Business movers: People starting new jobs in Ireland

New appointees with Teagasc, Sprout Social, Welltel, eDesk, APC Microbiome and LinkedIn

New roles: (top row, left to right) Dr David Wall, Cat Anderson, Neil Wisdom; (bottom row) Eileen O'Mara, Prof Subrata Ghosh, Lisa Finnegan.

Here is a selection of people starting new roles with Teagasc, Sprout Social, Welltel, eDesk, APC Microbiome and LinkedIn.

Dr David Wall has been appointed as the new enterprise leader at the Teagasc campus in Johnstown Castle, Co Wexford. The enterprise leader role is to lead the management of the farms and estate in Teagasc Environment Research Centre to deliver the research programme. He will be working as part of the team led by Dr Karl Richards, head of the Teagasc Environment Research Department, bridging knowledge gaps and demonstrating the full potential of Irish farming systems to deliver multiple services for farming families and wider society. The previous Enterprise leader, Dr John Finn, has stepped down from this role to enable him to concentrate on his biodiversity research programme, which is becoming ever more demanding since the announcement of a biodiversity crisis and the European Green deal.

Cat Anderson has been appointed as international marketing lead in the EMEA HQ in Dublin of Sprout Social, the Chicago-based social media analytics firm. She joins from SocialTalent, the e-learning recruitment platform, where she was head of marketing and communications. A trained journalist, she has previously worked with BBC Northern Ireland. She has also held marketing roles in Ireland and Germany in the startup and tech space, including with Web Summit, EyeEm and WorkHub. She said: “I am looking forward to amplifying brand awareness and growing the pipeline of Sprout Social customers in the EMEA region, as we help them leverage the power of social.” Sprout Social offers social media listening and analytics, social management, customer care, and advocacy solutions to more than 25,000 brands and agencies worldwide.

Neil Wisdom has been appointed as chief revenue officer with business communications provider Welltel. He will lead all aspects of revenue generation in Welltel. He brings 31 years’ experience in telecomms and technology. He joins the company from Irish communications specialist Intellicom, which he founded and ran as MD for eight years before it was acquired by Welltel in a €5.5m deal in 2020. Prior to this, he was sales and marketing director for Complete Telecom. In 2005, he co-founded software development company Crannog Software, which was ultimately acquired by US-based Fluke Networks. Neil ran the sales operations for Fluke Networks across Ireland and Northern Europe following the integration. Previously, he was actively involved in the acquisition and subsequent integration of Lan Communications into the eircom group.

Eileen O’Mara, the EMEA revenue and growth lead at payments platform Stripe, has been named as a non-executive director with eDesk, the eCommerce customer service specialist which is headquartered in Dublin, with offices in Cork, Derry, New York and London. She will bring her experience with Stripe to help eDesk expand and grow internationally. Her appointment to the board comes fresh from eDesk enhancing its Reviews and Feedback tool to tighten integrations with Amazon, Trustpilot and Google My Business. eDesk says 90% of dissatisfied UK and US online shoppers will talk to customer services, offering retailers a chance to catch them before they turn into negative reviews. eDesk also introduced data-driven tools earlier this year with the latest release of their eDesk customer service software.

Prof Subrata Ghosh has been appointed as chair and head of the department of medicine, College of Medicine and Health, UCC, and Principal Investigator at APC Microbiome Ireland SFI Research Centre. He is considered one of the global leaders in research into Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. His contribution to life sciences have been recognised by his nominations as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, both the highest honour for contribution and leadership to life sciences and health. Prof Ghosh says: “I was attracted by UCC because of the world class research into microbes and food carried out at APC Microbiome Ireland and Teagasc, many of the important clues to what underlies the cause of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, currently incurable, are emerging from their research.” 

 Lisa Finnegan has been promoted to vice-president of the International Human Resources organisation at LinkedIn, the professional networking platform. She will lead LinkedIn’s HR business partners across EMEA, LATAM and APAC regions, which will now be consolidated under one single team. Lisa was previously senior director of HR for EMEA and LATAM at LinkedIn. She joined LinkedIn in 2016. She played a key role in the company's recent Irish HR Champions Award for its Fertility@Work initiative. Lisa was named on the Financial Times & HERoes Champions of Women in Business list. She also sits on the B2B advisory board of Zurich’s Agile Protection initiative. She holds a BA in English and Greek & Roman Civilisation from NUIM, and a diploma in HR Management from Dublin Business School.