Meet Our Team
Our people are the foundation of everything we do with and for our clients. What unites us all is our passion for serving others, which is what we do each and every day.
Administrative
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Chuck McHale
President
Chuck began his career with the family grocery business when he was 13 years old as a bagger and clean-up person. He continued to work in many different areas and departments throughout high school and college. Chuck assumed management responsibilities after his father’s passing. Over the years, Chuck changed the focus of the family business from a retail food market to off-premise catering and ultimately to on- and off-premise catering, currently operating seven of the area’s finest wedding reception venues.
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Jeff Schachleiter
General Manager
Jeff was raised in the event and catering business. At the age of 13, he started setting rooms in the family event business. After his baseball career was cut short due to a shoulder injury, he started his full-time career. He had one goal in mind, which was to learn every job within the event business. He started as a kitchen manager, then moved into operations, disk jockeying weddings part time and then transitioned into the general manager role, acquiring 14 years of experience. He left the family business and started with McHale’s as the general manager in 2013. His wealth of knowledge and diverse skill set makes for a great leader in the company.
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Millie Woolwine
Personnel Manager
Millie has been in the wedding industry for over 45 years! She started on organ and piano, which led to her love for flowers, making cakes and onto being a server/bartender part time at McHale’s. Millie was then asked to take over the role of hall manager at the Grand, and 1.5 years later, became personnel manager. She loves her staff and tries to do anything to make it the easiest possible work scenario they could ask for.
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Jef Schachleiter
Comptroller
Jef spent the majority of his working life in retail in the shoe business. From there, he moved into the banquet business as partner at one of McHale’s competitors in the Greater Cincinnati area. That partnership dissolved, and he moved into a role as an operation manager for a mechanical contractor. When that job ended, he got back into the shoe business as a rep for Safety Shoe Vouchers, visiting manufacturing plants throughout the Midwest, trying to sign them up for a voucher program for a family shoe store chain.
Through his many years of work, he has always kept focused on the “customers.” Without them, there would not have been work for him to do. His goal is to never lose sight of that fact.
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Event Planners
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Lindsay Morris
Sales Manager, Event Planner at The Grand & Pinnacle
Lindsay has been with McHale’s since November of 2015. She has been in the hospitality business for 15 years. Lindsay graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in theatre and dance. She started out in the business in food and beverage. Once she found her way in the event planning side of events, she fell in love with it. Lindsay loves getting to know her clients on a personal level to make their events more meaningful and memorable.
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Carly Ems
Event Planner
Carly joined the McHale’s team in April 2018. Born and raised in Cincinnati, she attended Bowling Green State University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in tourism, leisure and event planning. After graduating, she couldn’t think of a better place than Cincinnati to start her career! Carly enjoys getting to know her clients throughout the planning process and seeing their vision come to life. Seeing all of the little details coming together is her favorite part!
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Brittney Lyons
Event Planner – The Cincinnati Club
Britt started at the University of Kentucky following her love of the Kentucky Wildcats. After realizing her dreams of being in the food and hospitality industry, she transferred to Sullivan University, where she acquired her degrees in culinary arts and sciences as well as hospitality and management. Britt followed her passions all over the US and landed in Colorado, working at a five-diamond restaurant as a pastry and sous chef. Britt started with McHale’s in 2016 as a chef and quickly moved her way up to hall manager of the Cincinnati Club in 2018. From setup to working banquets as a manager, server and bartender, Britt has overseen all of the catering aspects. As of 2019, Britt is excited to be part of the sales team here at McHale’s at the Cincinnati Club. She is ready to answer any questions you may have about what McHale’s and the Cincinnati Club have to offer.
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Julia Wilson
Event Planner – Drees Pavilion, Devou
Julia first joined the McHale’s team as a server and banquet manager. You can be confident she knows the ‘day-of’ side of any type of event! She was thrilled to transition to the planning team in 2018. Julia will be able to share all of her previous insight with you to help make every event great from the start. She graduated with a bachelor’s from University of Kentucky in 2012 and has always worked in customer service. Julia is ready to offer her organizational skills, support and creative inspiration to make your planning process easy and fun. She can’t wait to work with you!
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Katie Sulek
Event Planner – The Center at Fountain Square
Katie’s infatuation with special events blossomed while pursuing a degree in hospitality management at the University of Kentucky. During her college career, Katie plunged herself into the event industry by collaborating with several event companies in the Greater Cincinnati area. She loves to help bring both clients’ and vendors’ visions to life. As a local, Katie was thrilled to move back to the Queen City and continue planning and executing celebrations.
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Culinary Team
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Chris Weist
Executive Chef
Chef Chris, a native of Cincinnati, cut his culinary teeth at age 16, learning to cook steaks to temperature at a local restaurant. He then went on to graduate from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York, worked under talented chefs from New York to California and spent time in Aspen and The Big Island of Hawaii.
