Our Experience
Juliearna Kavanagh is a business entrepreneur from New Zealand. She has worked in all areas of hospitality from head chef to PR and has also dealt with recruitment and training throughout her 25 year career in the hospitality industry.
Juliearna is from Southland and has been running her own businesses since the age of 18. She was one of Australasia’s youngest night club owners, has been a restaurateur and her most famous business was a hotel, restaurant and bar called Kavanagh House, just outside Winchester, Timaru (www.kavanaghhouse.co.nz) which she transformed from a derelict building in 1994 to a thriving business, securing her a finalist’s place in the HANZ (Hospitality Associations New Zealand) 1999 Best Redeveloped Hotel, Bar and Restaurant in New Zealand Award.
Juliearna left Kavanagh House in 2007 planning to retire, but ended up falling in love with another old building in Picton that she has recently renovated into a small boutique hotel, restaurant and bar called Escape to Picton (www.escapetopicton.com). 10 years after being a finalist for Kavanagh House, Escape to Picton has just won the 2009 HANZ ( Hospitality Associations New Zealand) Best New / Re-developed Accommodation Hotel a very prestigious award for this stunning Boutique Hotel.
“One of our specialised staff will be personally doing the interviews for The New Zealand Hospitality Job Finder,” says Juliearna. “If we interview you, you will have to convince us that you are good enough to work in 3 to 5 star establishments. My reputation in New Zealand is at stake and any one who knows me knows I have one of the best eyes for detail and I love what I do I am tough but fair."
“I have been placing people from numerous countries in hospitality jobs in New Zealand for a number of years, and this is the first time I have decided to formalise it into a service. These days I can’t eat in any restaurant or stay in any hotel in Europe without people asking me for jobs.”
Juliearna’s has two teenage children Dillon (18) and Eden (16) and they spilt their lives between Picton, New Zealand, and Dublin, Ireland.