By Business & Finance 
The Business & Finance CIO 100 Index 2021, in association with Equinix, recognises the top 100 Chief Information Officers working across some of the most innovative companies in Ireland today.
The list was launched today at the CIO 100 Index 2021 webinar, where Maurice Mortell, Managing Director of Equinix, spoke about the importance of the CIO 100 Index and moderated an interactive discussion on the theme, ‘Digital Leaders – Driving Transformation’.
Joining the discussion were some of Ireland’s leading IT professionals, including: Ashling Cunningham, CIO, Ervia, Dermot Hennessy, Director of Infrastructure, Flutter Entertainment and Louise O’Conor, Founding Partner, Beta Digital.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
James Louttit, Chief Information Officer,
CPL
James Louttit, Chief Information Officer, Cpl. Louttit became CIO of Cpl in February 2018. His career has spanned all elements of IT, from early days as a developer, tester and business analyst through the ranks of increasingly complex project and programme management roles in Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services and Recruitment. He has led the communities of practice for IT Analysis & Design and Project Management and is a passionate advocate for sustainable IT work – meaning a sensible work / life balance. Since joining Cpl, he has led a full agile transformation of Cpl’s IT delivery and led the team that won the 2020 Technology Transformation “Tiara” award. In his spare time, Louttit runs a regular LinkedIn vlog on Successful Careers in IT.
Brendan Lynch, Chief Technology Officer,
Sky UK & Ireland
Brendan Lynch is the current Chief Technology Officer for both the UK & Ireland at Sky. He previously worked as the Managing Director of Technology at Eircom and then as an independent Telecoms & IT consultant.
Eoin Mac Donncha, Head of IT,
Fáilte Ireland
Eoin Mac Donncha is Head of IT at Fáilte Ireland – the National Tourism Authority and has over twenty-five years experience in technology working in industry sectors such as Tourism / Travel, Manufacturing, and Finance. Eoin’s focus is on developing and implementing Fáilte Ireland’s technology strategy, aligned with key corporate objectives. This includes the development of online platforms for experience brands such as Discover Ireland and Visit Dublin; and the delivery of key business services based on an enterprise wide CRM system and customer portal, which has been a crucial channel for the organisation during the pandemic in delivering supports to the Tourism and Hospitability industry. Eoin is also accountable for full IT service operations, including help-desk, desktop support, infrastructure / cloud and security services for over 450 personnel
Liam Malone, Director of Forest Planning and ICT,
Coillte
Malone is responsible for leading the strategic planning, forecasting and valuation of Ireland’s largest forest resource as well as driving Coillte’s Digital Transformation programme, a key enabler of its wider business strategy. A graduate of UCD, since joining Coillte in 1998, Malone has held of number of operational, sales and strategy positions in the company’s Forest division.
Gerry Martyn, Head of IT & Supply Chain Executive,
Easons & Sons
Gerry Martyn is the IT & Supply Chain Executive at Easons & Sons. He is an executive with full lifecycle transformation program experience & a track record of providing ROI across 20 years of Management in sectors such as FMCG, Manufacturing & Distribution, Retail, Pharmaceutical, Financial & Public. Martyn has extensive experience in Best Practice methodologies; ITIL Service Delivery, PRINCE2/PMP Project Management, Six Sigma Process Optimisation, Managing Successful Programmes, P&L & budgetary responsibility as well as Team & Change Management expertise.
Barbara McCarthy, Chief Technology Officer,
Ding
McCarthy holds the position of Chief Technology Officer where she is responsible for all of Ding’s technology functions. She has 25 years’ experience in the Technology industry, specifically in the scaling of best-in-class technology teams within rapid growth organisations. Prior to joining Ding, McCarthy worked at HubSpot where she was Director of Engineering. Her experience spans numerous sectors – and she has held senior roles at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Inspired Gaming Group, amongst others.
