Not necessarily. Could have been someone they paid a higher wage to in order to use their license. I would think it would be similar to construction trades. For instance I have my master electrical license. Someone who wants to start an electric company can do so without their own license if they have someone like me and use my license. When doing that, they normally get paid a much higher wage than other workers as it is their license that is on the line when things go wrong. The only difference here is the new manager would just have to apply for a new liquor license, where as with a contractors license you have to have experience and to be able to pass the test.