Gov. Beshear has appointed Mary Harville as president and CEO of the Kentucky Lottery Corporation. Harville was confirmed by the lottery’s board of directors at a special meeting early Thursday morning.

She is the first woman to hold this role in the Lottery’s 31-year history.

Harville leaves her position as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the Lottery. Harville joined the Kentucky Lottery after working for the Louisville law firm Reed Weitkamp Schell and Vice practicing law for 16 years.

After Harville graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1988, she began practicing law in Louisville. She has presented cases in front of the Kentucky Supreme Court, Kentucky’s Court of Appeals, United States Court of Appeals and the United States District Courts.

“Mary is a homegrown hero here in the commonwealth. She has been involved in just about every iteration of the Lottery since 2004. This is an organization that has created opportunities for so many Kentuckians through their scholarships and every year keeps doing better than the year before,” said Gov. Beshear. “Mary has also broken a glass ceiling here in Kentucky being the first female CEO of our Kentucky Lottery. Mary is blazing this trail and presenting such a great example for the rest of us.”

Lottery Board Chairman Mark Sommer said, “Based upon her many years of senior leadership with the Kentucky Lottery, as Board Chair I can confidently assert that Mary’s selection as CEO is a wonderful step in keeping the Kentucky Lottery moving forward to new and bigger heights,”

“I’m honored and deeply grateful to Gov. Beshear and our board for selecting me to serve as the next president and CEO of the Kentucky Lottery,” said Harville. “I’m so proud to be part of the great team already in place, which is proven by our record-breaking fiscal year for both sales and return to our state. As a life-long Kentuckian and graduate of a Kentucky university, I am also proud to lead the organization that funds KEES scholarships for Kentucky college students, and my goal is to ensure we continue to provide this much-needed funding.”