By Business & Finance 
Business & Finance has released the annual CEO 100 Index, recognising the leading chief executives operating in Ireland in 2021.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The full list is available to download here
The CEO 100 Index launch webinar webinar – themed ‘Leading the Way: New Era, No Limits’ – is available to watch on demand here.
Frank Gleeson, President & CEO,
Aramark Ireland
Frank Gleeson is President of Aramark’s operations in Northern Europe (NE). Aramark NE is one of the largest integrated services suppliers of facilities management, food services, retail, and property in Ireland, UK, Scandinavia and the Gulf of Arabia. As President and Chief Executive Officer for Aramark NE, Frank is responsible for strategic and operational leadership for all food and facilities management services across a variety of industries in these international markets. He will focus on accelerating growth, managing cost and productivity, and delivering high-quality products and services to its blue-chip client base. Frank joined Aramark in 2013 from Topaz Energy Group where he was Retail Director and before that he worked for a variety of retail and hospitality companies including Statoil, O’Briens off license group, and Xtravision/Blockbuster. A graduate of the Irish Management Institute, Frank has long been a board member of IBEC and is currently President of IBEC for 2021 – 2022. Last year, Frank was reappointed to the Government’s Labour Market Council. He is a former Chairman of Retail Ireland; a former board member of the National Transport Authority and was elected Chairman of NACS, the international trade association of convenience stores from 2018 – 2019.
John Goulding, CEO,
Workvivo
John Goulding is CEO and co-founder of Workvivo, the employee communications platform designed to engage and connect employees no matter where they work from. John was previously CEO of CoreHR, a global leader in the HR tech space, and Senior Director of Global Support in EMC (now Dell EMC). John founded Workvivo along with his co-founder and CTO Joe Lennon in 2017 to elevate the employee experience for all. Workvivo works with some of the world’s biggest brands to boost retention and bring their workplace culture to life digitally. Workvivo is backed by Tiger Global, Frontline Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and Zoom founder Eric Yuan.
Seamus Hand, Managing Partner,
KPMG
Seamus is the Managing Partner of KPMG in Ireland and is a member of KPMG’s Global and EMA boards. Seamus previously was a partner in KPMG’s financial services practice in Ireland and worked with many global and domestic clients in the asset management, aviation, banking and insurance sectors.
Paddy Hayes, CEO,
ESB Networks
Paddy Hayes was appointed by the Board of ESB Netwrokds as the new Chief Executive in succession to Pat O’Doherty who retired. Paddy Hayes joined ESB from British Steel in 1999 and was appointed Managing Director, ESB Networks in 2018. Prior to this he held the position of Executive Director, Generation and Wholesale Markets. A chartered engineer with a Masters Degree in Engineering from University College Dublin and an MBA from the University of Warwick, Paddy is currently co-chair of the European Distribution Transmission Cooperation Platform.
Dr. Margaret Heffernan, CEO,
Dunnes Stores
In 1956, Margaret Heffernan (CEO of the Dunnes Stores) left school and started working at Dunnes Clothing Shop, her family business, at the age of 14. In 1988, Heffernan founded the People In Need Trust. Since its founding, the trust has raised millions of euro in support of local charity work. Her generous charity work has earned her the City of Dublin’s Millennium Award in 1988 as well as the Lord Mayor’s Award in 1989. She became the director of the store in 1964. By 1995, Heffernan was appointed as head of all of the Dunnes Stores. In 2007, Heffernan was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the National University of Ireland. She also received an honorary degree from University College Dublin.
Paul Henderson, CEO,
DMG Media
Paul’s career has always been in Irish media. Growing up in Dublin, Paul’s parents ran a grocery shop, he grew up fascinated by Irish media, particularly Irish people’s obsession with death notices. He vividly remembers key dates across the Irish media landscape including the furore when The Herald newspaper changed from broadsheet to tabloid in 1982 (before he was a teenager). One of his very first jobs was delivering newspapers unaware that twenty-five years later he would be running one of Ireland’s largest publishers. Paul started his formal media career with The Irish Star where he later became Director of Sales. He also worked as the Sales Manager at TV3 (now Virgin Media) where he was part of the launch team a before independent television first went to air in Ireland. Since September 2009, Paul has been CEO of DMG Media, the home of some of Ireland’s best known media brands: The Irish Daily Mail, The Irish Mail on Sunday, EVOKE, RollerCoaster.ie, Extra.ie, OneFabDay.com and Mail Online.
