New and notable appointments at Actavo, OSSM, Gilileo Green Energy, and Murray Group. 

Pictured: Paul O’Kane, Director, Murray Group

This week sees new and notable appointments at Actavo, OSSM, Gilileo Green Energy, and Murray Group.

Barry O’Donnell, Chief Financial Officer, 
Actavo 

Pictured: Barry O’Donnell, Chief Financial Officer, Actavo

Actavo is pleased to announce the appointment of Barry O’Donnell to the position of Chief Financial Officer effective immediately. In his role, he will be responsible for the financial operations of the company, including financial planning and strategy, and will report directly to Actavo Group CEO Brian Kelly. He will be taking over the role from Sean Lucey following his retirement.

Barry has over 15 years’ experience in finance roles and previously served as Actavo’s Director of Group Finance, where he was responsible for a range of duties including financial planning, M&A activity, Group treasury and debt management, as well as external and internal reporting.

He first joined the company five years ago and has served on the company’s executive leadership team since then.

Prior to joining Actavo, Barry served as Head of Finance at Paddy Power Online where he was responsible for the financial management and planning of the online operation of the leading bookmaker. He also previously served as Finance Manager at Anglo Irish Bank and completed his accountancy training with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dublin.

Barry has a Bachelor of Business Studies and a Master of Accounting from University College Dublin. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Brian Doherty, Operations Director,
OSSM

Pictured: Brian Doherty, Operations Director, OSSM

OSSM, NetSuite solutions provider and part of The Noledge Group, announces that it has appointed Brian Doherty as Operations Director. The new role will see Brian lead the execution and delivery of client projects, while ensuring best practices and procedures are maintained as the team grows.

With more than 20 years of experience in delivering accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, Brian has an extensive track record in project management and implementation; business analysis; presales; training; and technical support. His knowledge and experience will be central in ensuring excellent service delivery for OSSM’s client base, while also supporting the company’s growth plans.

Brian has been with The Noledge Group for more than 20 years delivering ERP systems for businesses across Ireland and the U.K. Prior to his promotion, he was project manager and business consultant for OSSM for 5 years, following 16 years in the same role for Envisage Cloud, also part of The Noledge Group. Earlier in his career, Brian was a project manager with Advent Processing Solutions, where he provided business software solutions to the SME sector throughout Ireland.

Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Accounting and Finance and a graduate diploma in computing.

Commenting on the appointment, Ray Ryan, Managing Director, The Noledge Group, said: “Through his consistent delivery of high-quality client services, Brian has been instrumental in the successful implementation of cutting-edge cloud solutions for businesses across Ireland. I am confident that under his leadership, the business will continue to expand and thrive in the months and years ahead.”

Commenting on his appointment, Brian Doherty, Operations Director, OSSM said: “OSSM has become one of Ireland’s leading NetSuite Solution Providers, and I am delighted to have played a role in the company’s growth over the past number of years. Our team has helped businesses across Ireland and the U.K. to simplify and automate their processes with ERP solutions. There is no better time to be a part of the Group as businesses continue to migrate to the cloud due to increasing data volumes and the rise in remote and hybrid working. I look forward to taking on new challenges in this role and ensuring that our customer projects continue to run smoothly from start to finish.”

Katy Hogg, Chief Operating Officer,
Gilileo Green Energy

Galileo Green Energy (GGE), the pan-European development and investment platform for renewable energy, is pleased to announce that Katy Hogg has joined GGE as Chief Operating Officer.

Katy brings more than 15 years’ experience in the energy and renewables sector, with a particular focus on onshore and offshore wind. The GGE executive management team is being built by Ingmar Wilhelm, CEO, to lead and oversee all development, investment and operating activities in mainstream renewable energy and supporting technologies across Europe.

“The global development experience and deep wind sector expertise that Katy brings is very complementary and additive to the Galileo Green Energy team as we continue in our dynamic start-up phase. Beyond our ongoing business development efforts including onshore and offshore wind as well as solar PV and storage projects, under Katy’s leadership we will also be establishing our operational backbone and centres of excellence in project delivery as well as shaping innovative ways of working together efficiently”, says Ingmar Wilhelm.

“I’m extremely happy to be joining the Galileo Green Energy team and particularly to be driving forward new renewable energy developments in Europe. With our combined expertise in projects, energy markets and financing solutions there is a lot of value we can add to development partners and energy consumers”, commented Katy Hogg who was previously Global Director of Wind Projects at BayWa r.e. renewable energy GmbH.

Since inception in early 2020, GGE has grown its development pipeline to over 2GW including solar PV, energy storage and wind projects in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK. Further European markets including France and Poland will be addressed during the year.

Paul O’Kane, Director,
Murray Group

Pictured: Paul O’Kane, Director, Murray Group

Murray Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul O’Kane as a Director in its Corporate and Financial PR team.

Paul is a media professional with more than 30 years’ experience in communications and national newspapers. He was most recently Chief Communications Officer (CCO) at daa, a role in which he served for more than 12 years. He initially joined daa as Communications Manager for the Dublin Airport development programme in 2006.

A member of daa’s Executive Management Team, Paul had responsibility for all of the group’s external and internal communications.  He also established and managed Dublin Airport’s multi award-winning Twitter account and the airport’s other social media platforms. In 2013 he was elected inaugural Chairman of Airports Council International (ACI), Europe’s Digital Communications Forum, a role he held from 2013 until 2015.

Before joining daa, Paul had a 15-year career as a newspaper reporter and editor. He was Business Editor and Deputy Business Editor with The Sunday Tribune, and also worked as a Business Reporter with The Irish Times.  He is a highly experienced corporate spokesperson on both radio and television and is also an accomplished conference speaker.

“Paul has a fantastic track record as a communications professional and he will be a huge asset to our team at Murray,” said Murray Group Managing Director Pat Walsh. “He is one of Ireland’s leading public relations practitioners and our growing client base will have direct access to his insight and experience,” Mr Walsh added.

“I am delighted to be joining the team at Murray and I look forward to helping a wide range of companies and organisations to tell their stories in a clear and compelling manner across a variety of platforms,” Mr O’Kane said.

A native of Whiteabbey, Co Antrim, Paul has a degree in Modern History and Politics from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and a MA in Journalism from Dublin City University (DCU).

Murray is one of Ireland’s leading communications consultancies and is the proud Agency home to Cannes Young Lions winners, including a National Gold medal and a Global Silver medal in the Cannes Young Lions awards 2020 and 2021.  Earlier this year, Murray established the creative marketing agency Sweartaker, which is led by Directors Aoiffe Madden and Mark Kilbride.