Business movers: People starting new jobs in Ireland

New appointees with Coca-Cola HBC, Bauer Media Audio Ireland, Waterways Ireland, Integrity360, Spectrum.Life and the Road Safety Authority

New roles: (top row) Simon Fitzpatrick, Ruth Fitzsimons, Peter Harty; (bottom row) Victoria Hogg, Ian Ranger, Anne Graham.

Here is a selection of people starting new roles with Coca-Cola HBC, Bauer Media Audio Ireland, Waterways Ireland, Integrity360, Spectrum.Life and the Road Safety Authority.

Simon Fitzpatrick has been appointed as general manager of island of Ireland operations with Coca-Cola HBC. He will lead the beverage business, which is the strategic bottling partner to Coca-Cola for Ireland, distributing brands including Deep RiverRock and Fruice. Coca-Cola HBC also produces and distributes Monster Energy; owns the premium spirits brand Finlandia Vodka; and is distributor for The Campari Group, Edrington, and coffee brands Costa and Caffé Vergnano across Ireland. From Waringstown, Co Down, Simon has worked for Coca-Cola for over 20 years. He began as a business developer and rose to head of international key accounts across all 29 Coca-Cola HBC markets.

Ruth Fitzsimons has been appointed as head of digital at Bauer Media Audio Ireland, whose brands include Newstalk, Today FM, 98FM, SPIN, Red FM, iRadio and Beat; she also becomes a member of the BMAI leadership team. A radio producer and journalist in the UK and Ireland with BBC, LBC, RTÉ and Newstalk, Ruth was head of international at Sport Social Podcast Network. She was the MD of Podfront UK, a joint venture between two of the world's biggest podcast companies, Stitcher and Wondery. Ruth has also held the role of SVP international operations at Audioboom. She is on the advisory board of the Podcast Show.

Peter Harty has been appointed as inspector of navigation with Waterways Ireland, the cross-border navigational authority for inland waterways. He will promote water safety for all users of Ireland’s waterways, and manage bye-law compliance with a team of seven staff working across the Erne System, the Shannon Navigation, the Grand & Royal Canals and Barrow Navigation. He brings 20 years of military service and more recently private sector project management in Irish healthcare. He held roles in operational management and maritime safety with Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He holds a BSc in Disaster Engineering and Management, as well as an MBA.

Victoria Hogg has been appointed as head of business development for Northern Ireland with Integrity360, a pan-EU cybersecurity specialist with its head office in Dublin. She will lead the expansion of the company’s presence in the region. She previously spent two years with Civica as head of Northern Ireland, supporting public sector customers. She was also sales director at digital marketing agency Enlighten Integrated Communications and held senior sales and management roles at Dell Technologies for over a decade across Ireland, the UK, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). She will chair a cybersecurity discussion at Integrity360’s upcoming Security First conference in Belfast in April.

Ian Ranger has been appointed as head of insurance for the UK and Ireland with Spectrum.Life, a global partner in digital whole-of-health solutions. With over 17 years of experience in the Protection market, including roles at Canada Life and MetLife, Ranger brings strong expertise in forging meaningful partnerships and driving innovation in the insurance sector. His deep knowledge of the insurance and broker landscape positions him to lead Spectrum.Life’s growth in this critical market. He will foster strong relationships with key industry stakeholders and drive the company’s growth and development of the insurance channel across the UK and Ireland, building partnerships with insurers, intermediaries and wellbeing providers.

Anne Graham has been appointed as chair of the Road Safety Authority on a five-year term, formally named by Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien. She is a transportation and environment engineer professional with over 34 years’ experience across the transportation sector. She had an extensive career in Dublin City Council including as a traffic and roads engineer, before joining the National Transport Authority (NTA) as a director in 2010. She served as CEO of the NTA from December 2014 to December 2024. The NTA reached the landmark of one million daily public transport passenger journeys for the first time in 2024 under Ms Graham’s leadership.