She obtained a BA in Economics and Applied Maths and a Masters in IT from NUI Galway and is currently a non-executive board member of ReThink Ireland. She is married to Donal and is a proud mum to Maya and Donal Óg and is passionate about Irish traditional music, playing various instruments.
Martin McDermott, Managed Services Manager,
Equinix
Martin McDermott is an accomplished IT professional and joined Equinix in 2017 to lead its Managed Services business in Ireland, specialising in the delivery of Network and Infrastructure Solutions for enterprise customers on Platform Equinix. In his current role, he advises customers on their digital transformation and journey to a low latency, hybrid or multi-cloud digital infrastructure. McDermott has 15 years’ experience in the IT industry and holds a Degree in Computer Engineering. Previous roles include IT Consultancy and Senior Network & Infrastructure Engineering positions.
Gavin McShera, Chief Information Officer & Head of Information Technology,
UDG Healthcare Plc
Gavin McShera currently works as CIO/Group Head of Information Technology at UDG Healthcare plc, a position he was appointed to in May 2021. He is an experienced technology and business leader with a strong commercial focus and a track record for large scale transformation and innovation. He creates vision and purpose to support business strategy by developing strong high performance teams. His previous positions include same at Applegreen Plc and Independent Information Technology Consultant at McShera Consulting.
Tomás Meehan, Chief Information Officer,
GAA
Tomás Meehan is the GAA’s first Chief Information Officer. A Galwegian, he is a DCU and TCD graduate, having previously worked for PwC and AIB. He is an All-Ireland Senior Championship winner with Galway and Caltra. Meehan is responsible for the development, implementation and operation of the GAA’s IT strategy and oversees all information systems infrastructure within the organisation.
Frank Meldon, Head of Information Technology,
HSBC Ireland
Frank Meldon is the current Head of Information Technology at HSBC Ireland. He is an experienced IT executive skilled at providing strategic direction and management of IT service operations with a record of successful project delivery, including the completion of a multitude of complex technical projects involving infrastructural, software development, integration and logistical elements. His experience includes Irish owned, multinational, multi-site businesses within the Financial Services and State Commercial sectors.
Meldon’s management ethos encompasses a strong commercial and service focus, always encouraging innovation and the creation of value whilst promoting industry best practices.
His specialities include, IT and Business Strategy, Business and IT Transformation, IT Operations and Services, IT Governance & Standards and Cyber Security.
Barry Minnock, IT Director,
Musgrave Group
Barry Minnock joined Musgrave Group in 2013, working as IT Director initially focused on the wholesale division covering Musgrave MarketPlace and Daybreak brands. Minnock’s role recently moved to retail and is now focused on SuperValu and Centra brands, delivering a significant digital and technology transformation agenda. Before joining Musgrave MarketPlace, Minnock worked for more than 15 years in the IT consultancy sector across several countries, industries and clients with Version 1, IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Minnock holds a primary degree in Commerce (MIS) and a Master’s degree in Management Science, both from University College Dublin.
Seamus Minogue, Department Manager for Business Process Improvement & Information Technology,
Enterprise Ireland
Minogue began his career as a Java developer and in 2018 became Department Manager for Business Process Improvement and Information Technology in Enterprise Ireland. He leads a team of 40 staff delivering ICT services and software enabled business processes to the state agency across ten Irish and forty global locations. His current focus is supporting the strategic response to the impact of Brexit and Covid-19 on Irish companies, enhancing cyber security readiness and modernising the software platforms. He is a DCU graduate in Computer Applications and Smurfit Business School MBS graduate in the Management of Information Systems.
