About Orla McKeon

Stroll down Bond Street, the Champs Elysee or Fifth Avenue and you’ll soon see brands such as Louis Vuitton and Tag Heuer. For deeply experienced luxury retail consultant Orla McKeon, these prestigious brands aren’t about shopping dreams. Instead, they’re keystones on her CV.

Orla founded and runs Celtic Advice, which specialises in executive coaching and leadership development as well as retail consulting. As she guides clients, she draws on her extensive experience in luxury retail.

That included managing operations in Louis Vuitton’s flagship store on Bond Street, for example, a role she enjoyed partly because of the challenges and rewards of pushing the possibilities of retail excellence, but also because she had the opportunity to manage and develop a high performing sales team.  

“When people started their career on the shopfloor as client advisors [sales staff], I’d seek to show them that they could do anything,” she says. “It was so rewarding to identify talent, help people develop and see people move on to specialist roles in sales, stock management, marketing or other head office functions.”

Expanding horizons at UCD Smurfit School

Orla didn’t set out to work in luxury. Her Dad was an accountant and she loved maths, so a career with numbers appealed to her. Having graduated with a BA in Banking and Finance at Ulster University, she chose to pursue a Master of Accounting at UCD Smurfit School.

“It was a fast track to a professional qualification,” she recalls. “And having grown up and been educated in Northern Ireland, it was really exciting to go to Dublin and study at UCD Smurfit School, which has an excellent reputation.”

Living in the student residence in Blackrock, Orla found herself mixing with a diverse international group. “It was eye-opening – I was curious to learn about people and other cultures, and had so many interesting conversations. I really enjoyed my time there and made friends for life, including my husband Andrew, who was doing an MBS.”

UCD Smurfit School set a high academic standard, she says. “It was rigorous, but at the end, the next step was just the ACA finals. I learned that it pays off to put the hard work in early.”

First step into the luxury sector

Inspired to live abroad from her UCD experience, Orla spent three years working in Luxembourg with EY, after securing her ACA qualification working with BDO Simpson Xavier in Dublin. Interested in working in industry, she applied for a financial controller role at luxury giant LVMH in London, joining the firm in 2001.

The energy and magic of high-end retail particularly excited Orla. “Finance was on the sixth floor of the Louis Vuitton building in Bond St and I loved to pop to the store at lunchtime to see the latest bags and soak up the buzz”

“I began tapping into understanding how the team built relationships with clients – the selling ceremony is pure magic. I wanted to learn more and my operational, tangible side really loved getting stuck in.”

After four years, she was invited to lead the UK rollout of a global productivity project for Louis Vuitton, after which she became Retail Performance Manager for the brand, responsible for the performance of 14 stores in six countries.

Following the birth of her son Jack Francis, Orla became divisional manager of the Bond St store. “LVMH really champions the store operations experience,” she says. “If you want to be a retail director one day, they want you to cut your cloth on the shopfloor proving you can motivate a sales team and drive KPIs”

“During my time, we relaunched the flagship as a ‘Maison’ and at that time there were only about six of those models in the entire 400-store network. That was a complex operational project with significant exposure, which I led before moving to manage Louis Vuitton Westfield London.”

“I would never have dreamt of a career in retail management when I was a student, but running a business in such a vast network, you learn so much and you get to call the shots within a framework of quality and excellence. The level of business acumen you meet in that world is incredibly impressive – several store managers have MBAs.”

Advancing to director roles

By 2012, Orla was keen to level up again and looked across the six divisions of the LVMH Group for opportunities. She became UK and Ireland Retail Director for Tag Heuer, a varied role she relished.

“I had the chance to influence the retail expansion strategy, build the team and bring the Louis Vuitton operations framework to Tag Heuer to professionalise retail operations and really add value,” she says.

“Working there also gave me a deep appreciation for luxury watches – it takes six years for a watchmaker to be qualified. When you put on a watch with an automatic movement, it only works as long as you keep moving, hence ‘travelling’  with you as your journey through life. It’s magic storytelling.”

Eventually taking a redundancy from Tag Heuer during a restructuring, Orla worked at Apple for a year leading staffing strategy across multiple markets, before once again returning to LVMH in 2018. There she became Head of Operations for its global learning and development function, supporting the delivery of leadership development programmes for LVMH talents across the business.

As for many, the pandemic prompted change for Orla and Andrew. They left their jobs and moved back to Ireland.

“I’m not sure if we were courageous or crazy,” she laughs. “I decided to do my diploma in coaching as I’ve always been passionate about developing people and helping them find fulfilment. I continue to have LVMH as a client and am building my business in Ireland too.”

Panel

What’s the best advice you’ve been given during your career? 

Say yes to new opportunities.

What tips would you give others at the start of their leadership journey? 

Stay agile, be authentic and champion others.

How do you find volunteering for the Mentor for Global Leadership Programme at UCD Smurfit?

I’ve been a mentor since the programme launched in 2020 and find it very rewarding. I’ve really enjoyed supporting students in navigating their next career steps.

What are your plans for the future? Is there anything else you'd really like to achieve in your career?

I’ve just launched my website for Celtic Advice Ltd, and I’m now focused on business development goals for 2026! I continue to support the not-for-profit sector as a non-executive director in the education and arts sectors, and may one day take on an executive leadership role for a charity or social enterprise.  

What are your interests outside of work?

I sing with Tallaght Chorale Society and I’m an active attendee at the National Concert Hall. I also love yoga.

January 2026