Most Influential CHROs in Ireland 2024

In a rapidly evolving world of work, the role of the Chief Human Resources Officer has become pivotal for organisations to attract, develop, and retain top talent. These HR visionaries are catalysts for fostering innovative people strategies, building exceptional cultures, and ensuring their workforces are future-ready.

From globally-recognised multinationals to cutting-edge homegrown start-ups, Ireland is home to a remarkable breadth of HR leadership propelling companies to new heights.

This distinguished group was carefully selected through an extensive research process by Odgers Berndtson's team of executive search experts and an advisory panel of HR discipline leaders. Criteria included driving measurable business impact, championing diversity and inclusion, developing breakthrough HR programs, and embodying ethical people management. 

 

Aileen Bailey, Chief People Officer, IRFU

Aileen Bailey works for the IRFU in the role of Chief People Officer. Aileen has worked for the IRFU since September 2014. She has a Business Degree from DCU (2004), a Diploma in Employment Law from TUD (2016) & an Advanced Diploma in Corporate Wellbeing Coaching from Kingstown College (2021). Aileen is currently studying for her MSc in Work & Organisational Behaviour in DCU. Aileen has worked in HR roles in various industries including banking, communications, airline & sport. The majority of Aileen’s career has been spent in HR roles in the sports industry, having worked in the FAI previously & currently in the IRFU.

Aileen loves the variety that a HR role brings & is very passionate about wellbeing. For the last five years the IRFU has been accredited as a Great Place to Work & a Best Medium Workplace. Last year the IRFU was awarded a special Culture Improvement Award at the Great Place to Work Awards ceremony. This year the IRFU got its highest achievement to date, ranking 4th in the Best Medium Workplaces category.

 

Adrian Beatty, Group Head of Human Resources, Dairygold

Adrian Beatty is a highly motivated and results-driven Senior HR leader with extensive experience leading HR across diverse sectors, both union and non-union environments. He possesses a proven ability to drive organisational transformation through strategic and operational HR excellence.

Adrian is skilled in HR planning, leadership development, talent acquisition, employee engagement, industrial relations, and capability building. His passion lies in continuous improvement, coaching, and developing high-performing teams to execute business strategy.

 

Zelda Booth, Chief Human Resources Officer, Ardagh plc

Zelda Booth is Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for Ardagh Glass Packaging with operations across Europe, North America and Africa. She has over 20 years experience in Human Resources across different industries holding leadership roles in Professional Services, Financial Services and Manufacturing. She is passionate about being a true strategic partner to the business and to promoting a positive workplace culture.

She has championed initiatives focused on promoting inclusivity and employee engagement. As a global leader, she is focused on working collaboratively across diverse locations and cultures. She believes in the power of harnessing the collective talents and perspectives of teams around the world to drive business value and achieve shared goals.

 

Dr. Sinead Brennan, Director of Human Resources, Grant Thornton

Dr. Sinead Brennan is an experienced Director of Human Resources with a demonstrated history of working across a range of industry sectors, including financial services, professional services, and software. She is skilled in setting HR strategies that focus on developing and changing organisational culture, engaging employees, and developing leadership talent that enables businesses to achieve their strategic objectives.

Sinéad’s professional passion is to create work cultures where people can thrive, develop and bring their authentic selves to work. She holds a PhD from Dublin City University (DCU) and she was announced as the 2019 Pearse Walsh Medal Award winner for her research on leadership development. Sinéad also holds a Masters in Business Studies from DCU. Sinéad is a Non-Executive Director of Aware, the mental health charity and is a passionate advocate for mental health and inclusion and diversity.

 

Amy Burke, Chief People & Sustainability Officer, VHI

Amy joined Vhi in 2020. An experienced leader, Amy has made a significant contribution to transforming the People agenda, positively building, and shaping key colleague priorities including culture and capability development. She is in her second year of leading Vhi’s Sustainability agenda with the strategy now in its implementation phase.

Amy’s strength is in strategic transformation with a strong commercial bias. Prior to joining Vhi Amy had a 20 year career in Bank of Ireland where she held a number of roles across the business before taking up the position of Head of Group HR. Amy has a BSc in Finance from UCC and is a graduate of the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

 

Noelle Burke, Human Resources Director, Vodafone Ireland

Noelle is the Human Resources Director at Vodafone Ireland and is responsible for designing and delivering the company’s people agenda and cultivating Vodafone’s inclusive workplace.  Noelle has HR experience spanning Tech, Financial Services, and FMCG. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors; she is on the Board of MS Ireland and the advisory board for Technological University Dublin. 

