The EY Podcast

In this episode of the EY CEO Outlook Podcast, Laura Trimble, CEO of HSBC Ireland joins host Richard Curran to discuss leadership culture, customer-focused banking, and why Ireland remains a stable and attractive place to do business in a volatile global economy. “There are quite a few parallels between doing endurance sports and working ... It requires you to plan, to be organised, to make a sche...

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Marc Van Huet, CFO of Calor Ireland joins host, Dearbhail McDonald, to talk about building a modern finance engine, why a private, family-owned structure creates space to innovate, and the role LPG and BioLPG can play for rural homes, hotels and industry on the journey to net zero. He also shares the cultural lessons he’s learned in Ireland, the value...

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook Podcast, Peter Quinn, CFO of An Post joins host Dearbhail McDonald to talk about his career, the challenges An Post has faced, and why he’s optimistic about the future. “When I started my career, it was before Microsoft Excel,” recalls Peter Quinn. “People thought technology would do away with jobs. Instead, it gave finance more firepower and made us more impo...

In this episode of the EY CEO Outlook podcast, Shay Walsh, Manging Director of BT Ireland, joins host Richard Curran to reflect on a career at the cutting edge of telecoms and communications, the challenges of leading your people through major strategic change, and the future of data and connectivity.  Shay Walsh’s journey began in Cabra, Dublin, with Irish-speaking roots and a childhood immersed...

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Rob Morrissey, CFO of AstraZeneca Ireland Commercial operations joins host Dearbhail McDonald to talk about his unconventional career journey, AstraZeneca’s growth plans, the role of AI in finance, and why empathy and compassion matter so much to him as a leader.  Rob Morrissey’s path into finance was something of an accident. Having spent childhood s...

In this episode of the EY CEO Outlook Podcast, Brian Walsh, CEO of Vhi talks with host Richard Curran about leading Vhi, combining business with purpose, and the shift toward digital and community-based healthcare. The career path that Brian Walsh has travelled is testament to the early influence of his parents and childhood.  His mother worked in healthcare and his father in business, and Brian d...

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Thelma O’Driscoll, CFO of the IRFU joins host Jonathan Healy to talk about her diverse career path, her passion for growing male and female rugby from the grassroots up, and how the role of CFO enables her to create a strong and sustainable financial foundation for the game. Thelma O’Driscoll’s journey into the rugby world was not a direct one. Starti...

In this episode of the EY CEO Outlook podcast, Danny McCoy, CEO of Ibec, discusses with host Richard Curran his early influences, his approach to leadership, and his vision for Ireland’s economy. Danny McCoy’s career showcases a journey driven by a passion for economics and a deep understanding of Ireland’s evolving socio-economic landscape. Growing up in Tuam, County Galway, during challenging ec...

Aisling Kenny, CFO of SMBC Aviation Capital, has built a notable career in the aviation leasing sector. She started her career at EY, where she was involved in auditing various clients, including banks and leasing companies. She joined SMBC Aviation Capital (then RBS Aviation Capital) in 2012, initially as manager and head of finance. In 2022, she became the CFO.   Ireland has established itself a...

Niall Gleeson was 13 years old when he realised he wanted to be an engineer. Influenced by his grandfather, whose love of tinkering and ham radio sparked Niall's curiosity for how things worked, he developed a passion for taking things apart and understanding the mechanics behind them.   After earning his engineering degree from Bolton Street College in Dublin, Niall began his career with Gen...

Alice Mansergh, a city girl with a love for the countryside, attended school in Dublin but spent her weekends on the family farm in Tipperary, where she enjoyed fruit picking and digging potatoes. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in English and Irish literature, she took a year to travel around Ireland and worked on a novel that she admits remains unfinished and gathering...

When Paul Stapleton joined ESB over 33 years ago, it was a very different organisation to the one it is today. In the three decades since, Paul has held ten different roles within the company and has watched first-hand the transformation of its structure, mandate, and the nature of the role it plays in Ireland’s economy and society.    Since its foundation, ESB has been critical to the running of...

