CEO Update: Welcoming Imelda Hurley as new Ibec President

Dear member, 

I am delighted to announce that Imelda Hurley, CEO of Coiltte, has been elected as the Ibec President for 2022 to 2023.

Imelda Hurley has spent over twenty years in leadership and finance roles across a variety of sectors including forestry, food, agriculture, technology related product development and supply chain management. She is an experienced executive and non-executive director having been a board member in public company, state owned, private equity and venture capital backed businesses. She has worked extensively in Ireland, the UK, Eastern Europe, Hong Kong and China. 

She is currently CEO at Coillte, Ireland’s state forestry company which is responsible for managing 440,000 hectares of primarily forested lands. She is also a non-executive director at Dole plc, a global leader in fresh fruit and vegetables and at Ibec, Ireland’s largest business representative group.  Prior to joining Coillte, Imelda was an executive director and CFO with agri-services group Origin Enterprises plc, and, earlier in her career, she held a range of senior leadership positions at PCH International, and Greencore Group plc.

I wish to extend my thanks to outgoing Ibec President, Frank Gleeson, President and CEO of Aramark Northern Europe, for his tireless work and dedication to Irish business over the past 12 months. Also, congratulations to Paul Duffy, Vice President Manufacturing, Pfizer, who has been appointed Deputy President for the upcoming year.

In her keynote address (see below) at the Ibec President’s Dinner in the RDS last night, Imelda highlighted that she wants the next year for Ibec and wider Irish business community to be a year of achievement, progress and growth, despite the challenges we face. She outlined that she will use her tenure to support Ibec’s ongoing work in optimising the business contribution to Ireland’s climate targets and play our part to support the transition to a low carbon economy.

It is a real privilege to have someone of Imelda’s experience and credentials in the position of Ibec President and on behalf of the organisation, I look forward to working closely with her over the next 12 months and wish her great success.

With over 750 people in attendance at the President’s Dinner, it was a night to celebrate Irish business and its remarkable evolution, and we were honoured to have guests from politics and media attend, along with business. We were pleased to be joined by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, who outlined in his address that next week’s Budget will look to help businesses survive the immediate inflationary pressures, as well as backing that up with a broader, medium to long-term agenda to improve the business environment in Ireland.

Regarding next week’s Budget, I wish to remind you that Ibec economists will be on hand to provide useful insights and answer any questions you may have that day. You can register for the Ibec Budget Day webinar here.

Finally this week, I would like to remind you of an upcoming event that we are hosting. Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner for Competition will join us in person as part of an event on ‘Digital performance and Ireland’s leadership’ next Friday, the 30 September. The free event, hosted by Ibec Global, will take place in Trinity College Dublin’s exam hall. You can register your attendance here.

Regards,

Danny McCoy

CEO

Ibec