Noelle is customer centric, she values diversity, teamwork, ambition and authenticity.  She enjoys building talented teams and fostering customer and people-focused cultures. 

 

Joe Cronin, Chief Human Resources Officer, ICON Plc

Joe Cronin is the Chief Human Resources Officer at ICON Plc, a global provider of outsourced development and commercialization services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and government and public health organisations, ICON employs 41,000 people in over 50 countries. With over 25 years of HR experience across various industries, Mr. Cronin is responsible for designing and implementing people strategies, building organisational leadership, and fostering a culture that enables ICON to execute its strategy effectively.

With nearly 20 years of experience, including leadership roles at Kellogg Company, General Motors, and Computer Sciences Corporation, A University of Limerick graduate, he is a seasoned HR leader adept in talent management, organisational transformation, and M&A activities.

 

Lorraine Culligan, Group Director of People and Culture, Primark 

Lorraine Culligan is the Group Director of People and Culture at Primark, overseeing almost 80,000 employees across 441 stores in 16 markets. With over 25 years of experience in the retail sector, including roles at Dunnes Stores and various senior positions at Primark since joining in 2005, Lorraine has been instrumental in reshaping the HR function to become 'People and Culture'. She leads with a people-first approach, nurturing internal talent, creating growth opportunities, and fostering a culture of transparency, inclusivity, and innovation.

Lorraine is passionate about building a culture of purpose and belonging at Primark, embedding a people-first mindset, and prioritizing continuous improvement and transformation to address the future of work challenges. Her change-oriented mindset and focus on leadership development, colleague engagement, and knowledge-sharing aim to enable individuals to realize their full potential and become the leaders of tomorrow.

 

Eimear Cusack, Director of Human Resources, RTE 

Eimear Cusack excels in leading people strategy across diverse businesses, unionized and non-unionized. She drives complex organisational transformations, emphasizing high-performance culture and individual/team development. Eimear's energetic, inclusive and innovative leadership fosters strategic change with persuasive communication skills.

 

Rachel Dalziel, Chief People Officer,  Keelings

Rachel is a commercial Senior HR executive with 20 years of demonstrated ability in creating people priorities across global companies in technology, not for profit, financial services and most recently within the fresh produce industry.

A graduate of both UCD and the National College of Ireland, her expertise lies within business partnering and leading teams in both talent and change management. Her passion is for building high performing teams, driving cultural and business change alongside a track record of partnering C-suite leaders to translate business needs into people strategies. Rachel returned to Ireland with her family in 2022 having spent 17 years living and working in the UK and joined Keelings Group in January 2023 as the Chief People Officer. Keelings is a 100% Irish owned, 3rd generation family business operating and innovating within the fresh produce industry since 1926. The group employs over 2,700 employees from 58 nationalities, across 7 different countries. The people priority in Keelings centres around supporting people to learn, be at their best, contribute and deliver on their commitments to our customers. The people team are accountable for delivering a people experience which allows colleagues and the business to thrive as part of a One Keelings culture. Rachel sits on the Keelings Executive team and participates in the Advisory Group of the Agri-Food Diversity & Inclusion Forum Ireland. 

 

Sharon Doyle, Human Resources Director, Bord na Mona

Sharon Doyle is an experienced Human Resources Director with expertise in developing and leading culture change programs, organisation transformation, employee engagement initiatives, talent management, succession planning, performance management, and resource planning within a diverse commercial semi-state organisation. She is a strong human resource professional, holding a Master's of Business Studies focused on Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, as well as a Certified Project Management Diploma.

Sharon has a proven track record of driving strategic HR initiatives and fostering a positive, productive workplace culture.

 

Matt Elliott, Chief People Officer, Bank of Ireland

Matt Elliott was appointed to the role of Chief People Officer for the Bank of Ireland Group in February 2019. He has led the culture transformation of the Bank, developing a company where all colleagues thrive. Prior to that he was Group People Director with Virgin Money. Matt was part of the executive team who successfully acquired and integrated Northern Rock and listed the company on the London Stock Exchange.

A passionate advocate for inclusion and diversity, Matt appeared as a leading ally in the Financial Times lists for gender, ethnicity and LGBT+ inclusion, the first leader to appear in all three lists.