Peter Hendrick, CEO,
NBI
Peter Hendrick is the CEO of NBI, taking charge of one of the most ambitious telecoms projects in the world, ending the digital divide in Ireland. Having worked on the project since 2015, Peter successfully led NBI through the competitive bid for the National Broadband Plan as the Managing Bid Director, heading up a team of some of the best and brightest minds in telecoms. Peter holds 20 years of telecom, engineering, sales & executive experience and has held senior roles in Siemens and enet. In 2006, he co-founded AirSpeed Telecom, serving as the company’s Chief Operations Officer until 2015, helping build it into a national telecoms business focused on delivering managed telecommunication services to both retail and wholesale customers across Ireland. Following Granahan McCourt’s acquisition of AirSpeed Telecom in 2014, Peter led the integration of the company with enet Wholesale networks. Peter has received a number of industry awards during his career, including a top ten placing in the Deloitte Fast 50 Technology Awards and the Irish Times Tech 50. He holds an honours degree in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications and Electronics from Dublin Institute of Technology and has continued to support the institute in the role of external examiner covering both electronic and electrical engineering disciplines.
Mark Hendricks, CEO,
Genesis Automation
Mark is a seasoned healthcare information technology professional with more than 25 years of operational, technical, consultative sales, and sales management experience for care providers, technology providers, and healthcare consultancies. Over the course of his career, Mark has demonstrated a unique ability to solve the healthcare ecosystem’s key operational and business challenges by designing, selling, and delivering a blend of technology, operational redesign, and change management. At Genesis, his keen vision, pragmatic approach, and commitment to results have been instrumental in delivering transformative clinical traceability solutions to some of the largest healthcare providers in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States.
Neil Hosty, CEO,
Fexco
Neil was appointed CEO of Fexco Group in January 2022 having previously served in the roles of Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Neil had previously held the role of CEO of Metamo DAC, a first of its kind 50:50 joint venture company between Fexco and Irish credit unions. Neil has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector and has held various senior executive positions in the Irish and US banking sectors including Consumer Banking, Business Banking, Wealth Management and Business Transformation.
Kevin Hourican, President & CEO,
Sysco Ireland
Kevin Hourican is President and Chief Executive Officer of Sysco Corporation, the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Sysco’s family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. Joining Sysco in February 2020, Kevin is a proven business leader with more than two decades of experience driving market-leading growth for large organizations. Kevin is leading Sysco’s large-scale, customer-focused and growth-related transformation, aimed at further improving the way Sysco supports its customers and accelerating profitable sales growth. During an unprecedented year such as 2020, Sysco is not just successfully managing the pandemic crisis, the company under Kevin’s leadership is leveraging it as an opportunity to fuel transformation and growth.
Harry Hughes, CEO,
Portwest
Harry is CEO of Portwest, a world-leading protective wear company owned and operated by brothers Cathal, Harry and Owen Hughes. Harry studied and worked for seven years in the UK and then returned to the family business in 1978. Portwest operate in over 130 countries. Harry won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year international category and the overall award in 2017.
Devan Hughes, CEO & Co-Founder,
Buymie
Devan is CEO & Co-founder of Buymie, Ireland’s largest same-day grocery ecommerce platform. Headquartered in Dublin, with offices in the UK and Armenia, Buymie partners with the largest enterprise grocers in the market, including Dunnes Stores, Lidl, and COOP in the UK. With a high profile investor list and over €15m+ of capital raised, the service now operates across 5 cities and 2 countries, and has captured over 4.5% of the Irish population as registered users, with 13% of households in major cities such as Dublin now shopping with buymie for their weekly groceries.
