The Business & Finance CFO 100 recognises the top 100 Chief Financial Officers working across some of the largest corporates in Ireland, highlighting their financial acumen, innovations, as well as the contribution they make to business throughout the country.
Ahead of a special launch event being hosted by Business & Finance in association with Friends First at The Merrion on Wednesday May 24th, we bring you the first in a five-part series featuring the leading financial officers the country has to offer.
David Arnold / Grafton Group
David Arnold joined the Grafton Group as Group Chief Financial Officer in September 2013.
He was Group Finance Director of Enterprise plc, the UK maintenance and support services business, from 2010 to 2013 and Finance Director of Redrow, the house builder, from 2003 to 2010.
He previously held senior financial positions with Six Continents, the hotels group, and Tarmac, the building materials company.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Nigel Bell / Payzone
Bell completed a first class honours Science degree in University College Dublin and then qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG.
He spent two years with Allen McGuire and Partners where he worked in a private equity team acquiring and managing a portfolio of diverse companies. He also spent several years with Elan and subsequently with Amarin Corporation and was Chief Financial Officer of this NASDAQ-quoted company for three years.
Bell joined Payzone in late 2002 and is currently head of Finance and Operations.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Mark Bourke / AIB
A financial services professional with over 27 years of experience, Bourke currently holds the position of Director and Chief Financial Officer at AIB.
In his current role as CFO he is driving the finance agenda within a restructured and sustainable profitable organisation.
Bourke joined AIB from IFG Group, a London and Dublin-listed financial services company that provides pension and investment administration and advisory services in the UK and Ireland. He was initially appointed as Group Finance Director for IFG in 2001 where he oversaw the restructuring of both the balance sheet and business portfolio. He was then promoted to Group Chief Executive Officer in 2006, where he was responsible for the transformation acquisition of James Hay.
Prior to this in 2000, Bourke was a senior partner in Price Waterhouse Cooper, specialising in International Taxation.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Ken Bowles / Smurfit Kappa
Ken Bowles was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer at Smurfit Kappa in April 2016.
He joined the company in 1994 and has occupied a number of finance based roles in both Monaco and Dublin. In 2004 he was appointed as the Group’s first Head of Compliance, in 2007 he became the Group’s Head of Tax, and in 2010 he was appointed Group Financial Controller.
He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA) and holds a first class MBA from the UCD Graduate School of Business.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Simon Bray / BNP Paribas
Simon Bray is a dedicated and accomplished CFO, highly regarded by business partners and senior executives as a key advisor, creative problem solver and results-driven financial professional.
Bray manages a multinational CFO office ensuring brand management and service delivery with extensive hands-on acquisition and transformation experience.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Brendan Brennan / ICON
Brendan Brennan has served as Chief Financial Officer at ICON since February 2012. He joined the company in 2006 and has served in a number of senior finance roles, including Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance.
Prior to joining ICON, Brennan developed his corporate finance experience in Cement Roadstone Holdings, a major Irish building materials organisation.
He qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Finance from Dublin City University.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Simon Brett / Providence
Simon Brett is a Chief Financial Officer with over 21 years of experience.
He has been working with Providence since 2008, and was Group Financial Controller before he took on his current role.
Before joining Providence, he held senior finance positions with Damovo Ireland and Coca Cola and has also worked in the UK for Johnson Wax, Sega Europe Limited and US Can Corporation.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Sinead Bryan / Vodafone
Bryan is known for here finance leadership within IT industry, as well as her strong business partnering at executive level.
Her expertise is in the fields of acquisitions, integrations, business intelligence and compliance.
View her LinkedIn account here.
Mark Buckley / Cpl
Mark Buckley is an experienced CFO and private equity investment director of both public and private companies.
He has completed a number of high profile IPOs, M&A transactions, restructurings and rationalisations across Europe and in the USA.
He has also managed financial, operational, IT, legal, regulatory, HR, marketing and commercial departments and corporate governance in public and private companies.
Buckley was an investment director for both a large bank and private equity company completing transactions from €5m to €800m and also set-up and managed a venture capital fund in 1998.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Brendan Byrne / Intertrust
Brendan Byrne is Finance Director of Intertrust Ireland. He has responsibility for both internal finance and client accounting for the Irish office.
Prior to joining Intertrust in 2016, Byrne worked as Head of Finance for the debt servicing and corporate administration division of Capita in Ireland.
