucky Lottery are most appreciative of Governor Beshear's continued support of our education funding mission and of his appointment of Mary, who will be the first woman CEO in Kentucky Lottery history and one of only a handful of women lottery directors across the United States. We look forward to great things under Mary's leadership."

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Lottery Post Staff

Comments

HaveABall's avatarHaveABall

Congratulations on your big promotion Mary Harville.  I hope you will foremost support fairness.

Patriot

Bleudog101

Congratulations and hope you keep the Kentucky Lottery as progressive as it is. 

Stack47

Don't know if it's the same throughout the country, but lots of the stores around here have new faces behind the counters. One told me lots of the clerks took layoffs. Not the KY Lottery's fault, but lots of these clerks are "deer in the headlights" just by handing them a play slip. Saw one the other day trying to put a play slip into the ticket printer. Clerks in two different stores never heard of an Igift and one thought I wanted a PB ticket.

Mary Harville has the experience and should do an excellent job!

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