BUSINESS LEADERS AWARD
This category recognises 11 women who hold the most senior positions in Ireland’s largest companies.
CATHERINE DUFFY Chair of A&L Goodbody
Catherine Duffy is a partner in the banking and financial services department and head of aircraft finance. She is currently chairwoman of A&L Goodbody. An experienced banking and finance lawyer for over 20 years, her practice focuses on all aspects of banking including corporate and acquisition financing, asset financing (property, aircraft and shipping), securitisation, tax-based financing and leasing and general banking.
Catherine is described as “one of the 10 most highly regarded individuals globally in aviation finance”, by the Who’s Who of Aviation
Lawyers, 2015 and 2016. She is a member and a former chairwoman of the legal advisory panel to the Aviation Working Group to the Unidroit Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment. She was a member of the first Advisory Group to the Irish Maritime Development Office set up to promote and assist the development of Irish shipping and shipping services.
Catherine is also on the board of directors of Irish Continental Group PLC and a former director on the board of Beaumont Hospital.
LOUISE FOODY Global Marketing Director at Kingspan
Louise Foody is global marketing director at Kingspan, where she has worked for over 12 years since joining in the company’s first graduate recruitment programme.
Louise now manages a team of more than 40 people working across the world, with recent major projects including the global launch of Kingspan’s newest Quadcore product range, the rollout of a new global digital strategy and the company’s first customer experience programme. She has worked in a range of roles for Kingspan including marketing manager of Kingspan North America, and marketing director of Kingspan Insulated Panels, the company’s biggest division.
Louise graduated with a BA in International Commerce and Italian from NUIG, followed by an MSC in Marketing Practice at UCD’s Smurfit Business School. She has also served as a non-executive director of the East Belfast Enterprise Agency.
LUCY GAFFNEY Chairwoman Communicorp Group
Lucy Gaffney is chairwoman of Communicorp Group which owns and operates radio stations across Ireland, the UK and Europe, including national stations Today FM and Newstalk 106108 FM. The total number of radio stations owned by Communicorp is now 21.
Lucy was a founding director of Digicel Group which launched in Jamaica in 2001. Today Digicel has extended its operations to 32 markets with over 14.5 million subscribers in the Caribbean, Central America and South Pacific regions. Previous to that she held a number of positions with Esat Telecom in Ireland.
In May 2013, Lucy was appointed to the Topaz Energy Group board and served on it until January 2016.
From March 2005 to December 2008, Lucy held the position of chairwoman of the National Action Plan against Racism in Ireland (NAPR). She has previously held directorships in Special Olympics, First Active, Campus Stadium Ireland and Tesco Ireland. She was a non-executive director of Ulster Bank from 2004-2007.
In March 2009, Lucy was appointed to the board of Independent News & Media (INM) as a non-executive director and served on the board until January 2016.
AISLING HASSELL Head of Global Customer Experience, Airbnb and Site Lead, Airbnb in Dublin
Aisling Hassell is responsible for Airbnb’s customer experience operations globally. She leads a team focused on supporting every element of the guest and host experience on Airbnb. She also heads Airbnb’s Dublin office — its largest base outside of the US.
Before joining Airbnb, Aisling was director of global customer experience and web strategy at Sage. She has also held senior customer experience roles at both Vodafone and Symantec in Europe and the US.
CAROLAN LENNON Managing Director Open Eir
Carolan Lennon was appointed managing director of open eir (eir’s wholesale and network businesses) in September 2016. Before this, Carolan was MD for the wholesale business from June 2013. From 2010 to 2013, she was chief commercial officer of the consumer division where she had responsibility for both the fixed and mobile businesses, including the eir, eMobile and Meteor brands. In November, she was appointed to the board of AIB.
Carolan also has responsibility for eir’s Corporate Social Responsibility strategy — their relationship with Special Olympics Ireland is the longest-running CSR partnership in the country. Before joining eir in 2010, Carolan held a variety of positions in the telecommunications and technology sectors, including consumer director and marketing director at Vodafone Ireland. She is a fellow of the Marketing Institute, and holds an MBA from Trinity College, Dublin and a BSc from University College Dublin. She has also lectured in operations management at university level.
CATHERINE MORONEY Head of Business Banking for AIB
Catherine Moroney was previously the regional director for AIB in Dublin, responsible for personal and SME business banking and the Dublin retail network.
Catherine has extensive experience working with companies including PLCs, State and SME businesses having spent 18 years in AIB corporate banking, structuring acquisition, buyout and project finance transactions across all sectors of the economy. Catherine also spent more than 10 years heading business units responsible for developing and executing strategy for both customer (personal and business) and product lines (product development, launch and marketing).
Catherine is also a non-executive director of AIB corporate finance and of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and a former non-executive director of Aviva Health. Catherine is a fellow of the Institute Bankers, and a graduate of University College Dublin (B Comm, Banking & Finance).
NUALA MURPHY President of Clinical Research Services, ICON
Dr Nuala Murphy has been president of Clinical Research Services at ICON since January 2014. Prior to this, she served as executive vice president of clinical and data operations globally. She has over 20 years’ experience within the pharmaceutical and CRO industry.
