New and notable appointments at Irish Life Investment Managers and Core Research

Pictured: Naomi Staff, Core Research

Business & Finance highlights the notable new appointments at Irish Life Investment Managers and Core Research, and new board appointments at New Ireland Assurance and Business in the Community Ireland. 

John Thornton, Head of Liability Driven Investment
Irish Life Investment Managers

Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) has announced the appointment of John Thornton as its new Head of Liability Driven Investment (LDI).

In his new role, John has been responsible for extending ILIM’s LDI product offering to include a swap based LDI fund solution to complement its existing physical bond LDI product. Prior to his appointment as Head of Liability Driven Investment (LDI), John was Senior Fixed Income Fund Manager at ILIM where he actively managed €6bn in fixed income funds, as well as trading cash bonds, bond futures and managing currency exposure.

John joined ILIM in 2011 from UBS in London where his desk was a market maker for European asset-backed securities; trading with fund managers, insurance companies, banks and hedge funds globally. Preceding his role in UBS, John worked at RBS and J.P. Morgan in London, as well as Canada Life in Dublin.

Naomi Staff, Managing Director
Core Research

Core, Ireland’s largest marketing communications company, has announced the appointment of Naomi Staff as Managing Director of its Research Practice. Naomi brings with her over 11 years of experience in market research, with knowledge and insight across a wide range of industries. She also has specific expertise in the finance, alcohol, telecoms and social sectors. Her appointment will be effective from 1^st November 2019.

Naomi joined Core in 2014 as Research Director before moving into the role of Business Director in 2017. Prior to this, she held the position of Associate Director in the brand strategy consulting company, Kantar, formerly Millward Brown.

Alan Cox, CEO of Core, says:

Naomi is very well-positioned to take the helm of the Research Practice. Since joining Core, she has made a huge impact on the business through her skills as a practitioner and leadership style. Naomi is the right person to continue to grow the business by providing clients with clear, incisive and actionable understanding of consumer behaviour and psychology.”   

Core employs a team of 310 people and consists of nine practices – Creative, Data, Investment, Learning, Media (comprising of Mediaworks, Spark Foundry, Starcom and Zenith), Recruitment, Research, Sponsorship and Strategy. Core has been voted Agency Network of the Year for the last six years at the Media Awards and the company was also recently voted one of the top workplaces in Ireland by the Great Place to Work Institute for the tenth year running.

New board appointments at New Ireland Assurance and Business in the Community Ireland

New Ireland Assurance has appointed Mary Kerrigan and Gerry Hassett to its Board of Directors.

Mary Kerrigan is a senior investment professional having previously been a partner with Willis Towers Watson. She is a qualified actuary with over 25 years’ experience in the global investment and pensions industry. Mary is currently also a member of the Independent Governance Committee of the Prudential Assurance Company (UK) Limited and a Board Trustee of the London Irish Centre Charity.

Gerry Hassett has extensive experience in the Financial Services industry, particularly in the Life & Pensions sector. He spent 29 years with Irish Life where he was Managing Director of Irish Life Financial Services, before assuming a role in Canada to restructure and transform the Individual Customer Division of Great-West Life. He is a former President of Insurance Ireland and is now based in Ireland once more where he operates Gain Line which advises, mentors and invests in Fintech and other technology firms.

Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) has appointed Dave Murphy (CEO PM Group) and Leisha Daly (Senior Director for Government Affairs & Policy for J&J Supply Chain) to its board.

BITCI supports Ireland’s top companies on sustainability strategies and also operates Ireland’s only certified standard for sustainability, the Business Working Responsibly Mark.

Dave Murphy has worked in PM Group for 30 years and during that time has been involved in all areas of the business. A Chemical Engineer, Dave’s primary experience of engineering and construction was gained leading significant projects for a number of multinational companies in Ireland and internationally. Dave joined the Board of PM Group in 2006, became Managing Director of Western Europe in 2008 and was appointed Group CEO in 2011.

Leisha Daly is Senior Director for Government Affairs & Policy for J&J Supply Chain in EMEA and for J&J Campus Ireland, a role she assumed in September 2018.  For the previous 10 years, Leisha was Country Director of Janssen, the pharmaceutical company of Johnson & Johnson. Leisha started her 20-year career at J&J as Head of Medical Affairs at Janssen, and led in several senior positions in medical, sales and marketing management.  In her role as Country Director, Leisha successfully led Janssen through the economic downturn to become the fastest growing pharmaceutical company and the 5^th largest pharmaceutical company in Ireland. She was recognised as one of the Top 25 most powerful businesswomen in Ireland by the Women’s Executive Network in 2016 and in 2018 was recognised by the IMI with a Life Fellowship Award for her contribution to Irish Management.