​With the countdown on to our sold out “Women Who Mean Business” event, we decided to give you a look into the background of our panelists.

Anne O’Leary

CEO, Vodafone

Anne O’Leary was appointed CEO of Vodafone Ireland in February 2013, having spent five years as Enterprise Director. She joined Vodafone from BT Ireland where she was Managing Director for six years and was previously Regional Director with Esat Telecom.

As CEO of Vodafone, Anne has committed to investing in Ireland’s telecommunications infrastructure, resulting in Vodafone’s nationwide rollout of 4G. She is also overseeing SIRO, Vodafone’s joint venture with the ESB, who are investing €450m in the roll out of high speed fibre broadband across Ireland.

Additionally, Anne is driving the gigabit society agenda in Ireland– with the explicit goal of access for everyone to 1 gigabit broadband speed. Equality of connectivity will change how everyone in Ireland lives, works and plays

A Cork native, Anne champions wellbeing and diversity in the workplace and has spearheaded Vodafone securing a position as one of Ireland’s top ten Great Places to Work and achieving the Business Working Responsibly mark.

Anne is currently President of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and is Chair of the Board of Directors of Goal.

Anne is a keen triathlete who competes regularly.

Josepha Madigan, TD

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Josepha Madigan was appointed as Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht on 30th November 2017. She is the sole Fine Gael T.D. for Dublin Rathdown, elected for the first time in 2016. Before this, she was Fine Gael Councillor for the Stillorgan Ward on Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, from May 2014.

She is an award-winning Family Lawyer and Partner at Madigans Solicitors. She is a qualified mediator, lectures regularly in the area of family law and has published a book entitled “Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Ireland” a handbook for family lawyers and their clients. Josepha served as Specialist Liaison Officer for Family Mediation with the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland. Josepha also lectures regularly in the area of family law and has written newspaper articles on this subject.

She studied at Mount Anville School, Trinity College Dublin and Blackhall Place.

Fiona Mullan

VP International HR, Facebook

Fiona Mullan joined Facebook in 2014 and currently leads the international human resources team based in Europe. Prior to joining Facebook, Fiona spent nine years at Microsoft, most recently leading human resources for Microsoft in Asia Pacific, after leading the recruiting function for Microsoft internationally.

She joined Microsoft from Accenture where she spent seven years. Fiona was also Chairperson of Fastrack to IT, a non-profit organisation and sits on the Board of Make a Wish Ireland.

Fiona holds a BA, an MSc, a Diploma in Information Technology and is a chartered member of the CIPD. Fiona is Mum to two girls who love to travel as a family.

Michelle Spillane

Marketing and Brand Director, Paddy Power Betfair

Michelle became the Marketing and Brand Director for UK and Ireland in Paddy Power Betfair in January 2018. Michelle has over 14 years’ experience in marketing and has held many senior positions across multiple industries, including Media, Technology and Banking.

Michelle joined Paddy Power from Irish national broadcaster RTÉ where she served as Director of Global Marketing for over 4 years.

Jacqui Hurley

Sports Presenter, RTE

Jacqui Hurley has presented Sunday Sport on RTE Radio 1 for 10 years. She became the first female anchor of the show in its history.

She recently anchored the World Cup coverage on RTE television and is a regular presenter of the sports news on RTE News bulletins. She has covered two Olympic Games for RTE Sport.

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