Business movers: People starting new jobs in Ireland

New appointees with CorkBIC, Murray Group, Seat and Cupra Ireland, TEKenable, Onate and Teagasc

New roles: (top row, left to right) Larry O’Donoghue, Nicola Cooke, Ger Boyle; (bottom row) Vishal Sharma, Hugh Lyons, Dr Atikur Rahman.

Here is a selection of people starting new roles with CorkBIC, Murray Group, Seat and Cupra Ireland, TEKenable, Onate and Teagasc.

Larry O’Donoghue has been appointed as chief operating officer with CorkBIC, tech advisor to high potential start-ups. He will take the lead in identifying international funding opportunities for high growth companies through CorkBIC’s strategic partnerships in Europe and the US. He has been a senior consultant with CorkBIC for the past four years. Prior to that, he was COO and head of HR with Natural Training Ltd. He holds a BSc in Business Information Systems from UCC. CorkBIC is a private sector organisation, set up to identify and build knowledge intensive companies based on promising technology and capable innovative people. At any one time, CorkBIC has 40 or 50 projects in the pipeline. Some 85% of start-ups engaging in this integrated process survive after five years, versus the 50% global survival average.

Nicola Cooke has joined PR firm Murray Group as an account director to its corporate team. She has two decades of experience in media and communications, notably as head of communications at National Broadband Ireland (NBI), and as media and PR manager at Bus Éireann. She also worked as a journalist with the Sunday Business Post and the Irish Examiner. She holds an MA in Journalism from DCU, a BA in History & Politics from UL, and a diploma in PR from the Fitzwilliam Institute. Nicola was Transport Journalist of the Year in 2009 and 2006, and Young Journalist of the Year runner-up in 2003. Murray Group works with a blue-chip client base across the listed PLC, private company, professional services and semi-state sectors.

Ger Boyle has been appointed as head of after-sales for Seat and Cupra Ireland, engaging with retailers nationwide for both car brands. He will also drive the introduction of the Cupra brand to the dealer network, including the brand’s electrification and enhanced connectivity strategy. He brings extensive motor sector experience, including 25 years serving as a technician, service manager and aftersales manager for a host of leadign car dealerships. He joined Volkswagen Group Ireland in 2014 as national service manager for Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles before moving into group aftersales in 2017 as head of technical, customer care and roadside assistance. He holds a diploma in Business Management from Griffith College, Dublin, and is a fully qualified technician and master technician. SEAT Ireland is a subsidiary of SEAT SA with responsibility for a 23-strong dealer network in Ireland.

Vishal Sharma has been appointed service delivery manager, ERP, at digital transformation specialist TEKenable, building its business central (ERP) practice and creating the ERP project delivery team. He will work closely with the sales team, customers and the project team to ensure successful completion of projects from pre-sales to go-live and transition into support. He was previously business central team lead at Codec for four years; before that, he worked at Doosan Infracore. Vishal is an experienced and certified Microsoft Dynamics 365 business central expert with 19+ years of IT industry experience as well as expertise in business central implementations and integration with third-party systems. He holds a BComm from Delhi University, a diploma in Computer Science from the National Institute of Information Technology and several Microsoft certifications.

Hugh Lyons has been appointed as lending manager with Onate, the short-term property lender who entered the market earlier this year. A native of Dublin and a graduate of UCD, he joins Onate from Finance Ireland. A banking professional with over 14 years’ experience, he has had significant exposure to the Irish real estate market. Hugh is also an experienced relationship and business development manager. He is a member of the Institute of Bankers, an accredited product advisor and has an MBA in Finance. Onate provides finance for property entrepreneurs and investors, secured against residential investment property. The loans are for up to two years and €1.25m in value. Dan Gandesha, CEO of Onate, said: “Hugh is a valuable addition to our team, he brings a wealth of experience.” 

Dr Atikur Rahman has been appointed as a permanent cereals researcher in the Teagasc Crops Science Department, leading the oats programme of research. He is a cereal scientist with a broad interest in cereal crop agronomy and stress physiology. He previously researched into diseases in winter wheat on the EU-funded INVITE project, and on the SusCrop ERA-NET funded ProFaba project in Teagasc. As a cereal scientist in Bangladesh, Dr Rahman worked on agronomy, stress physiology, breeding and pathology of both rice and wheat. He holds a BSc from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University in Bangladesh, and an MSc in Biotechnology from South Asian University, New Delhi, India. In 2020, he gained a PhD from UCD, working on the UCD-Teagasc collaboration in the H2020 funded CerealPATH Integrated Training Network project.