Former Vodafone boss Anne O'Leary becomes Head of Meta Ireland

Cork woman succeeds Rick Kelly in the role who took over from Gareth Lamb in 2022 but announced plans to step down last month.

Wed, 26 Apr, 2023 - 11:50

Cáit Caden

Former Vodafone Ireland CEO Anne O’Leary has been appointed head of Meta Ireland after joining the company under a year ago.

From Cork, Ms O’Leary will also keep her role as VP in the company’s EMEA global business division while at the helm of the Irish arm of the tech giant.

“I’m looking forward to leading the team in Ireland who contribute important work to our company’s success,” said Ms O’Leary.

Ms O’Leary succeeds Rick Kelly in the role who took over from Gareth Lamb in 2022 but announced plans to step down last month. She will officially take up the position on May 1.

Ms O’Leary will be responsible for matters relating to the Facebook owner’s Irish office, which is the company’s international headquarters, as well as governance and “leading the implementation of the company’s future strategy”, the company said.

In her primary role as VP, she leads the sales team who work with medium sized businesses across Europe, Middle-East and Africa.

“Our apps connect people to their interests and businesses to their customers and empower people to build communities all over the world,” she said.

Ms O’Leary's appointment comes at a difficult time for the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Meta, like many other tech firms, ballooned its headcount during the pandemic but slowed hiring and reduced its workforce last year due to a slowdown brought about by volatile economic conditions and an e-commerce slump.

Meta’s total number of job cuts since November has come to 21,000, including another round of cuts announced last week impacting 10,000 of its roughly 87,000 workforce.

Meta has cut around 350 people in total since it started making people redundant in response to the tech downturn.

Meta, which also relies heavily on ad revenue, is also vulnerable to advertisers tightening budgets as the global economy has grappled with rising inflation which has led to rising interest rates.

Meta's Q1 financial results will be published this evening.

Who is Anne O'Leary?

Cork woman Anne O'Leary already held one of the most prestigious business roles in the country when she made the decision last year to join Facebook owner Meta to take up the role of Vice President of one of its business divisions for the European, Middle East and Asian markets.

For 14 years she worked for Vodafone Ireland, spending the final decade there as its CEO. She joined the company as enterprise director in 2008 and was responsible for spearheading the expansion of the company's product offerings to businesses before she took over the role of CEO in 2009.

In her time with the telecoms giant, she oversaw the rollout of 4G and 5G services across the country and saw the commencement of fibre broadband services which have proved transformative for the country.

Throughout her period with Vodafone Anne O'Leary remained a strong advocate for women in business regularly speaking publicly on the topic.

Vodafone was one of Ireland's first companies to implement fertility and pregnancy policies which include extended leave for those dealing with fertility treatment and pregnancy loss as well as their partners. The policy included extended paid leave of ten days for those impacted by pregnancy loss. Vodafone also offers ten paid working days' leave for those directly undergoing fertility treatment.

Another lasting legacy of her time with Vodafone was the telecom firm's sponsorship of the Irish rugby team. It began in 2016 with a four-year deal that was renewed for another four years in 2020 valued at €16m.

In that period Irish rugby has grown in stature to be amongst the top teams in the world. Ireland is on course for a Six Nations Grand Slam this year and enters the autumn Rugby World Cup as one of the favourites. A positive role means Vodafone's deal with the IRFU may go down as one of the most successful in the history of Irish sponsorship deals.

Last year O'Leary took the decision to move to a tech giant Meta. A company, once again, undergoing significant change. At Meta, O'Leary is leading a team helping businesses accelerate their digital transformation efforts.