Chris has a great working knowledge of many types of cuisine and varied cooking techniques. Among his many accomplishments is cooking alongside Emeril Lagasse in Seymour, Indiana for his Food Network program “Kick your School Lunch Up a Notch.”
Chris lived in Hawaii for two years, allowing him to get in touch with exotic ingredients that found their way to the back door on a daily basis, including fresh fruits and vegetables and, of course, the finest seafood, which he caught and cooked.
For the last 18 years, Chris has been honing his skills on the road and delivering restaurant-quality food at varied locations, including catering in some of the finest homes for future presidents and many off-site events of various sizes.
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Brian Warwick
Sous Chef
Brian graduated from the Cincinnati State Culinary Program in 2011. He worked in various downtown Cincinnati restaurants for about two years honing his skills to enable him to land his first executive chef position in 2013 at the Dearborn Country Club. He worked there for three years. In 2016, he decided to move into catering and has been active in that field ever since.
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Marley Fuller
Sous Chef
Marley has been with the McHale’s team since high school. She has had many different jobs, starting as a dishwasher, then moving to server, where the chefs would let her help with appetizers and salads. Her love for creating food made her make a promise to herself to be a chef at McHale’s one day. She went to study culinary arts at Sullivan University, and after 12 years, she still loves every minute of working as one of the chefs. What she loves most about her job is that there isn’t a better feeling than hearing from a client that you had a part in making the best day of their life possible.
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Jackie Newman
Sous Chef
Jackie was born in Chicago, but due to his dad’s job, he and his family moved to many different states, including Texas, Arizona and Washington. At 15, Jackie started as a dishwasher at a café in Illinois. Due to his hard work ethic and drive, he worked his way up through the ranks. During this journey, he was fortunate enough to work with and learn from many culinary mentors. Jackie became an executive chef of a boutique hotel in Kentucky, creating many delicious house dishes, and he met many exciting guests.
In 2003, Jackie moved to Northern Kentucky and worked at various restaurants in and around Mainstrausse. Jackie became the executive chef and director of food and beverage full service for Holiday Inn. Jackie met his wife there, and the opportunity to come work for McHale’s opened. Since 2017, he has been happy to call McHale’s his home, and he loves that he can do what he loves to do every day.
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Lisa Carter
Wedding Cake Designer
My career with the McHale’s family began in 1986 while pursuing my degrees in business administration and marketing. In 1991, I accepted Chuck McHale’s challenge to help him expand the business into the wedding industry. I have developed a diverse background in the industry from both a business aspect and hands-on in the kitchen and with banquet venues. I have done it all! The creative aspect of the catering industry is my favorite by far. I enjoy everything from creating food displays and renovating and decorating the venues to transforming a couple’s vision into their perfect wedding cake.
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Hall Managers
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Nancy Vagedes
The Center & Gardens Hall Manager
Nancy came to McHale’s in 2009 and has worked in all aspects of the event industry. She brings a wealth of creativity and knowledge to her position as hall manager of the The Center and Gardens, along with being a banquet manager, server, bartender and part of the set-up team. Nancy is also an accomplished fine artist and teaches sculpture classes at the university level.
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Phyllis Davis
Drees Hall Manager
Phyllis has been catering to brides for over 30 years! As an original employee of the Town and Country Banquet Center, she was excited to join the McHale’s team in May 2002 when it became the Gardens of Park Hills. Phyllis has worn many hats throughout her career, filling many roles, from banquet manager to personnel manager to hall manager. Her current role as hall manager has proven to be a great asset to McHale’s, facilitating the smooth operation of flawless events.
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Jeremy Emanuel
General Hall Manager
Jeremy started working with McHale’s on New Year’s Eve in 2015. He was a banquet manager at many facilities, mainly the Grand. Shortly after, he was offered the position to manage all of our off-premise venues. He created our systems for all off-premise events and coordinated every event that was not at a facility we own or operate for a couple years. He has worked at just about every venue McHale’s has the pleasure of serving, and has learned a lot throughout this process.
After his time as off-premise catering manager, he was offered the position of hall manager at the Grand Facility. He managed the facility and all events there for another couple years. This allowed him to focus on client satisfaction while still managing staff and all facility needs. Most recently, he was offered a promotion to assistant general manager. He now manages both the Grand Facility and the Cincinnati Club, making sure all needs are met for clients and staff at both facilities.
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Jeannie Wirth
Cincinnati Club Hall Manager
Jeannie started in the banquet and catering business when she was just 14 years old working for Davis Catering at The Cincinnati Club. When McHale’s acquired The Cincinnati Club, Jeannie decided to come to work for McHale’s. She has become a strong member of our staff and says she is extremely happy working for McHale’s.
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