Business News

CFO 100 Index 2023 in association with Sia Partners — Part 2

By Business & Finance
18 May 2023

The Business & Finance CFO 100 Index 2023, in association with Sia Partners, recognises the top 100 Chief Financial Officers working across some of the most innovative companies in Ireland and the UK today.

To launch this Index, Business & Finance hosted a virtual thought leadership panel discussion on the key issues facing the CFO today.

The theme is: CFOs leading the strategic cost challenge. Financial leaders will discuss navigating an unpredictable business landscape while overcoming challenges and finding opportunities for growth. 

Watch the CFO 100 Index Webinar on-demand video

Download the CFO 100 Index 2023 PDF

Part 1Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4


Niall Dolan, Chief Financial Officer,
Applegreen plc

Niall Dolan - Applegreen

Niall Dolan began working in Applegreen plc in 2015 as Head of Corporate Finance & Treasury. He took on the role of Chief Financial Officer in July 2017.

Prior to Applegreen, Dolan worked as CFO for ISS Facility Services Ireland and was Divisional Financial Controller for One51 plc before that. He also worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers for four years.

He studied Commerce in University College Dublin and followed that with a Masters of Accounting and Finance.


Siobhán Dowling, Finance Director,
Salesforce

Siobhán Dowling

Siobhán Dowling is a Chartered Accountant with commercial analysis, strategy, audit and financial accounting experience within large multinationals.

She is committed to providing accurate and timely business insights. Dowling is renowned as a flexible, dedicated and self-motivated professional.


Thady Duggan, Senior Manager — CFO & Enterprise Value,
Accenture

Thady Duggan

Thady Dugan is a Chartered Accountant with over fifteen years’ experience in both large and small multinationals. He was awarded first class honours in the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School MBA.

Duggan’s career reflects a track record in successfully implementing change and managing international finance teams, combined with strong analytical, organisational, reporting and interpersonal skills.

At Accenture Strategy, he is using the skills and knowledge he has gained to date to work with his colleagues to deliver solutions to complex strategic issues for clients, mainly related to the CFO agenda.


Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson, Chief Financial Officer,
Flutter Entertainment

Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson joined Flutter in March 2023 as Group CFO. Prior to that, he served as Group CFO and Head of Strategy at IHG plc for ten years, having previously held a number of senior leadership positions including leading Investor Relations, Global Corporate Finance, Group Financial Planning and Analysis, Global Tax, Development for EMEA, Chief Financial Officer for Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa and served in 2010 as Interim Regional President of EMEA.

He joined IHG from HSBC Investment Bank where he spent seven years working within Corporate Finance.Whilst at HSBC, Edgecliffe-Johnson advised a wide range of multinational companies on equity and debt fund raisings, mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures.

Earlier in his career he studied law and then spent four years with Price Waterhouse, specialising in mergers and acquisition taxation. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers, and a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme.


Brice Evin, Chief Financial Officer,
Vodafone Ireland

Brice Evin - Vodafone

Brice Evin was appointed CFO of Vodafone Ireland in October 2020 and is responsible for the strategic direction of Vodafone Ireland, managing complex digital and business transformation programmes, expansion and data strategies.

Vodafone is Ireland’s number one communications provider with 2.3 million customers across its mobile, fixed and TV services, employing nearly 3,000 people nationwide. Vodafone has invested more than €2billion in critical network infrastructure and new technologies in Ireland and is committed to connecting for good and enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital society

Prior to joining Vodafone, Evin spent three years as Head of Finance, Consumer Business Unit for VodafoneZiggo. He first began working at Vodafone in 2009 as a Mergers & Acquisitions Manager. He spent eight years augmenting his experience and ultimately secured the role of Head of Finance Europe Region.

His educational background includes a Master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering from IMT Atlantique and an MBA, Management from INSEAD.


Brian Fagan, Chief Financial Officer,
I-RES

brian fagan

Brian Fagan joined I-RES as Finance Director on April 26th 2021. Since then, he has played an instrumental role in the delivery of internalisation for the Company, including building an experienced finance team who have taken over the management of the finance function for the Company post internalisation.