At ICON, Dr Murphy has been responsible for driving excellence in operational performance and delivering industry-leading metrics that support pharma clients to bring drugs to market faster, for the benefit of patients, on a global basis. In the last 12 months, ICON has conducted more than 500 clinical studies, involving 68,000 patients and has contributed to the development of 15 drugs that were approved in 2015.
In 2016 a joint ICON-Pfizer team was awarded clinical research team of the year at the prestigious Clinical and Research Excellence Awards for two global cardiovascular studies which involve 26,000 patients in 35 countries.
Nuala leads a leadership team of international experts, members of which have been recognised among the industry’s best.
Having graduated from Trinity College Dublin, Dr Murphy was awarded a PhD in neurochemistry, from the department of cardiovascular studies in Leeds and conducted post-doctoral research in the department of neuropharmacology at the Collège de France in Paris.
GRAINNE QUINN EVP & Chief Medical Officer, Perrigo
Dr Grainne Quinn is a medical doctor who qualified in Ireland in 1992. Following further training and subsequent clinical practice in the US she returned to Ireland in 2001 and joined the pharmaceutical industry as a medical adviser with Quintiles. She held various roles of increasing medical and management responsibility before moving to Elan in 2009 as head of drug safety and then chief medical officer. Perrigo acquired Elan in 2013 and Grainne took over as head of patient safety for Perrigo at that time. Since 2015 Grainne has been chief medical officer at Perrigo. She holds the title of executive vice president and is a member of Perrigo’s executive committee, reporting directly to the ceo, in that role. She is responsible for all product safety, clinical affairs and quality compliance aspects for the company. Grainne is driven by her unwavering commitment to patient safety.
MARGUERITE SAYERS Managing Director, ESB Networks Ireland
As MD of ESB Networks, Marguerite Sayers manages a significant portion of the electricity system in the Republic of Ireland. There are 3150 staff in total in ESB Networks, which is synonymous with the fleet of yellow vans throughout the country. The total electricity network extends to 165,000km and the network serves 2.4 million customers. ESB Networks typically spends around €500m on capital projects every year to improve the resilience of the grid and to meet customer demand, with a total budget of just under €1Bn. The overall value of the network assets is €8.5bn. Just some of the many key items completed within ESB Networks in the past year by her team include completion of negotiations on Price Review 4 with the Commission for Energy Regulation, a €3.2bn contract to cover investment and required service levels in the distribution and transmission systems over the next five years; connection of 18,000 new-demand customers in the recovering economy — up 20pc on 2015; connection of almost 500MW new renewable projects to assist in achieving Ireland’s 2020 targets — on course for 3,600MW of renewables connections by the end of 2017; completion of procurement contracts for around €800m of goods and services; more than 100 school visits by staff as part of safety programme, engineering Ireland Steps and innovation programme.
JULIE SHARP Head of Group Human Resources, Bank of Ireland
Julie Sharp joined the Bank of Ireland as head of group human resources on 14 June 2010. Julie brings diverse HR experience to the group, gained in several different companies including ING where she more recently worked. At ING, Julie held a number of senior management positions ranging from regional HR director Asia Pacific for ING Investment Management, based in Australia, to regional head of HR and management board member, ING Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. In this role she was responsible for 17,000 employees covering investment management, insurance and real estate. Prior to ING, Julie worked in senior HR Director roles with Arthur Anderson, Citibank and John Fairfax Media.
Julie holds an MBA in International Business Management from Charles Sturt University, having previously graduated from the University of New South Wales with aBSc, majoring in Psychology.
SUSAN WHELAN Ceo Leicester City Football Club
A senior executive of two market-leading companies in entirely different fields, based on opposite sides of the world, Dubliner Susan Whelan has successfully translated the commercial principles of luxury retail to the notoriously impulsive world of professional sport. Holder of a dual role at current English Premier League champions Leicester City FC and Thai duty free operator King Power, the club’s parent company, Susan has played a key part in delivering success to two businesses owned by the Srivaddhanaprabha family, to whom she has become a long-time and trusted aide.
Susan’s 20 years’ of experience in the duty-free industry includes a 17-year association with King Power, whom she joined in 1999 and with whom she has held the position of senior executive vice president since November 2010. She has specific responsibility for King Power’s purchasing and merchandising functions, and commercial development strategy for King Powers’ retail outlets. A recognised authority and regular guest speaker to the global industry, her career has included senior management appointments in locations from Russia and Pakistan, to China, the Middle East and Thailand.
She joined the City board as a representative of King Power following the Thai company’s takeover of the club in August 2010. Susan became Leicester City’s ceo in July 2011. Her experience and business acumen made her the ideal candidate to lead the execution of the owners’ long-term vision for a competitive club that could develop its brand internationally.
Promotion to the Premier League followed in May 2014, providing a global stage from which the club would continue to build its profile. After the most remarkable escape from possible relegation the Premier League has ever seen, in 2014/15, Leicester City turned to new on-pitch leadership in the shape of Claudio Ranieri — a man whose appointment as manager famously prompted Susan to appeal to the club’s supporters to trust in the board’s judgement. Ten months later, Ranieri held the Premier League trophy aloft after City had defied pre-season odds of 5000/1 to win the first top-flight title in the club’s 132-year history — a story that transcended football, even sport, to capture the imaginations of billions around the world.