Business & Finance Awards

CEO 100 2018 listing announced – Part 3

By Business & Finance

25 October 2018

Business & Finance release the annual CEO 100 list recognising the top CEOs operating in Ireland.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

To download the complete CEO 100 Index 2018 please click here.

Jane Howard, CEO

Ulster Bank

Incoming CEO of Ulster Bank, Jane Howard arrives from the bank’s UK parent Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Jane has been in the role of managing director of personal banking at RBS in the UK for the past two years, has worked in financial services for 37 years and at executive level for 14 years across customer-facing and risk-management roles. During her time at RBS, she spearheaded digital banking, and was behind the axing of hundreds of Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest branches.

JD Buckley, Managing Director

Sky Ireland

Appointed to lead BSkyB’s operations in Ireland in May 2012, JD Buckley has over twenty years of experience in management and strategy. Previously, he served in leadership positions at PwC, Digicel, in addition to managing his own independent business consultancy. Since joining Sky, he has grown the team from 40 to 1,000 people, launching Sky Broadband, NOW TV, and overseeing a broadcast partnership between Sky and the GAA.

Joe Purcell, CEO

Mincon

Mincon appointed Joe Purcell as chief executive in 2015; he is also Chief Technical Officer, having worked for the group since graduating as a Mechanical Engineer in 1988. Joe was appointed as Chief Technical Officer for the Mincon Group on his return from Australia in 1998. Mincon manufactures mining tools with manufacturing facilities in Shannon, Ireland; in Benton, Illinois; in Perth, Australia; and in North Bay, Canada. It also has subsidiaries in Ireland, Sweden, USA, Peru, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana and West Africa.

John Quinlan, CEO

Aviva

Mr John Quinlan has been the Chief Executive Officer at Aviva Ireland since December 2016 and served as its Managing Director of General Insurance Business since November 2013. Previously John worked at RSA Ireland where he held the role of Sales and Marketing Director. He has vast experience in the Irish insurance industry having previously worked at AON, Allianz and GE Insurance.

John Purdy, CEO

Ergo Group

John Purdy has been at the helm of Ergo for over 25 years as co-founder and CEO, spinning off two companies along the way – Fenergo and FlowForma – and winning the prestigious EY Industry Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2014 and Person of the Year at the 2011 ICT Excellence Awards. Under John’s leadership, Ergo has grown organically and through acquisition (CDSoft, iSite, Micromail) evolving into a €70m business with nearly 500 employees.

Julie Sinnamon, CEO

Enterprise Ireland

CEO of Enterprise Ireland since November 2013, Julie held a number of senior public-sector positions constituting a 30-year career in Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. She has managed the evaluation division and equity portfolio in Enterprise Ireland. In 2015, Julie was appointed to the Investment Committee of the Irish Strategic Investment Fund, part of the National Treasury Management Agency.

Larry Murrin, CEO

Dawn Farms

Dawn Farm Foods was born in 1985. Larry expanded the company into Cherrywood in Ballyfermot before moving to Naas where the company now has two plants. The company has since opened a facility in Northampton, England. Dawn Farms Foods is also a founder of Origin Green, a nationally-run sustainability programme.

Liam Nagle, CEO

Norbrook

Immersed in many C-suite and varied roles throughout his career, Liam began in finance at Apple which led him to assume a General Manager role at Intel in 1991. This took him into telecoms and optical components with Nortel Networks and Bookham Technology. Before becoming CEO of Norbrook he was CEO of SISK and Chairman of SISK Healthcare Group.

Louise Phelan, Vice President of Global Operations EMEA

PayPal

Louise Phelan is Vice President of International Payments for PayPal. Louise joined PayPal in 2006 as Customer Service and Risk Director for the EU.

Prior to joining PayPal in June 2006, Louise was a member of the Senior Management Team for GE Money, a division of General Electric (GE), which specialises in small ticket lending for a client base comprising both consumers and commercial customers.

Louise is also a non-executive director for Ryanair and sits on the advisory board for Telus International (formerly Voxpro). She was also the first woman president for the American Chamber of Commerce.

Marc Murphy, CEO

Fenergo

With 18 years’ experience developing, selling and delivering financial technology to global banks, Marc led Fenergo to securing €4 million funding from Investec Ventures Ireland Limited in 2013. Marc was previously named a FinTech 100 Most Influential Leader due to Fenergo’s impact on financial institutions’ compliance and operations. He is a software engineering MBA graduate of Dublin City University.

Margaret Heffernan, CEO

Dunnes Stores

While her daughter Anne and niece Sharon McMahon are both directors and rumoured to be taking over the day-to-day running of the family business, the formidable and secretive Margaret Heffernan stills helms the operation, which boasts a 21.6% share of the highly competitive Irish grocery market. A strategy of clever high end collaborations has raised the profile of their clothing and homewares offerings in recent years.

Mark Foley, CEO

Eirgrid

Mark Foley joined Eirgrid as Chief Executive in June 2018, coming from Coillte, where he was managing director of the land solutions business, having previously held the position of managing director of Coillte Enterprises. Before joining Coillte, Mr Foley was the director of capital programmes at Dublin Airport Authority.