 

Joe Ffrench, Human Resources Leader EMEA, Okta 

Joe Ffrench is an accomplished HR Leader with over two decades of experience developing and executing HR strategies that drive outstanding business results across global organisations. His experience spans the technology, financial services and consulting industries. He has broad expertise across the HR function including HR business partnership, talent management, talent acquisition, and learning & development. He has led matrixed regional and international HR teams in complex operating models. Joe is passionate about developing the capabilities and culture that drive business success and enable people to flourish.

Joe is a member of the Organisation & HR Committee of Trocaire, a charity which addresses the causes of poverty in the developing world. He is a member of the assessment panel for the CIPD Ireland Annual HR Awards. He holds an MSc in HR Strategy and a BA in Business & Politics.

 

Tara Flynn, Group Chief People & IT Officer, Glen Dimplex 

Tara joined Glen Dimplex as Group Chief People & IT Officer in July 2021, after serving as Group HR Director at Coillte, Ireland's largest state-owned forestry company. Her career trajectory includes senior HR roles across international and Irish businesses, as well as co-founding an employee benefits consultancy. Tara brings extensive strategic HR experience spanning employee engagement, talent management, employee relations, compensation and benefits, organisational culture and values, leadership development, performance management, employer branding, governance, and internal communications.

She holds a bachelor's degree in Business Studies and Political Science from Trinity College Dublin, complemented by a Diploma in Corporate Law and Governance from the Law Society of Ireland.

 

Triona Ferriter, Chief People Officer, Arthur Cox

Triona Ferriter is a Human Resources Executive with over 20 years of senior management experience across US multinationals and Irish companies, supporting diverse sectors like manufacturing, shared services, retail, pharmaceuticals, banking, and legal. She provides HR leadership to drive business growth through high-performing cultures.

Triona's expertise includes purpose-driven cultural transformation, strategic talent and organisational consulting for executives, effective change management, and strategic industrial/employee relations management. A proven people and organisational leader, she aligns HR strategies to influence business results through her passion for enabling leader success.

 

Sue Gannon, Executive Coach, Leadership Development and High Performance Team Facilitator, SJG Consultancy

Sue Gannon is a Chief People Officer with 23 years of extensive experience in people-oriented FMCG, Retail, and Entertainment organisations. Known for her partnerships with Executive teams to drive outstanding business results and improve engagement, Sue is a passionate, performance-driven leader. Her expertise lies in talent management, employee development, building inclusive communities, and uniting people to solve complex issues and elevate organisational effectiveness.

Sue's strategic HR acumen allows her to align people strategies with business objectives, implement progressive talent programs, and cultivate high-performing, engaged cultures that propel sustainable growth.

 

Sinead Gogan, Partner, People & Purpose, Deloitte

Ms Gogan is currently Chief Human Resources Officer with Deloitte Ireland and has responsibility for the firm people and purpose strategy, including end-to-end talent solutions, internal communications and social impact. She began her HR career in Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) and has held HR, internal communications, and corporate responsibility roles in Ireland and internationally. She spent 15-years at Fidelity Investments where over her tenure she was Vice-President of human resources with responsibility for locations in Ireland, China and Global Business Services.

Ms Gogan is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development and holds various post-graduate qualifications. In a voluntary capacity, she serves as Chair of the Board for Meath Women’s Refuge & Support Services and is a member of the Irish Management Institute (IMI) Council. In 2022, she was appointed as an ordinary member to the Board of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Ireland.

 

Colm Gorman, Head of People and Culture, KPMG Ireland

Colm is Head of People and Culture for KPMG in Ireland and the KPMG EMA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) region.  Colm has over 30 years experience in talent management, organisational development and aligning HR practices with the strategic direction of the firm. Colm is also a member of KPMG’s Global People steering group and KPMG Ireland’s Executive Team.

Colm holds a Masters in Human Resources from University College Cork and is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD).

 

Orla Graham, Chief People Officer, Davy

Orla is a globally accomplished HR leader with over 20 years of experience gained across four blue-chip companies. Recognized for her outstanding contributions, she was the recipient of the prestigious HR Leader 2017 award in Ireland. Orla has established herself as a collaborative business partner who drives results through her transparent and pragmatic leadership style. She excels at building trust, spearheading change initiatives, and inspiring teams with energy and vision. Orla's core belief is that businesses grow by motivating and retaining top talent through cultivating a challenging yet engaging environment where people can deliver their best work.