Prior to joining the firm, Fagan was CFO for Island Capital and prior to that was Group Finance Director of Ballymore Group, an international property development and investment group with operations in Ireland, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. He also previously worked for DCC plc and acted as Finance Director of Flogas plc.

Fagan is a Chartered Accountant and holds a B.Comm and a post-graduate Diploma in Professional Accounting from UCD.


Liam Fahey, Financial Controller,
Portwest

Liam Fahey is Financial Controller of Portwest, a global clothing manufacturing company who specialise in flame-resilient and high-visibility workwear and PPE, based in Westport, Ireland. Portwest were the first recipients of the Business & Finance Awards Elevation Award in 2018.


Brendan Feeney, Chief Financial Officer,
Valeo Foods

Brendan Feeney joined Valeo Foods in 2012 as Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Feeney held CFO roles with Kingspan Group plc across Ireland, the UK, Western Europe, North America and Australia between 2000 and 2012. Before that, he worked with Deloitte in Ireland.


Saragh Fitzpatrick, Chief Financial Officer,
Houses of the Oireachtas

Saragh Fitzpatrick is a qualified ACCA accountant working as the Chief Financial Officer of the Houses of the Oireachtas Service, with responsibility for a budget of approximately €150 million per annum.

She previously worked as Director of Finance and Corporate Governance with Caranua (Residential Institutions Statutory Fund), in charge of the financial management of the voluntary fund provided for the support of survivors of institutional abuse. Fitzpatrick also fulfilled the function of Data Protection Officer in that organisation.

She previously worked as an Auditor with the Health Service Executive, tasked with auditing a wide range of organisations funded by the HSE and TUSLA, and prior to that with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, auditing Government departments and educational institutes.

Fitzpatrick has over fifteen years’ experience in the Life Assurance industry, as a Product Development and Management professional with experience in project management and working in a multi-dimensional team.


Mark Garvey, Group Finance Director and Executive Director,
Glanbia

Mark Garvey was appointed as Group Finance Director of Glanvia on November 12th 2013.

Prior to joining Glanbia, he held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer until 2012 with Sara Lee Corporation, a leading global food and beverage company. Garvey also held a number of senior finance roles in the Sara Lee Corporation in the US and Europe and prior to that he worked with Arthur Andersen in Ireland and the US. A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Garvey graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and Diploma in Professional Accounting and has an Executive MBA from Northwestern University, Illinois.


John Gibbons, Group Chief Financial Officer,
ATA Group

John Gibbons was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer of ATA Group in 2016. He was previously an accountant at KPMG before taking up a role as Regional Finance and Operations Manager at Dole plc. He went on to hold the position of Corporate Development Director at the firm before joining ATA Group.

Gibbons is a Non-Executive Director at SwiftComply and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in commerce from University College Dublin. He is also a chartered accountant.


Catherine Gubbins, Chief Financial Officer,
DAA plc

Catherine Gubbins was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer of DAA plc on May 1st 2021 and has been a member of the DAA Group executive team for a number of years.

Previously, Catherine was Director of Finance, having initially joined the DAA Group as Group Financial Controller in December 2014. She also worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers for seventeen years and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Gubbins is responsible for the group finance function, its Shared Services centre, group procurement and legal functions. As well as providing strategic direction in these areas this includes responsibility for all financial governance, reporting and controls across the Group as well as FP&A, Treasury (including raising of all external debt), Taxation, Procurement and Legal.

Gubbins also has primary responsibility for management of key external financial stakeholder relationships including with lenders, banking partners and our rating agency. She is a director of Aer Rianta International cpt and Aer Rianta International (Middle East) wll, and a number of other DAA group subsidiaries including daa International Ltd and daa Finance plc.

Gubbins served as Interim Chief Executive of DAA from September 2022 until the start of 2023 while the process to recruit a new permanent CEO was underway following the departure of Dalton Philips.


John Heade, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director,
New Ireland 

John Heade is the Chief Financial Officer of New Ireland where he is also an executive director. Heade has been CFO at New Ireland since 2020.