Mark Kellett, Group CEO

Magnet Networks

Spending 18 years working in senior finance positions in the US and Europe, Mark has led the telecommunications firm Magnet Networks since 2007. His former workplaces include Network Appliance, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo Europe. Magnet is owned by Columbia Ventures Corporation and is a leading telecommunications, data-connectivity and security-services provider and employs over 100 staff.

Martin McVicar, Managing Director

Combilift

Martin McVicar Co-Founded Combilift in 1998. His career in engineering started with a summer job at truck-mounted forklift manufacturers Moffett Engineering, where he was so enthused with the industry that he later became Moffett’s Chief Engineer. He started Combilift when he was 26, in 1998, and the Monaghan company now exports to 85 countries and turned over €225m in 2017.

Martin Shanahan, CEO

IDA Ireland

Prior to becoming CEO of IDA, Martin was Chief Executive of Forfás, the Irish government’s policy advisory agency for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation. He joined Forfás in 2005 and has been a major figure in the development of enterprise and innovation in Ireland ever since. He has previously held management responsibilities at Fáilte Ireland and private sector firms.

Maura Quinn, CEO

Institute of Directors

Maura is responsible for leading the strategic development of the Institute of Directors through growing its membership base, expanding the range of services and growing its reputation. She was appointed Chief Executive in April 2008. She has served as Executive Director of UNICEF Ireland for eleven years and a Non-Executive Director of the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital.

Michael Carey, Chairman & CEO

East Coast Bakehouse

East Coast Bakehouse, was co-founded by husband and wife team Michael Carey and Alison Cowzer in 2015. He has previously held the Managing Directors’ roles at Kellogg’s (UK/Ireland), Fox’s Biscuits and Evian/Volvic (UK/Ireland). Earlier in his career he held marketing roles at a number of food businesses, including as Marketing Director of Cantrell & Cochrane and Jacob’s Ireland and Brand Manager at Batchelors and Green Isle Foods.

Michael Carvill, Managing Director

Kenmare Resources

Michael Carvill has been the Managing Director of Kenmare since 1986. He worked as a contracts engineer in Algeria and as a project engineer at Tara Mines, Ireland. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland (FIEI). He holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering (Queen’s University, Belfast) and an MBA (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania).

Michael O’Leary, CEO

Ryanair

One of Ireland’s most well-known businesspeople, Michael is Chief Executive of Ryanair. He began his career as a trainee at Stokes Kennedy Crowley (later known as KPMG) and moved on to establish newsagents in Walkinstown and Terenure. In 1986 he became Financial Advisor to Tony Ryan, followed by an appointment as Deputy Chief Executive at Ryanair in 1988. In 1991 he was appointed Chief Operating Officer and in 1994 he became CEO.

Michael Stanley, Co-Founder & CEO

Cairn Homes

Michael Stanley co-founded Cairn Homes plc and was appointed Chief Executive Officer prior to the IPO in June 2015. Michael was previously Chief Executive Officer of Stanley Holdings following its demerger from Shannon Homes. The Stanley family founded Shannon Homes in 1970, and the company was one of Ireland’s largest homebuilders in the 1990s and 2000s. Michael restarted his homebuilding operation in 2014 following the economic downturn in Ireland, and with his business partner Alan McIntosh, this provided the operational platform for Cairn Homes plc.

Mike Quinn, Managing Director

Ervia

In 2017 Mike Quinn joined Ervia from Bord na Móna where he has held the position of Managing Director since February 2015. Before joining Bord na Móna Mr. Quinn was Vice President of Precision Castparts (PCC), a worldwide group of five companies, headquartered in the US. Prior to joining PCC he held various senior management positions in Tellabs, Stryker and Lufthansa Tecknik. Ervia is a multi utility responsible for the Ireland’s gas and water infrastructure. The business consists of Gas Networks Ireland (GNi) , Irish Water and Aurora Telecom.

Niall Anderton, CEO

Circle K

Anderton took the top job at the 440-strong network of forecourts in February 2017 after Denis O’Brien sold it to listed Canadian group, Alimentation Couche-Tard, and has overseen the rebranding from Topaz to Circle K. He began his career at KPMG before moving to a role as financial controller in fashion retailer A-wear. He also worked in management roles at O2 and Penneys/Primark before joining Topaz.

Noel O’Hanlon, CEO

Genesis

Noel O’Hanlon worked as Managing Director at IPT Ltd Cork, a leading supplier of capital equipment to the electronics industry from 1994 until 2009 having spent the previous four years as a Marketing Director for an IBM Software company in western Australia. Genesis Automation was spun out of IPT to develop software for managing consignment inventory and has become the market leader in its field in Healthcare in the UK.

Pat McCann, CEO

Dalata

With over 45 years in the hotel industry, Pat kick-started his career in Ryan Hotels plc. in 1969. He left in 1989 to join Jurys Hotel Group plc. as a General Manager of its main Dublin hotel. He became Chief Executive of Jurys in 2000 until his departure in 2006. He became CEO of Dalata in 2007.