Her strategic approach to people management, coupled with strong business acumen, allows her to effectively align HR strategies with overarching organisational objectives.

 

Aileen Haverty, Chief People Officer, Therapie

Aileen Haverty is an experienced HR Professional who thrives at the heart of business operations. With over 20 years of experience at a managerial and business partner level, she has worked across many different industries such as telecommunications, construction, hospitality, private sector, and retail. A strategic thinker with a big-picture perspective, Aileen welcomes the chance to implement policies, procedures, and strategies to ensure organisations are operating with best practices at all times. She possesses extensive HR generalist exposure and knowledge, complemented by strong values and the courage to stand up for what she believes in.

Aileen is curious, a decisive thinker, driven to deliver results, and personally credible. She believes that ambition and hard work can transcend most obstacles. Her well-rounded expertise allows her to make significant contributions to any company's human resources function.

 

Alison Hodgson, Partner, Transformation, Human Resources & Change, RSM Ireland

Alison is a seasoned HR professional with a diverse international career spanning public and private sectors, leadership roles in professional organisations, and expertise in handling various business challenges. Holding a BA Hons in Psychology and an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Queen's University Belfast, she started at Marks & Spencer, progressing through roles at SalomonSmithBarney, WorldCom, Sodexho, Expedia, Royal Mail, McDonald's Ireland, Bank of America, and Virgin Media Ireland. Her qualifications include CIPD Fellowship, Chartered Companion status, and a Coaching Certification.

Alison's journey has encompassed graduate recruitment, resourcing, talent management, industrial relations, and leading HR functions, including the Brexit relocation efforts at Bank of America. Currently, she runs "High Performance HR" while actively contributing to the community through her roles at St Mary's LTC, Ranelagh Singers Choir, Dublin Simon Community, and as Chair of CIPD Ireland Ltd.

 

Orlagh Hunt, Chief People Officer, Yorkshire Building Society

Orlagh Hunt is a highly accomplished, progressive & change orientated Executive who has worked in a number of industry sectors including Retail, FMCG, Financial Services & Telecommunications. Most recently she was the Chief People Officer for YBS a mutual which offers savings and mortgages based in Leeds. She is currently enjoying the Summer with her family and will join One Savings Bank in September as their first CPO. Prior to YBS she was a Non-Executive Director at FBD and Interim People Director for Virgin Media Ireland. She returned to Ireland as Chief People Officer for AIB during a time of unprecedented change in the bank. During her time AIB she was part of the Leadership team that lead the transformational change across the business & returned the bank to profit. She spent 9 years at RSA initially as HR Director International and was then promoted to Group HR and Customer Director for RSA a role she undertook for 5.5 years. Her early career began at Tesco then saw her move to Walkers crisps part of Pepsi Co before moving to AXA Sun life as Head of HR.

Orlagh is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and holds BA Hons Jurisprudence from Oxford University. Her passion for life extends to her family, raising her three children by the sea in Dublin.

 

Jody Jordan, Chief People Officer, CarTrawler

Jody Jordan is truly passionate about people. She gets excited about identifying great talent, unlocking potential, building organisational capability, and being able to reward talented individuals. Jody loves being part of a dynamic organisation and an agile HR team.

She derives a huge amount of energy from working with great people who share an organisation's vision, mission, purpose, and values. Collaborating with motivated teams that are aligned with a company's goals deeply fulfills and energizes Jody Jordan.

 

Niamh Kelly, Global HR Leader, Maples

Niamh Kelly is a global HR leader with significant international experience in building high-performing teams and partnering with business leaders to develop business-aligned HR strategies and initiatives. She provides strategic leadership to effectively drive performance, growth, and promote organisational health in rapidly changing environments.

Niamh has extensive experience in Transformational Change Leadership, Organisational Development, Mergers & Acquisitions, Restructuring, Team Effectiveness, Employee Engagement, Performance Success Planning, and using business data and analytics to drive business results.

 

Oonagh Kelly, Chief People Officer , National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA)

Oonagh Kelly, the Chief People Officer and a member of the Executive Team at the NTMA, has championed culture, talent development and inclusion in the workplace since early in her career. Oonagh’s HR journey spans the financial services and education technology sectors in Ireland and internationally and is marked by a series of pioneering HR initiatives that have profoundly transformed workplace culture, talent development, and inclusion. A graduate of UCC with an MA in European Studies and NCI with a BA in HRM, Oonagh embodies the spirit of lifelong learning. Throughout her career she has added to her professional specialism with her Chartered Fellowship of CIPD and her Executive and Leadership coaching accreditation. Oonagh is a council member of the 30%+ Club and a member of Financial Services group working to progress representation of women in the industry.