Colin Hunt, CEO,
AIB
In March 2019, Colin was appointed Chief Executive Officer of AIB and an Executive Director on the AIB Board. He joined AIB in August 2016 as Managing Director, Wholesale, Institutional & Corporate Banking Division. Prior to joining AIB, he was Managing Director at Macquarie Capital where he led the development of its business in Ireland. Previously, he was a Special Policy Adviser at the Departments of Transport and Finance, Research Director and Chief Economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers, Head of Trading Research and Senior Economist at Bank of Ireland Group Treasury and a country risk analyst at NatWest. He has a Phd in Economics from Trinity College, Dublin and degrees in Commerce & Economics from University College, Cork. He served as a Non- Executive Director of Aer Lingus Group plc from 2008 to 2014. Colin is a Director of the Ireland Funds, Ireland Chapter and Non-Executive Director and President 2021/2022 of the Institute of Bankers in Ireland.
Imelda Hurley, Deputy President & CEO,
Coillte
Appointed Coillte CEO in 2019, Imelda is also a non-executive director of Dole plc and IBEC. She was previously CFO of agri-services group, Origin Enterprises plc. Prior to joining Origin, Imelda was based in Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China where she was CFO and Head of Sustainability for PCH International. In addition, she has worked with Greencore Group plc and Arthur Andersen and is a previous non-executive director of both Ervia and Total Produce plc.
Peter Jackson, CEO,
Flutter Entertainment
Peter has extensive experience in leading consumer businesses with international reach within a highly regulated industry. With technology and digital consumer sector expertise Prior to becoming Chief Executive Officer, Peter was Chief Executive Officer of Worldpay UK, an operating division of Worldpay Group plc. He was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Travelex Group. He then joined Santander as Head of Global Innovation at Banco Santander and a Director of Santander UK Group Holdings plc. Peter’s previous experience includes senior positions at Lloyds and Halifax Bank of Scotland, as well as time at McKinsey & Company. He holds a MEng degree.
John Jordan, CEO,
Ornua
John Jordan is the Chief Executive of Ornua, owner of the Kerrygold brand and Ireland’s largest dairy exporter, exporting to 110 countries worldwide. With a 25-year career in agribusiness, John was appointed CEO in 2018 to deliver on Ornua’s global strategy of product and geographic diversification. Prior to his appointment, John held a number of senior roles in the business including CEO of DPI Specialty Foods, a division of Ornua which is the third largest specialty food wholesaler and distributor in the US. John is a graduate of Biotechnology from Dublin City University, with an M.Sc. from UCD and an MBA from Trinity College Dublin. John also serves on the Board of Ornua Co-Op, Nextwave Distribution and is a member of the Advisory Board of Dublin City University Business School.
Cathy Kearney, VP of European Operations,
Apple
Cathy Kearney is an accountant who works as the vice president of European Operations for Apple. Being head of over 6,000 employees, her Apple Satellite Company has been very successful. Based in Cork, her company has made about $22 billion for Apple in a single year. Her success has landed her name on the Irish Independent’s list of Ireland’s 20 most powerful women.
Tommy Kearns, CEO,
Xtremepush
Tommy Kearns is CEO of Xtremepush, a global customer engagement, personalisation, and data platform. It provides brands with rich engagement capabilities across multiple channels including email, website, mobile app, SMS and social messengers. The platform also empowers brands to unify their data for a true Single Customer View, and combines enterprise-grade analytics with a full suite of campaign optimisation tools.
Séamus Keating, CEO,
First Derivatives
Séamus was appointed as CEO in January 2020. He was first appointed to the First Derivatives Board as an independent Non-Executive Director in December 2012 and was appointed Non-Executive Chairman in July 2013. He has over 20 years’ experience in the global technology sector in finance and operational roles and has held a number of non-executive roles since 2012. He was chief financial officer of Logica plc from 2002 until 2010 when he became chief operating officer and head of its Benelux operations. Prior to his role at Logica plc, he worked for the Olivetti Group in senior finance roles in the UK and Italy.
Noel Keeley, CEO,
Musgrave
Noel Keeley is CEO of Musgrave, Ireland’s largest food retail, wholesale and foodservice company with 11 market leading brands across the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Spain including SuperValu, Centra, Frank and Honest, Donnybrook Fair and Musgrave MarketPlace. Noel has over 30 years’ experience in senior and executive leadership roles in both private and public sector organisations. He has previously held the positions of Managing Director for Musgrave Wholesale Partners and Group HR Director with Musgrave. Prior to joining Musgrave in 2005 Noel was Vice President for Human Resources with University College Cork. He has also held a number of senior leadership roles with the Canadian Government in Northern Canada where he lived and worked for 10 years. Noel holds an MBA from the Smith School of Business, Queens University, Canada.