Byrne was also previously Financial Controller of the International Financial Services Division of AIB Capital Markets.
View his LinkedIn account here.
James Campbell / Willis Ireland
James Campbell is a senior banking executive with nearly 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector, including almost ten years in Dublin, six years in Hong Kong and four years in London.
During this period he has gained significant exposure, in particular to back office functions such as operations, finance, compliance, operational risk, audit, IT, project management, marketing and facilities.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Tadhg Clandillon / Aegon
Tadhg Clandillon was appointed Chief Financial Officer at Aegon in January 2017. His responsibilities include financial strategy, accounting, actuarial, investments and ALM and he leads the company’s Solvency II agenda and all accounting and actuarial reporting deliverables.
Clandillon joined Aegon as Head of Actuarial in 2008, and was appointed Head of Solvency in 2011, Director of Reporting in 2013 and most recently Deputy CFO in 2014.
He has over 20 years’ experience in the Irish and cross-border life insurance industry and, prior to Aegon, was a senior manager in the High Net Worth division of Irish Life & Permanent plc.
He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland, where he represented the company on the Variable Annuities Working Group response to the 2010 Requirements on Reserving and Risk Governance for Variable Annuities. He’s also a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and Faculty of Actuaries and holds a Bachelor of Actuarial and Financial Studies.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Bill Collins / Repak
Bill Collins is the Financial Controller and Company Secretary at Repak.
Prior to joining Repak he was Director of Law and Finance at Portobello College and past Chairman of the Chartered Accountants Ireland Leinster Society.
He has lectured extensively in the area of financial reporting and was involved in accounting education for a number of years.
Collins is a graduate of University College Cork and trained as a Chartered Accountant with EY.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Paul Conacher / Arvato
An experienced finance and technical accounting professional, in his role as CFO at Arvato Conacher is directly responsible for the group’s finance functions, with the aim to develop more streamlined processes in finance and procurement.
Before joining Arvato, he spent three years with a private equity-backed engineering business and prior to that 13 years working at PricewaterhouseCoopers, advising listed companies and privately-owned businesses both in the UK and Australia at an international level.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Mary Condon / Laya Healthcare
Director of Finance & Compliance Condon joined BUPA as a Financial Accountant in 1998 and was appointed FSA Compliance Officer in 2002 and Finance and Compliance Manager in 2003.
She has extensive management experience having held senior management and operational roles across a number of services and manufacturing industries.
Following the management-led buyout and launch of Laya Healthcare in May 2012, Condon was appointed the Director of Finance and Compliance.
Huib Costermans / eir
Huib Costermans is an experienced telecommunications executive with a deep operational finance knowledge.
He has worked with Dutch operator KPN for the past seven years in a number of roles including CFO for its Wholesale and Operations functions, CFO of E-Plus in Germany and CFO of KPN’s Dutch operations.
Before joining KPN, Costermans spent 16 years in various roles with Organon, a Dutch pharmaceutical company that used to be part of Akzo Nobel.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Andy Cronin / Avolon
Andy Cronin has served as Chief Financial Officer at Avolon since May 2010.
He previously served in various roles of increasing responsibility at RBS Aviation Capital from May 2004 to April 2010, where his most recent title was SVP Investor Markets with responsibility for disposal, financing and debt syndication of operating lease and structured debt products to a wide pool of investor and bank communities.
Prior to working at RBS Aviation Capital, Cronin worked in a number of commercial and operational roles at FLS Aerospace.
He has a Bachelor of Engineering and a Masters of Industrial Engineering, both with First Class Honours from University College Dublin.
View his LinkedIn account here.
Lorna Cross / BAM
Lorna Cross is currently Finance Director at BAM Ireland.
She specialises in financial reporting, managerial finance and financial analysis.
View her LinkedIn account here.
Eamonn Crowley / Permanent TSB
Previously, Crowley held the same role with Bank Zachodni WBK in Poland since 2011.
Prior to this, he was Chief Operating Officer for AIB’s central and eastern European division a
View his LinkedIn account here.
Read more:
Aer Lingus CFO Rachel Izzard to be honoured among Ireland’s leading financial officers
Chief Financial Officer 100: D-G
Chief Financial Officer 100: H-L
Chief Finanical Officer 100: M-O
Chief Financial Officer 100: P-Z