He previously held a role at Irish Life Assurance, where he was head of accounting at Irish Life Retail. Heade was Financial Control & Reporting Director Aviva Group Ireland at Aviva having taken up the role in February 2009 and went on to occupy the position of Finance Director Aviva Life & Pensions Ireland before joining Bank of Ireland in 2014.

Heade is a Fellow Member of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.


Michael Horan, Chief Finance and Secretariat Officer,
Tirlán

Michael Horan is Chief Finance and Secretariat Officer with Glanbia Co-op and was appointed as a member of Glanbia Co-op Board on April 4th 2022.

He previously held the position of Group Secretary of Glanbia PLC from 2005 to 2022, and prior to that was the Group Financial Controller. He joined the Group in 1998 as Financial Controller of the Fresh Pork business in Ireland.

Horan previously worked with Almarai Company in Saudi Arabia and BDO Simpson Xavier. A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, he graduated from the National University of Ireland, Galway with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.


Emma Hynes, Chief Financial Officer,
Greencore

Emma Hynes - Greencore.jpeg

Emma Hynes joined Greencore as Chief Financial Officer Designate in April 2020 and became Chief Financial Officer in May 2020. She has responsibility for Group Finance and Risk Management.

Hynes has held a number of senior finance roles during her career, including more latterly as chief financial officer of Press Up Entertainment Group. Prior to joining Press Up Entertainment Group in 2019, she spent over eleven years with Greencore in a variety of finance leadership roles.

Her most recent role at Greencore was Group Finance Director where she led a large finance function responsible for financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, financing and capital management, treasury, tax, strategic finance projects and corporate activity.


Peter Johnston, Chief Financial Officer,
Norbrook Laboratories 

Peter Johnston joined Norbrook in February 2020 as Chief Financial Officer and has overall responsibility for Finance and IT.

Peter has more than thirty years’ experience in Finance including over twenty five years as a Finance Director/Chief Financial Officer and has several years’ experience as a Board Director.

Johnston started his career as an Auditor in Deloitte before moving to JS Fisher as Group Chief Accountant. Peter progressed his career in James E Ball Ltd as Group Financial Controller before moving to the role of Divisional Chief Financial Officer in Kingspan Environmental & Renewables.

He remained with Kingspan for sixteen years, before moving to WD Irwin Group as Chief Financial Officer before joining the Keystone Group in 2016.


Marie Joyce, Chief Operations Officer & Chief Financial Officer,
NTR plc

Marie Joyce is Chief Operations Officer & Chief Financial Officer of NTR plc, a sustainable infrastructure investor and institutional fund manager which acquires, develops, constructs and operates utility scale infrastructure investments across international markets.

NTR currently manages three European wind, solar and battery storage investment funds. Over the course of her career she has managed over €2bn of infrastructure investments and raised over €2.5bn of equity and debt capital. Prior to NTR, Joyce was Senior Director of Strategic Planning for Élan Corporation plc and was previously an Audit & Corporate Finance Manager at Arthur Andersen.

She is an independent non-executive director of DAA plc, the Irish state-owned international airport and travel retail group with businesses in sixteen countries. She is chair of the Finance Committee and serves on the Audit and Risk Committee and the Strategic Infrastructure and Sustainability Committee.

She is also an independent non-executive board director and chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of Staycity Group, one of Europe’s leading aparthotel operators. Joyce also serves on the programme board of the MSc. in International Accounting and Analytics at NUI Galway and is a member of the Sustainability Expert Working Group of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

She was formerly Chair of the Board of Make-A-Wish Ireland. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Galway and a Master of Accounting from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. She is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland.


Andrew Keating, Chief Financial Officer,
Musgrave

Andrew Keating is Chief Financial Officer having been appointed to the position in December 2022. Keating previously held the role of Chief Financial Officer at Bank of Ireland and is an executive at CRH. 


Barry Kelly, Chief Financial Officer,
National Broadband Ireland

Barry Kelly is the Chief Financial Officer of NBI, responsible for all aspects of finance, accounting, control, reporting and investor relations.

