Who is Terence O'Rourke? Attention to detail is second nature to new RTÉ Board chair 

Terence O’Rourke's appointment to the board of RTÉ is expected to be approved by Cabinet on Tuesday,

RTÉ’s new Board chair may not have been expecting such a high-profile role as recently as last week, but there is little doubt about his credentials, particularly in terms of financials.

Terence O’Rourke, whose quick-fire appointment to the board of RTÉ was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday, has prior, and current, experience as chair of another major semi-state — he has been the head of the ESB’s board since November 2020 with that five-year term due to expire next year.

A former managing partner with consultants KPMG, Mr O’Rourke spent just under 40 years with the firm after graduating from UCD with a degree in economics and history, working his way up from trainee to managing partner. He left KPMG as a member of its global executive team in 2013.

A serial board member, he has artistic bona fides in the shape of stints on the governing bodies of the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust, and the Irish Film Institute. He remains in the latter two of those positions at present. He also previously served on the board of The Irish Times. 

Other noteworthy board positions include his role as chair of Kinsale Capital Management, non-executive director with developer Ballymore, and corporate landlords Hibernia REIT, with whom he served as chair of the audit committee until 2022.

Mr O’Rourke is understood to have secured the RTÉ chair ahead of Paul Reid, the former chief executive of the HSE during the covid pandemic.

His ESB profile notes him as having a “wide breadth of business skills with high-level experience in commercial, finance, decision-making and strategy development roles working with clients in Ireland and abroad”.

As exiting chair of RTÉ Siún Ní Raghallaigh noted on Monday, together with its endless governance problems, RTÉ has been in financial disarray for years, yet went without a chief financial officer for five months.

In selecting Mr O’Rourke, the Government is getting someone with a history of audit excellence and for whom attention to detail will be second nature.