Keith Moran, Chief Information Officer,
Fyffes
Keith Moran is an experienced GM/CIO with proven leadership and delivery expertise in the FMCG industry. He has operated in a variety of key leadership and management roles, reporting directly to executive level. With a proven track record of IT enabled transformation directly supporting business growth and development, he is the Group Chief Information Officer at Fyffes. Moran is the Global CIO responsible for the Strategic & Tactical IT Strategy/Spend across all markets (EMEA, NA, Tropics, APAC). This includes significant business transformation supported by the implementation of S/4 HANA/SAP into key markets, new data centres globally, up-weighting and enhancing our IM&S strategy and all elements of our global technical architecture to support business performance and growth. Moran is accountable for all PMO and project delivery ranging from all technical/infrastructure requirements to both local (Microsoft Dynamics) and global (SAP S/4 Hana) implementations concurrently delivering 60+ projects. Various initiatives included world-class disaster recovery RTO’s & RPOs, user-experience/EUC, digital collaboration/ways of working, budgetary/resource/team planning, blockchain technology etc.
Des Morley, Chief Digital & Technology Officer,
An Post
Des Morley is the current Chief digital and technology officer at An Post. He is a senior Digital, Marketing and Commercial executive with extensive expertise in delivering large scale Digital Transformation, creating and driving real Digital change, setting up and managing commercial and operational digital and commercial teams. He has a proven ability to define and implement strategies to drive commercial objectives and grow KPI’s. Morley is an analytical influencer with strong customer experience and process improvement skill sets.
Lavinia Morris, Chief Information Officer,
KBC Bank
Lavinia Morris is CIO and a member of the Executive Committee at KBC Bank Ireland with day-to-day responsibility for Technology, Operations, Strategic Change and Innovation and prior to that held the role of Senior Vice President of Information and Technology at SMBC Aviation Capital, one of the world’s largest aircraft leasing companies.
A change agent, with a passion for engineering, Lavinia has crafted her career on marrying the power of technology with innovative business strategies and customer-centred design alongside leading signature transformation programmes, perpetually driving innovation and developing untapped talent.
Lavinia is actively involved in the technology industry in Ireland, serving as a member for the Technology Ireland ICT SkillNet Innovation Forum Expert Group and former Chair of the Cloud Computing Working Group of the Irish Internet Association. Lavinia is also KBC Bank Ireland’s representative on the Board of Irish Banking Culture Board CLG and on the Board of the recently established Synch Payments DAC.”
Bernard Mullen, Director of Network and IP Services,
Magnet Networks
Bernard Mullen is CTO of Irish ISP. He is a leader in Network Design and Management including pre- and post-Sales Consultancy specialising in multisite WAN deployments with security, MPLS and SD-WAN. His expertise ranges from Technical Project Management of Customer roll outs, WAN upgrades to Voice integration. His specialties include Cisco Routers, firewalls (Cisco ASA, Fortigate, PaloAlto, Juniper, Checkpoint) and switches (incl. MPLS), 3Com NBX – IP Telephony, Adtran Routers incl. Telephony – certified ATSA/IPT , ATSP/UCAS , ATSP/UC, ATSP/vWLAN and Fortinet NSE1 and NSE2. He is ITIL Certified.
Anthony Murray, Group IT Manager,
Dalata Hotel Group Plc
Murray has been with Dalata Hotel Group plc. since its inception in 2007 and has responsibility for the strategy, development and implementation of all IT decisions and projects. With a background in Hotels, he has spent more than 25 years in the industry and has been involved in managing the diversity of the IT system which arose through rapid expansion, the transition to PLC. and the development of brands such as Maldron, Clayton and ClubVitae. The disruption of the last 18 months has been used to rapidly advance system consolidation projects and rethink some of the customer journeys and business processes.
Anthony O’Callaghan, Chief Information Officer,
Carbery
Anthony O’Callaghan is a Cork based IT Professional with over 20 years experience working with some of the leading organisations globally.
Anthony is currently the Chief Information Officer for the Carbery group, an Irish Headquartered dairy and nutrition business spanning multiple locations globally. Anthony has led various organisations throughout his career in companies such as Flex, Tyco and Johnson Controls.