Founded in 1981, Fexco is Ireland’s most successful multinational financial and business solutions provider, operating in 29 countries and processing over €3bn in transactions annually. Yet, at heart, it is a family-owned business, proudly headquartered in Killorglin, Co Kerry, that values on curiosity, wellness and community impact. After almost 20 years working in the traditional banking sector,...

From the age of sixteen, Anne McCormack knew that she wanted to be a CEO. Having played golf at a high level throughout her childhood, Anne became concerned about the numbers of her peers that were leaving the sport, and realised that the only way to effect change was to hold a leadership position within the sport’s representative organisation. This realisation was the first step in Anne’s long an...

It was a complaint about the quality of a mobile phone that ultimately set Barry Napier on the path to becoming one of Ireland’s most successful technology entrepreneurs. The owner of the company to which Barry complained liked him, and offered him a job, and so began a lucrative career within the technology industry. But it was in 2011, when Barry discovered Cubic Telecom,  that everything change...

It was the culture of Microsoft that first attracted Anne Sheehan to the company – “ It's not about who's the cleverest person in the room. It's about who can be curious, who can learn, who can be creative”. Having spent over 20 years in the technology and telecom sectors working with companies like IBM and Vodafone, Anne has always chosen roles based on the “scale, breadth and dept...

Ten minutes into the first job interview, Wendy Chang Smith knew that Glanbia was the right fit for her. As someone for whom company culture, values and learning experiences are paramount, Wendy was bowled over by the “wisdom and experience” of the two colleagues on the panel and felt like she had known them for years – “ I was sold, I was ready to join this company.” But the idea of taking on the...

On Mairead McCaul’s first day in nursing college, her tutor said something that has always stayed with her: “when you're caring for a patient, you’re in a privileged position and you should always treat them as if they were your mother or your father or your brother or sister or your child”. Mairead carried these words with her throughout her time in nursing and midwifery, working in sales in...

Carol Phelan has always loved numbers. Growing up on a farm, she understood how the numbers she was learning in school related to the business of the farm and how it scaled. Accountancy was one of her Leaving Cert subjects, but, for Carol, “accountancy was a set of tools that I wanted to work in Business rather than accountancy as the end in and of itself.” Carol spent the first six years of her c...

Growing up on a small farm in Tipperary taught Leo Clancy a lot about entrepreneurship. From an early age he understood how to assess the business’s performance in any given year, how to make a profit on tight margins, and, crucially, he learned to “dig in and get the work done that needs to be done and make things happen”.  Today, Clancy leads an organisation that supports companies all over Irel...

In this episode of The EY Podcast: CEO Outlook Series, Deirdre Mortell, CEO of Rethink Ireland, joins host Richard Curran to talk about her passion for social change, the power of people to make positive impact, her vision for a better Ireland, and how this role is helping her to achieve it. From an early age, Deirdre Mortell wanted to ‘change the world’. A very active participant in student polit...

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Ken Bowles of Smurfit Kappa Group discusses the Irish packaging company's recent merger announcement and what it means for their growth.  Also, as he approaches almost 30 years with the company, he talks about why people are at the heart of a successful business and how Smurfit Kappa's focus on sustainability now means the same box is used 2...

In this episode of the EY CFO Outlook podcast, Tom Hickey of mining company Kenmare Resources chats to host Jonathan Healy about becoming a CFO at the young age of 31, the importance of storytelling in business, his love of the natural resources sector and how ESG is at the heart of Kenmare’s operations in Mozambique.     

In this episode of The EY Podcast: CEO Outlook series, Conor Galvin tells host Richard Curran about his unconventional journey to the position of CEO of Dairygold and his long term strategic ambitions for the company. He also shares his unique insights into the current challenges and opportunities facing the food production sector. When Conor Galvin became CEO of Dairygold in January 2022, it was...

In this episode of The EY Podcast: CEO Outlook Series, Jim Bergin, CEO of Tirlán, tells host Richard Curran the story of his 30-year journey to the top of one of Ireland’s best-known indigenous companies. Jim leads Tirlán during a very significant time for the company, with a recent restructuring from plc to cooperative, the creation of a new investment fund, and record farmgate prices. Coming fro...