Kelly joined NBI in 2020 with over twenty five years of finance and commercial experience ranging from small entrepreneurial businesses and start-ups to publicly quoted multi-nationals and private equity concerns.

His previous roles include serving as the M&A Director in Valeo Foods and Senior Director of Transaction Services at KPMG Ireland.

He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountancy Ireland.


TJ Kelly, Chief Financial Officer,
Origin Enterprises plc

TJ Kelly was appointed Group CFO and an Executive Director of Origin on January 18th 2021. Kelly joined Origin from Hostelworld Group plc, the global hostel-focused online booking agency, where he was CFO and a member of the Board.

Prior to this, he worked in the US and Ireland with Glanbia plc for twelve years, where he held a number of senior leadership roles, including CFO of their Performance Nutrition Business and Group Financial Controller with responsibility for Investor Relations.

Kelly has also held senior finance positions in Microsoft, GE Capital and eir. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and completed his training with PwC.


Jacinta Lambert, Senior Finance Director,
Medtronic

Jacinta Lambert

Jacinta Lambert has held the role of Finance Director at Medtronic plc since 2009. Medtronic acquired Covidien in 2015. The company was founded in 2007 and has over 10,000 employees worldwide.

She began her finance career in 1998 as Financial Controller for Bowne and followed that with a move to Pareto Marketing Ltd. She then worked in Systimax Solutions Ireland Ltd before moving to ESG Re Ltd where she spent over four years as Chief Accounting Officer.

Lambert studied a Diploma in Irish Company Law in Dublin Business School before completing a Diploma in Corporate Law and Governance, Irish Corporate Law and Governance at the Law Society of Ireland. In 2014 she studied a Chartered Directors Programme at the Institute of Directors Ireland and in 2018 she completed a Certificate in Company Secretarial Law and Practice, Irish Company Law.


Andrew Langford, Chief Financial Officer,
Version 1

Andrew Langford is the CFO at Version 1. The firm implements and supports Oracle, Microsoft and AWS technologies and delivers IT solutions that drive customer success.

Langford took up his current role in June 2017 having previously held roles at Deloitte, FBD Insurance and FBD Holdings.

He is a chartered accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce along with a Diploma in Professional Accounting from University College Dublin.


Marguerite Larkin, Group Chief Financial Officer,
Kerry Group 

Marguerite Larkin is Group CFO and joined Kerry in 2018, bringing extensive financial knowledge and risk management expertise.

Prior to her current position, Larkin was a partner at a global leader in consulting, corporate finance, audit and tax services, operating in a broad range of industries including food and beverage, pharma and technology.

She has extensive international experience and held a number of leadership roles, including Head of Audit and Assurance and Risk Advisory. Larkin is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and Masters in Accountancy.


Gina Laverty, Group Chief Financial Officer,
Viatel Technology Group

Gina Laverty, a Chartered Accountant and Tax Consultant, is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. Her impressive financial career includes time with the Macquarie Group and PWC in New York.

Laverty was part of the team that managed the sale of the Dublin-based online payments company, Realex, to Global Payments, a worldwide provider of payment technology services. She rose to become Senior Vice President for International Finance with Global Payments before making the move to Viatel Technology Group in 2021.

Viatel Technology Group is an independent digital services group with market leading capabilities in cloud, communications, connectivity, security and digital transformation.

The Viatel customer base spans many industries but it is notably strong in the fintech, healthcare, and retail sectors. Laverty’s experience in hypergrowth businesses and M&A activity are indispensable to Viatel’s ongoing growth strategy.


Niamh Lawlor, Finance Director,
Tesco Ireland

As Finance Director, Niamh Lawlor is responsible for overseeing the finance, procurement, strategy and business planning functions across Tesco Ireland’s business.

Lawlor has worked in Tesco for over twenty years and has held a variety of senior finance roles in the UK business including retail, distribution, online and property. She joined Tesco Ireland as Finance Director in September 2021.


Download the full list as PDF

Business & Finance CFO 100 (alphabetical by surname):

View part one (A–D)

View part two (D–K)

View part three (L–O)

View part four (P–W)