Anthony also recently served as the chairman of IT@Cork which is a not-profit technology focussed organisation representing over 250 companies in the south-west region with the remit of expanding the technology cluster within the region and driving collaboration amongst the member organisations.
Jeremy O’Callaghan, Head of IT,
Kepak Group
Jeremy O’Callaghan is an experienced IT Director, with a track record for creating and implementing strategic IT direction for large multinational organisations that increases shareholder value, improves productivity and reduces costs. Effective management of large teams over multiple geographies, including North America, EMEA, Caribbean and Asia Pacific, aligning individual activities with organisational goals and improving employee morale. Continuous Sub-contractor management and contract realignment to ensure costs are optimised in a challenging economic environment. Excellent organisational and communication skills, able to manage effectively in an environment of change and experienced at working in politically sensitive environments. Customer focused and an ability to succeed in a high performance environment.
Eddie O’Callaghan, Head of IT,
Bord na Móna
Eddie O’Callaghan is the Head of IT at Bord na Móna. He has significant experience at senior level in the consumer goods industry with both business and IT roles held. He has a history of setting out and delivering clear IT & BI strategies fully aligned to the business goals. Finance and leadership skills are key strengths he also possesses. O’Callaghan has a strong track record in the execution of complex multi disciplined projects evidenced by the various achievements in his career.
Noel O’Connell, Head of IT Service Delivery,
Maples Group
Noel O’Connell works as Head of IT Service Delivery at Maples Group. He is a Senior Technology Leader with over 20 years experience of managing diverse technology teams both local and remote (Support/Development/Project and change management). He has excellent experience and track records in the areas of IT Service Delivery, Business Process Improvement, Project and programme delivery and multi-functional change across internal and external clients, Risk Management, Cyber Security, Strategic Planning. Demonstrable leadership, interpersonal and change management skills. Excellent analytical, reasoning, budgetary and communication skills.
Mary O’Connor, Chief Information Officer,
ESB
Mary O’Connor is the Chief Information Officer at ESB which is a leader in the power and utilities sector in Ireland and UK. Mary is responsible for IT & Digital Strategy, Digital Transformation, Cyber Security Strategy, IT Risk Management and Governance, Enterprise Architecture, Analytics and AI, IT and Digital Business Partnering and Leadership. She provides leadership and vision in transforming ESB and in the development of future facing sustainable technology solutions. Mary has a wealth of experience from over 30 years working in a wide range of disciplines and functions at all levels within ESB. Mary is an IT graduate of Trinity College and is an ACCA postgraduate in Accounting and Finance.’
Louise O’Conor, Founding Partner,
Beta Digital
Louise O’Conor is a strategic and innovative business advisor with over 20 years international experience digitally transforming and scaling businesses (startups, SMEs, multinationals) across global markets and multiple industries.
Founding partner at Beta Digital (a Digital Strategy and Transformation consulting and advisory firm), Louise is a mentor and advisor for Enterprise Ireland, Co Founder of IrelandTogether (a non-profit business network) and is on the board of both the Irish International Business Network (IIBN) and Sure Valley Ventures Investment Firm.
Fergal O’Donoghue, Senior IS Manager,
Allergen
Fergal O’Donoghue is Senior IS Manager at Allergen, responsible for the management of ICT services required by all business functions in the Allergen Westport Campus. He has 18 years’ experience working in ICT within software services and manufacturing life sciences, with technology expertise including data networks, unified messaging, open-source, security, storage, virtualisation, enterprise application and Lab Informatics. Along with a strong background in problem solving as a research scientist and technologist, he also has a Lean 6 sigma green belt. He has a proven ability to provide strategic direction, leadership and to manage change. O’Donoghue has strong academic qualifications with 15+ years of professional experience in IT service delivery, project and people management
Business & Finance CIO 100 (alphabetical by surname):
View part one (A-F)
View part two (F-L)
View part three (L-O)
View part four (O-W)
