MORAY AND SPEYSIDE’S annual whisky festival has been boosted ahead of its 17th year by two new high-profile appointments.
The Spirit of Speyside gets under way this weekend and is already celebrating a success in the appointment of one of the most experienced industry leaders, Linda Mellis, to its board of volunteers.
Linda, who served for four decades with Diageo before her retirement, has become a directory of the Festival – and will be joined by Speyside Cooperage visitor centre manager Gill Reid.
Both have been responsible for the delivery of first class visitor experiences in their careers – and now plan to use their skills and expertise to benefit the Festival and its many thousands of guests from home and abroad.
Festival chairman James Campbell believes that Linda and Gill will be excellent additions to the board, saying of their appointments: “The Festival aims to marry the opportunity to appreciate and learn more about our local whisky industry with a first-class visitor experience.
“Both Linda and Gill will be instrumental in helping to guide us as we move forward and grow the Festival in future years.
“Many of our visitors are quite staggered to learn that the driving force behind the Festival are volunteers who willingly give up their time to help because they feel so passionate about whisky and what the Speyside region has to offer.
“It’s through their vision – and the sterling efforts of our festival manager Pery Zakeri in turning the vision into a reality – that the Festival has evolved into the leading event that it is today.
“As we prepare to raise a glass in toast to another successful Festival, I would like to thank all of our volunteer directors, past and present, for their outstanding commitment to making the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival an event like no other.”
Linda worked for Diageo over 43 years, started out as a typist before moving up the ranks. Before her retirement earlier this year she was responsible for managing brand support malt distilling and marketing the distillery visitor centres and brand homes.
A long-standing supporter of the Festival since its inception in the late 1990s, she was recognised by the organisers for her commitment when they named her Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival Ambassador of the Year last year.
Gill, meanwhile, has been the manager of Speyside Cooperage Visitor Centre – a five-star attraction welcoming around 22,000 people annually – for two years.
She has been responsible for raising the bar on the visitor experience by developing a 4-D extra-sensory film presentation and mini-cinema on site.
Prior to taking up the post, she was a partner in her family business – one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of oak barrel garden products. She was responsible for developing the firm’s export market and is a previous winner of UK Trade & Investment’s Young Exporter of the Year.
The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival gets under way on Friday – the programme comprises almost 500 different events including distillery tours and tastings, outdoor activities, arts and crafts, food, music and comedy.