Business & Finance has released the annual CEO 100 Index, recognising the leading chief executives operating in Ireland in 2023.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Adaire Fox-Martin, President of Google Cloud Go to Market and Head of Google Ireland,
Google
Adaire also holds the role of Head of Google Ireland, representing Google’s largest technology hub outside Silicon Valley.
Adaire brings to Google customers more than 25 years’ experience in the business-technology sector, delivering exceptional value and outcomes to organizations of all geographies, industries, and sizes. Before her role as President for Google Cloud Go to Market, Adaire led the organization’s International and EMEA regions. Before joining Google Cloud, she served on the Executive Board of SAP SE, leading the company’s global sales, services, and customer-engagement teams, serving over 440,000 customers. She also held various leadership roles at Oracle.
Neil Freshwater, Chief Executive Officer,
Zurich Insurance Plc
Neil Freshwater is the CEO of Zurich Insurance plc (ZIP) the main licensed legal entity for all EU based general insurance business of the Zurich Insurance Group, and was appointed to this role in July 2019. ZIP operates from its Head Office in Dublin and through a network of 12 branches throughout Europe, writing c€9bn Gross Written Premium per annum.
Neil joined Zurich in 2013 as CFO of Zurich’s UK General Insurance business. Neil was subsequently appointed as the CEO of Zurich Legacy Solutions in 2016 where he was responsible for the strategic management, run-off and disposal of Zurich’s discontinued and non-core portfolios, de-risking legacy exposures, delivering economic and legal finality, and enabling management to focus human and financial resources on Zurich’s core business.
Neil is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries with over 30 years of insurance industry experience in a wide variety of roles including UK CFO of Catlin, and in a number of actuarial, finance, change and operational roles at Aviva and Swiss Re.
Neil is a graduate of Loughborough University.
Stephen Garvey, Chief Executive Officer
Glenveagh Properties Plc
Stephen Garvey was appointed chief executive officer in August 2019. Stephen is responsible for delivering on the Glenveagh’s vision to create Ireland’s leading and most sustainable homebuilder. Stephen has over 20 years’ experience in the construction and property industry in Ireland. Prior to founding his own successful residential development business, Bridgedale Homes, Stephen worked with a number of Ireland’s largest property developers. From 2014 to 2017, Stephen advised and managed the acquisition of Irish residential development opportunities on behalf of TIO RLF. A co- founder of Glenveagh, Stephen had led the growth and development of Glenveagh since IPO.
John Goulding, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder,
Workvivo
John Goulding is CEO and co-founder of Workvivo, the employee experience platform built around employee communications and engagement. In April, Workvivo was acquired by Zoom, becoming the digital employee experience business unit led by John. John founded Workvivo along with his co-founder and CTO Joe Lennon in 2017 with a mission to elevate the digital employee experience. Workvivo now works with some of the biggest global brands on the planet, becoming a digital heart for the organisation, boosting retention and bringing their workplace culture to life digitally. John was previously CEO of CoreHR, a global leader in the HCM space, and Senior Director of Global Support in Dell-EMC.
Séamus Hand, Managing Partner,
KPMG in Ireland
Jason Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer,
Carbery Group
Since January 2018, Jason Hawkins has been the Chief Executive Officer and a board member of Carbery Group, a leading international manufacturer of nutritional ingredients, flavours and an award-winning cheese producer. Headquartered in Ballineen, Co. Cork, Carbery is owned by four Irish co-operatives; Bandon, Barryroe, Drinagh and Lisavaird, and employs almost 1000 people across eight locations including Ireland, the UK, the USA, Brazil, Italy, Indonesia and Thailand. Originally from Tralee, Co Kerry, Jason’s previous role was Chief Operating Officer with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), where he had responsibility for the organisation’s global ingredients business. DFA is a leading global dairy co-operative, based in Kansas, USA. Prior to DFA, Jason had a long and distinguished career with Kerry Group, which he joined as a graduate accountant in 1999, after completing his business degree at the Institute of Technology Tralee. For most of his career, Jason has lived and worked in the United States, holding several leadership positions within the Taste & Nutrition division of Kerry Group, where he was responsible for the vision, strategy and growth of several of Kerry’s businesses in the region. Jason is a qualified accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Paddy Hayes, Chief Executive Officer,
ESB Networks
Paddy Hayes was appointed Chief Executive of ESB in August 2021 and is spearheading ESB’s strategy to reach net zero by 2040. Prior to this, he headed up two of ESB’s main operating divisions as Executive Director of ESB’s Generation & Wholesale Markets business and then as Managing Director of ESB Networks. He joined ESB in 1999 from British Steel to lead the Synergen joint venture between ESB and Statoil. He has is a chartered engineer with a Master’s Degree in Engineering from UCD and an MBA from the University of Warwick, and is a board member of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
Paul Healy, Chief Executive Officer,
Skillnet Ireland
Margaret Heffernan, Chief Executive Officer,
Dunnes Stores
Margaret Heffernan is the CEO of Dunnes Stores. In 1956, Margaret 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 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.