Oonagh is a Board member and Chair of the HR Committee at Plan Ireland International. She was also previously a Board member of Familibase and national committee member of CIPD Ireland. In 2022, Oonagh was one of the founding members of VOiCE for insurance, a global first in creating sectoral benchmarks for EDI in the insurance industry. She has been instrumental in achieving increased gender balance in organisations, creating the conditions for better supports for parents, women in leadership, and in driving inclusion from early careers initiatives through to senior and board level appointments. Oonagh has spearheaded award winning programmes in talent management and development, diversity in organisations, and raising awareness and promoting dialogue societally.

 

Caoimhe Keogan, Chief People Officer, AVEVA Group

Caoimhe is currently the Chief People Officer at AVEVA Group, the UK headquartered industrial software leader, where she leads a global team of over 250 HR professionals responsible for all aspects of employee experience across a workforce of almost 10,000 people. Caoimhe spent the first part of her career in management consulting with KPMG and Deloitte. She then moved to Google in Dublin, where she held several roles in learning & development and HR. In 2013, she moved to Berlin to join SoundCloud, the world's largest open audio platform as its first VP People. Following her time in early-stage tech, she joined FTSE listed Moneysupermarket Group in London to support a multi-year business transformation. Three years ago she took on her current role at AVEVA, which at the time was the largest publicly-listed software business in the UK. 

Caoimhe is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry, having driven meaningful and measurable change as part of the people strategy in all her CPO roles to date. Caoimhe is also an Independent Non-Executive Director at Adyen, where she chairs the Nomination & Remuneration Committee. Originally from Co. Armagh, she attended Queens University Belfast, graduating in 2000 with a MSc in Organisational Psychology. 

 

Anne Kiely, Chief People Officer, Aer Lingus

Anne is the Chief People Officer at Aer Lingus. She has over 20 years’ experience in HR having worked in the finance, technology and consultancy sectors before joining the airline industry last year.  She has worked in organisations as diverse as TSB Bank, Accenture and Twitter prior to her current role.  She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Masters in Organisational and Social Psychology. Anne is passionate about two things in business – people and performance – and uses data and analytics to make decisions that facilitate both people and organisations reaching their potential.

Anne is proud to be a non-executive director of the Special Olympics in Ireland.  She is also the co-author of a book ‘How to be a CPO’ which launched in 2023. 

 

Clodagh Logue, Global Human Resources Director,  Eaton

Clodagh is a multi-disciplinary HR professional, with a 25-year career gained within leading global software and consumer technology companies. Her domains of experience include HR strategy & operations, talent planning, leadership talent acquisition and succession, M&A and change management. She has worked across European, US and Asia-Pacific geographies with a particular track record of collaborating with US leaders to deliver on talent strategies internationally. Clodagh is currently a global HR Director at Eaton plc, supporting the Chief Technology Officer, engineering leaders and their teams around the world to support the future growth and transformation of the corporate engineering organisation. Clodagh has had the opportunity to work with teams and leaders from widely diverse backgrounds over the course of her career and has actively participated in formal and informal mentoring programs to support emerging and female talent in particular.

Clodagh holds a BA (Hons) from Trinity College Dublin, a Masters in Human Resources Management from UCD Graduate School of Business and recently completed a foundational Board Directors program at INSEAD in Paris. She is a member of the Board of Chamber Choir Ireland. 

 

Sarah Manning, Chief People Officer,  Monzo

Sarah Manning is a global HR leader with over 20 years of experience driving success through exceptional employee experiences. She has worked with corporations and rapid growth startups, leading acquisitions, geographic expansions, employee engagement, culture transformations, and leadership development. Sarah has partnered with C-suite executives worldwide, leading matrixed People teams across continents. A strong communicator and leader, she holds a business degree, qualifications in employment law, coaching, and executive leadership from UC Berkeley.

In the tech/SaaS and telco/ICT sectors, Sarah has delivered outstanding outcomes by curating high-performing teams focused on all aspects of HR and people operations.

 

Garry McCabe, Chief People Officer, Mater Private Network