By Business & Finance 
Pictured (L-R): Michael Galvin, Managing Director, and Don Mullins, Sales Director, National Business Machines (NBM), with their sales team video conferencing in. Photographed by Brian Lougheed.
This week sees new and notable appointments at KPMG, National Business Machines (NBM), and CMS Distribution
Padraig McManus, KPMG Public Interest Committee member,
KPMG
KPMG has announced that Padraig McManus is to join its Public Interest Committee (“PIC”).
Padraig McManus was Chief Executive of the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), Ireland’s state-owned electricity utility from 2002 to 2011, and in 2010 he led the £1bn-plus acquisition of NIE Networks. Most recently, between 2012 and 2017, Padraig was Chair of Eir, the telecommunications group.
Mr McManus is currently a board member of Greenlink Interconnector Ltd. and Echelon DC Holdings Ltd. He has also served on a number of other boards including the Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland (ESRI), Business in the Community and The Conference Board of the US.
Commenting on the announcement of Mr McManus’s appointment, KPMG’s Managing Partner Seamus Hand said: “The appointment of Padraig McManus to our Public Interest Committee reaffirms our commitment to the highest standards of trust and quality in KPMG. The committee independently oversees the public interest aspects of our firm’s business and supports the quality control structure in the firm. Padraig’s extensive business experience and insight brings fresh, external perspectives to ensure good stewardship and the management of reputational risk which underpins the continued trust shown in us by our various stakeholders.”
Mr McManus said: “The fundamental business principles of governance and trust have never been more important. I’m looking forward to serving on the Public Interest Committee of KPMG, Ireland’s leading professional services firm and contributing to the committee’s role in safeguarding the public interest and helping maintain the firm’s reputation.”
Don Mullins, Tiernan Burke, Gene Foley, Gerry O’Keeffe, Irene Rafferty, Sales Director, Account Managers, and Company Accountant,
National Business Machines (NBM)
National Business Machines (NBM), headquartered in Cork and celebrating its 35th year in business, last year announced a €750,000 investment and expansion of their business, largely focused on infrastructure and personnel.
The company has announced the promotion of a new Sales Director, Don Mullins, and the additions of three new Account Managers Tiernan Burke, Gene Foley, Gerry O’Keeffe, and a new Company Accountant, Irene Rafferty.
The company is a provider of workplace solutions, software, services, managed print services, large scale Production Printers and last year’s expansion positioned them as Xerox’s largest Irish Channel Partner. In order to cope with the larger and increased business of this Channel partnership, Managing Director at NBM, Michael Galvin, made the decision to promote long-standing team member Don Mullins as Sales Director, saying that:
“Don has been a part of the NBM team for over 10 years as a key Account Manager and has been a Sales Manager with us for the last three years. With the increase in our offering as Xerox Channel Partners, it was a natural decision to appoint him as Sales Director with responsibility for the 7-strong sales team located across our various offices in Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Portlaoise. I have every confidence in Don and the rest of the team to help keep the show on the road for NBM, especially in these tough times.”
“We’ve had a challenging year, but it’s been a year of learning for us and we were able to evaluate and adapt our business under the current climate. We embraced new technologies and had to accelerate our learning, but it has proved to be beneficial for us and gives us brilliant scope to apply all of our learnings next year to help us to continue to grow in 2021and hopefully for another 35 years and beyond. We are also thrilled to be one of very few tech companies running for this many years.” he said.
NBM kept all of their existing staff this year, with the help of Government supports.
Pictured (L-R): Michael Galvin, Managing Director, and Don Mullins, Sales Director, National Business Machines (NBM), with their sales team video conferencing in.
Founded in 1985 as one of Xerox’s first European partners, NBM served businesses in Cork and Kerry only. Through organic and strategic investments over the years, NBM have successfully grown their business and their footprint to cover all of Munster and South Leinster.
After a decade with the company, Mr. Mullins said he was relishing the challenge of his new role in the current climate, and paid tribute to the new recruits within NBM:
“We are proud of, and extremely fortunate to have such a stellar group of people working with us, and our newest members of the sales team, who have really hit the ground running, and have expanded our business and sales capabilities exponentially in our various locations across Ireland.”
“We have made huge strides this year in terms of adapting our business to reflect a changed working environment and we’ve seen a big increase in demand for apps and touchless printing solutions. We have been facilitating our customers with special offers on smaller printers and multi-functional devices for the home office and we have seen a big uptake here. We’re actively seeking out Covid- friendly solutions for our clients as a result of the changed working environment and we’re continuously looking at other opportunities to embrace newer technologies,” he added.
Ms Rafferty was appointed to strengthen the financial structure of the organisation, and to ensure the right supports were in place for the larger and increased Xerox business, and of course the Covid-19 climate.
Mark McPhillips, Managing Director at Xerox, said: “For more than three decades, NBM has been a trusted partner of Xerox, with a track record of investing in its business to enhance client service. Last year’s expansion in the Irish market further strengthened both Xerox and NBM’s ability to offer a high-touch, locally accessible model to support clients and grow both of our businesses, and we expect that this will only improve and continue to expand in the future, in spite of a challenging year.”
Fergal Gara and Hannah Delaney, Chief Commercial Officer and Marketing Director, respectively,
CMS Distribution
CMS Distribution, a leading specialist distributor supplying business and consumer technologies to customers across Europe, North America and APAC announced today the appointment of Fergal Gara to the newly appointed role of Chief Commercial Officer. Reporting into CEO and Founder Frank Salmon, Gara will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies for growth in consumer channels in both the UK and Ireland and all other global regions.
Gara joins CMS from Amazon EU, where he held various Senior Commercial and Operational roles covering the UK and EU. With over 25 years’ experience across retail, entertainment and technology sectors Gara has demonstrated his passion for growing and improving businesses. Prior to Amazon, Gara held senior roles at Sony (PlayStation) and Walmart (ASDA) among others.
Salmon’s second senior leadership appointment welcomes Hannah Delaney as Marketing Director, reporting into Huw Jones Chief Business Officer. Delaney has over 20 years of commercial marketing experience leading brand and channel strategies for global organisations in the technology sector, most recently as CMO at Exertis. Prior to Exertis, Delaney worked at Samsung Electronics as Channel Marketing Director leading world-class product launches, go to market strategies and channel engagement. Delaney also has a broad range of marketing, sales and business development experience from HTC, Nokia, and Canon.
Frank Salmon Founder and CEO said: “We are delighted to welcome Fergal and Hannah to CMS Distribution. Both roles are vital to the long-term success of the company, as we strive to improve commercial and operational value across the group, achieving sales growth and improving customer and vendor satisfaction. CMS will leverage their experience and commercial expertise as leaders in the market, to drive innovation through digital transformation across CMS Distribution, gaining wider market share and ultimately exceed expectations of our customer and vendor partners.”
Hannah Delaney, Marketing Director, CMS Distribution
Fergal Gara, Chief Commercial Officer, CMS Distribution