Aongus Hegarty, President, International Markets, Dell Technologies,
DELL Ireland
Aongus serves as President of Dell Technologies for International Markets. He has overall responsibility for business and strategy across these global regions, leading a team of over 50,000 sales, solutions and services professionals enabling customers to transform their business for the next data decade. Aongus has over three decades experience in technology and is a twenty-year veteran of Dell Technologies, having held several President, VP & GM roles across the business.
Aongus previously held senior general management, operations, manufacturing and engineering leadership positions with Modus Media, RR Donnelley and Digital Equipment Corporation. Aongus was recognised as one of the Top 10 Diversity Champions in The Economist Global Diversity List and was invited by the Irish Government to join the Better Balance for Better Business Review Group to recommend how more women can be involved in top level decision making in Ireland. Internally Aongus co-leads the Global Women’s Network, is a member of the Global Diversity Council, chaired by Michael Dell, and co-leads the company’s CIO Advisory Boards.
Since 2017 Aongus has been Chairman of the Executive Council for the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union; the council helps ensure a growth-oriented business and investment climate in Europe. He is also a member of the Special Olympics Ireland Council of Patrons. Aongus is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and holds a bachelor’s degree in business studies from the University of Limerick where he was presented with the Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2013. In 2019 Aongus received a prestigious life fellowship from the Irish Management Institute (IMI), joining a list of IMI Fellows who are helping to transform the global business environment.
Paul Henderson, Chief Executive Officer,
DMG Media
Paul is Chief Executive Officer of DMG Media Ireland. He has led the business for over 14 years driving its transition from a print only operation into one of the most dynamic multi-media publishers in Ireland. The company now competes in the B2B Sector as well as B2C. He has been responsible for the creation of brands for the company and built the portfolio through acquisition as the media market continues to evolve at pace.
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 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: Business Plus, Businessplus.ie, SpaceTo.ie, The Irish Daily Mail, The Irish Mail on Sunday, EVOKE, RollerCoaster.ie, Extra.ie, ExtraG.ie, OneFabDay.com and Mail Online.
Peter Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer,
National Broadband Ireland
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. Heading up NBI’s rollout of the National Broadband Plan, Peter oversees a workforce of approximately 2,000 people and has established a team with some of the best and brightest minds in telecoms.
Peter holds 20 years of telecom, engineering, sales & executive experience and prior to NBI 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, Chief Executive Officer,
Genesis Automation
Neil Hosty, Chief Executive Officer,
Fexco
Devan Hughes, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer,
buymie
Devan Hughes is CEO & Co-Founder of buymie, the same-day, big-basket grocery delivery provider. By using local personal shoppers picking from local stores, the buymie grocery delivery service has been delighting time-poor customers in Ireland and the UK since launching in 2016. Through buymie’s innovative real-time order bundling algorithm, the company saved 100,000 trips in 2022 by reducing the number of individual consumer car trips for groceries.
buymie users have no limitation on basket size and have access to whatever products are in a customer’s local store – approximately 20,000 – 35,000 SKUs. A personal shopper is then appointed, allowing for seamless communication during the shopping process, and ensuring the best substitutions and highest quality fresh produce are selected.
buymie employs 70 employees across its Dublin, London and Armenian offices and boasts a network of circa 400 personal shoppers. It is partnered with major retailers such as; Dunnes Stores and Lidl in Ireland, and Asda and Co-Op in the UK. Buymie is currently available in six cities; Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick in Ireland, and Bristol and Leeds in the UK. As of 2022, 1 in 8 households in Dublin have used the buymie app for grocery delivery.
Harry Hughes, Chief Executive Officer,
Portwest
Colin Hunt, Chief Executive Officer,
AIB Group Plc
Imelda Hurley, Chief Executive Officer,
Coillte
Imelda’s focus is on delivering a sustainable future for all by ensuring that Coillte balances and delivers the multiple benefits of forestry, including forests for climate, for wood, for nature and for people. She is also a non-executive director at Dole plc and was recently announced as the president of Ibec. In addition, she is a patron of Chapter Zero Ireland, a community of non-executive directors that lead Irish boardroom discussions on the impacts of climate change. Prior to joining Coillte,
Imelda was an executive director and CFO with agri-services group Origin Enterprises plc and, earlier in her career, she held a range of senior leadership positions at PCH International and Greencore Group plc. She has also previously served as a non-executive director of Total Produce plc, Valeo Foods and Ervia. Imelda is a graduate of University of Limerick, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and an alumna of Harvard Business School.
Peter Jackson, Chief Executive Officer
Flutter Entertainment
John Jordan, Chief Executive Officer,
Ornua
John Jordan is the Chief Executive of Ornua, Ireland’s largest dairy exporter, exporting to 110 countries worldwide, and the owner of Ireland’s only €1 billion food brand, Kerrygold. With a 25-year career in agribusiness, John was appointed CEO in 2018 and has overseen significant growth in sales and value returned to shareholders, whilst also steering Ornua through a significant Governance restructure.
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.
Jim Joyce, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder,
Healthbeacon
Tommy Kearns, Chief Executive Officer,
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, Chief Executive Officer,
FD Technologies
Noel Keeley, Group Chief Executive Officer,
Musgrave Group
Business & Finance CEO 100 (alphabetical by surname):
View part one (A–F)
View part two (F–K)
View part three (K–M)
View part four (M–V)
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