Wolseley Hospitality Group names Laura Mills managing director
The former head of The Ivy Collection takes over the nine London dining rooms once run by Corbin & King, just as the brand prepares its first hotel in New York.
Laura Mills, who ran The Ivy Collection as managing director, is the new Wolseley Hospitality Group managing director, the London restaurant company announced on 20 October. She takes charge of nine dining rooms, from The Wolseley on Piccadilly to Manzi's in Soho.
The group has not said when she starts. Its announcement credits Mills with almost 15 years of senior leadership in hospitality and a record of developing teams and keeping long-serving managers in their posts, the part of the CV that matters most in rooms where regulars expect to be greeted by name.
From area manager to the top of The Ivy
Nine London dining rooms, a hotel brand on the way and a manager who rose through the Ivy's ranks.
Mills spent more than nine years at The Ivy Collection, according to Restaurant Online, starting as an area manager and leaving as managing director of the brasserie chain. Before that she was operations director at Living Ventures Restaurants, the Manchester-based operator.
Her statement talks about the room rather than the numbers. “Walking through the doors of The Wolseley has always felt like an occasion,” she said. “My focus is simple: to protect everything that makes our restaurants so special,” she added, along with a promise to look after the teams who run them.
What the Wolseley Hospitality Group managing director inherits
The company began as Corbin & King, founded by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, who opened The Wolseley on Piccadilly in 2003. Minor International, the Thai hospitality group, held 74% from 2017 and took full control in April 2022 after a long ownership battle that ousted King; the business took its current name later that year.
The London portfolio today is The Wolseley, The Wolseley City, The Delaunay, Brasserie Zédel, Colbert, Fischer's, Bellanger, Soutine and Manzi's. In the kitchens, the group has just reshuffled three of its head chefs. At the top, Mills arrives two years after chief executive Baton Berisha stepped down in September 2024, at a time when the owner had called in restructuring advisers over cashflow, according to The Caterer.
The name is also travelling beyond restaurants. Minor Hotels launched The Wolseley Hotels in March, with a first 76-room property at 130 West 44th Street, near Bryant Park in Manhattan, due to open in early 2027 and further sites planned in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.
Nine dining rooms, a hotel brand in waiting and a kitchen reshuffle already under way: the first test for the new managing director is whether Piccadilly still feels like an occasion on a wet Tuesday lunchtime.
