Former Heineken boss Padraig Liston dies
The Ballybunion native, who was 57, passed away yesterday following an illness.
He was as highly regarded in the world of sport as he was in business and widely credited with helping to bring the Murphy’s Irish Open Golf Championship to his native Ballybunion in 2000.
Mr Liston was a former teacher and a brother of Kerry GAA legend Eoin “Bomber” Liston.
He studied at UCC from 1972 to 1976 and trained as a chartered accountant with KPMG until 1983.
He became the financial controller of the Ridge Tool Company where he worked from 1983 to 1989, before he joined Heineken Ireland, where he worked in finance and sales.
He held several key management roles before he was appointed the managing director of Heineken Ireland in 1998, a position he held until March 2003.
During his time with the company, sales grew to €300m a year, securing the lager’s status as Irish market leader.
He left the brewing giant in 2003 to become the group commercial director of the Musgrave Group, where he worked until 2008.
He held a number of non-executive directorships including at Eason, Fáilte Kerry and the Mercy University Hospital.
He also assumed a role as non executive chairman of Heineken Ireland.
In 2010 he was appointed interim executive director with the Cork Opera House.
Damien Wallace, chairman of the Cork Opera House board, said that he knew Mr Liston both personally and professionally. He described Mr Liston as a fantastic guy who came into the Opera House at a time of great turmoil and over the next 12 months put it on a much stronger path.
Mr Wallace extended his sympathies to Mr Liston’s wife Eileen and his children.
