Business Movers

Eoin Lowry has been named as head of agri sector on Bank of Ireland’s (BOI) business banking team. He joins from the Irish Farmers’ Journal, where he was agri-business editor upon joining the paper in 2014, and served as deputy editor from 2017. He also has extensive experience in Irish and international agri-business, including five years as managing director of Target Fertilisers. His new role will focus on supporting existing and potential Bank of Ireland agri customers and farmers nationwide to scale and grow their businesses, providing them with a range of supports to help mitigate the impact of commodity price volatility, adjust their operations to deal with environmental and climate challenges and navigate the existing Covid-19 landscape whilst planning for the future. Eoin will also oversee the development of BOI’s strategy for the agri sector.

Mark Flanagan has joined global document productivity firm Nitro Software as senior vice president of worldwide sales. Based in Nitro’s Europe, Middle East and Asian headquarters at Charlemont Place in Dublin, he will lead the sales team globally. He will focus on revenue growth through the execution of sales and marketing strategies aimed at winning customers. He will oversee a team of 50 sales colleagues across Nitro’s four offices. Nitro is rapidly expanding its footprint in the digital workflow space. Nitro’s Irish customers include Bank of Ireland, Linesight, Laya Healthcare, Permanent TSB, and KN Group.

Ciara Byrne has joined the advisory board of Alana, the new Cork-based fashion and beauty platform for consumers including a same-day delivery service allowing customers to shop locally from retailers and independent boutiques. She is managing director at Beacon AI, the global privacy company. She has also worked Starwood and Fota Island hotels and in senior roles with Voxpro, Capita and PGI. She led the formation of the West Cork chapter of Network Ireland and was 2019 president. She has led fundraising for Cork Simon Community and is a advocate for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She will bring her extensive experience in international sales and marketing and her passion for female entrepreneurship, fashion and beauty to the team.

Dan Ryan has joined fit-out and construction company Sonica as construction director. He will oversee all future construction operations, supporting Sonica in targeting large scale business projects both locally and internationally. He brings 18 years of construction experience, notably as project director and operations manager on commercial and residential projects of between €10m to €50m. He has also worked on construction projects in the US, with experience of construction teams in Alaska. Dan’s appointment is the latest in a series of appointments by Sonica in recent months, including Andreas Heil as head of design and architecture.

Dave Elliot has been appointed as CEO of Aviva Life and Pensions Ireland following Tom Browne’s decision to retire after 40 years of working life. Dave is currently Aviva’s group chief of staff and he was previously chief financial officer for Aviva International and director of investor relations. A qualified chartered accountant, he joined Aviva in 2009. He has been a director of Aviva Life and Pensions Ireland since June 2018. Dave will take up his new role in August and will work closely with Tom Browne over the coming weeks to ensure a smooth transition. Dave said: “I look forward to taking Aviva Life and Pensions Ireland on to the next stage of its development in Ireland.” I believe we are well prepared to address the changing and challenging market landscape in 2020 and beyond. I look forward to meeting and working closely with our people, brokers and customers.”

Dónal Óg McCarthy has been appointed as managing director to lead the cloud business at Accenture, the global professional services company. He will help clients design intelligent cloud solutions. He joins with over 20 years’ experience in tech and engineering, during which time he led large-scale, business critical enterprise delivery programs globally in public sector, healthcare, insurance and telecomms. He has also worked directly with cloud service providers building client solutions, joint marketplace offerings and growing local cloud delivery capability in Irish and international markets. Dónal Óg holds a BEng. in Electronic Engineering from UL.