Business Movers

New roles: (top row, left to right) Eamonn Crowley, Dr Margaret O'Rourke, Tara Doyle; (bottom row) Professor Alma McCarthy, Ruairí Conroy, Caitriona Ní Laoire.

Here is a selection of people starting new roles with Banking and Payments Federation Ireland, Ag Eisteacht, Matheson, J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, Diligent and Core.

Eamonn Crowley, CEO of Permanent TSB, has been appointed president of Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI). He joined Permanent TSB as chief financial officer and executive director in March 2017 and was appointed CEO in June 2020. He previously held a number of senior executive roles, including CFO of Bank Santander Poland and COO of AIB's Central and Eastern Europe Division. He is a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers, and holds an MBA from UCD. He said: “A key priority during my presidency will be the critical role that banks play in wider society, particularly in the areas of sustainability and social responsibility.”

Dr Margaret O'Rourke has been appointed clinical director of Ag Eisteacht, which specialises in training practitioners in the health, social care, and education sectors. A practicing clinical psychologist, researcher, and medical educator, she is director of Behavioural Science at the School of Medicine at UCC. A board member of Cork-based Ag Eisteacht, she now takes on this new directorship alongside her other work. She will contribute to the science and evidence base of Ag Eisteacht’s programme development for its ABLE (Adopt a relational approach, Build, Listen & Empower) training courses. She holds a degree from UCC, a Masters in Psychological Medicine from the School of Medicine, University of Glasgow, and a doctorate in Forensic Clinical Psychology from Surrey University.

Tara Doyle has been appointed as chairperson of Irish law firm Matheson. Tara is the first woman to be appointed chair of the firm. She will continue her day-to-day practice as head of Matheson’s Asset Management and Investment Funds Department, alongside her new role. She joined Matheson in 1994 as a trainee solicitor and has been a partner since 2002. She has served on the firm’s management committee for a number of years and also chairs Matheson’s graduate talent and development committee. In November 2020, Tara was elected to the Council of the Law Society of Ireland. The issues on which she campaigned included diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, and the international competitiveness of the Irish legal profession.

Prof Alma McCarthy has been appointed as the next Head of School at J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, NUI Galway. A native of Labasheeda, Co Clare, she joined NUIG in 2002 as a lecturer and researcher; she has served as the head of the Management Discipline at NUIG and as programme director for the MBA. Her research interests include public sector leadership and human resource development, among others. She is a chartered member of the CIPD, the American Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology, and has chaired the Irish Academy of Management. She recently led research projects for the Department of Expenditure and Reform and Science Foundation Ireland.

Ruairí Conroy has been appointed as site lead for the new Galway office of governance company Diligent, whose platform is used by nearly 700,000 board directors globally. He will oversee 200+ employees at Diligent’s European Hub. He will lead the hiring and onboarding of new staff. He brings 19 years of growth and leadership experience, notably as senior VP of inside sales at SiteMinder in Galway, a cloud platform for hotels. He was also part of the landing team for AdRoll and was instrumental in the launching of their EMEA headquarters in Dublin. He has also led sales and acquisitions teams at Google and currently lectures at NUIG, where he designed and delivers a module called Digital Sales Management.

Caitriona Ní Laoire has been appointed as MD of the creative practice at marketing agency Core, whose recent client wins include The National Lottery and Fáilte Ireland. She will lead the brand development team. She joins from BBDO Dublin, where she was head of account management having worked with a number of leading brands such as AIB, Diageo, Tourism Northern Ireland, GAA, IDA, Glenisk. Prior to that, she had worked with Rothco and Saatchi & Saatchi in London. She said: “I’m delighted to be joining Core’s Creative Practice at such an exciting time. The success and growth of the Practice in the past year is a tribute to the entire team and I’m looking forward to contributing to that success further and working alongside such a dynamic force.”