Caroline Keeling, CEO,
Keelings
CEO and managing director of family-owned agri-food business Keelings, Caroline started her career with Green Isle Foods in 1992, before returning to join Keelings as Technical Manager in 1994 and then Technical Director in 1998. In 2002, she became the Managing Director of Keelings Multiples and in 2005 took over as Group Managing Director. She became CEO in 2013.
Peter Keeling, CEO,
Diaceutics
As Chief Executive Officer of Diaceutics, Peter recognized early on that Personalized Medicine would be an increasingly large part of the drug development paradigm, representing a shift in how the pharmaceutical industry operates. With over thirty years of experience in international healthcare, Peter is a thought leader in Personalized Medicine commercialisation. Under his leadership, Diaceutics has grown significantly since its inception in 2005 and now works with 39 of the top pharma companies in the world. Peter has driven Diaceutics to become a leader in innovative solutions that enable pharma to leverage diagnostic testing globally. In October 2020 the company launched DXRX – The Diagnostic Network® – the world’s first diagnostic commercialization platform for Precision Medicine. In just a year of its launch, DXRX delivered 57% of total group revenues. Diaceutics listed on AIM in March 2019, and has grown significantly with 25%+ annual growth year-on-year. Diaceutics continues to invest in the development and commercialisation of the DXRX platform and has raised approximately $50m in funding.
Derek Kehoe, CEO & Head of Country Ireland,
BNB Paribas
Appointed as CEO for the BNP Paribas Group in the Republic of Ireland in 2015, Derek has over 25 years’ experience in banking, having graduated from UCD with an Honours degree in Economics in 1987. He joined BNP Paribas in 2002, since when he has held a number of senior roles in capital markets in Dublin and London, before most recently being appointed Deputy Head of CIB in April 2014.
Eoin Kellet, Managing Director, Mondelez
(Cadburys)
Eoin Kellett was appointed as the Managing Director of Mondelez Ireland 2016. Mr Kellett joined the company in 2010 and was previously Sales Director. He leads a business that owns some of the industry’s best known brands including; Cadbury, Milka, Oreo, Belvita and Philadelphia. Prior to joining Mondelez, he worked with Premier Foods and RHM. He is also a Trustee of the Cadbury Foundation and a member of the Executive Committee of the Irish Grocers Benevolent Fund.
Michael Kelly, CEO,
FINEOS
Michael Kelly, a past winner of Ireland’s EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award, is founder and CEO of FINEOS Corporation. In 2015 Michael was named one of the top 10 most influential executives in the Irish international FinTech sector. Michael established FINEOS with the goal of putting people at the center of modern core life software systems. He is passionate about the necessity for life, accident and health insurance carriers to modernize their core systems with person-centric, configurable and easy to use technology for group and individual insurance on a single core systems platform. Michael believes in the need for continuous change to take advantage of new technologies. He is committed to investing in people and technology to ensure FINEOS remains a leader in modern core systems and a trustworthy, professional, committed business partner relentlessly focused on improving business outcomes and customer care.
Paul Kelly, CEO,
Fáílte Ireland
Paul Kelly has been the Chief Executive of Fáilte Ireland since 2017. Paul is leading Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority, through the deepest crisis ever to face the country’s tourism industry. His work is to ensure survival, enable reopening and reimagine a different future post-Covid. The future will build on Fáilte Ireland’s previous successes including the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, the Dublin brand refresh and The Gathering.Paul’s leadership has led Fáilte Ireland to be listed in the top 20 best large organizations to work in and is the only public sector body on this list. In 2020 Paul was named as Ireland’s Most Trusted Leader by Great Places to Work. Before his appointment as CEO of Fáilte Ireland, Paul held several management and marketing leadership roles. Raised in a small retail family business, he began his career with Procter & Gamble UK. Paul then went on to senior executive positions with Diageo Ireland, Aviva and the UCD Smurfit Business School. Paul Kelly is a native of Co. Wexford and a Commerce graduate from University College Dublin. He is married and has four children.
