Executive Directors

Patrick Kennedy

Patrick Kennedy is the Chief Executive. He joined the Group in an executive capacity in September 2005 and became Chief Executive on 1 January 2006. Patrick was already a Board member, having been appointed as a non-executive director in March 2004. Before joining Paddy Power, Patrick was Chief Financial Officer of Greencore Group plc, having previously been Group Development Director. Patrick has also worked with KPMG Corporate Finance both in Ireland and the Netherlands, and as a strategy consultant with McKinsey and Company Management Consultants in London, Dublin and Amsterdam.  Patrick is also a non-executive director of Bank of Ireland plc and Elan Corporation plc.

 

Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy is the Chief Financial Officer.  Cormac joined the Group as a non-executive director in September 2011 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in October 2012.  A Chartered Accountant, Cormac was Chief Executive of Ulster Bank from 2004 to 2011, where he also served as a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland ("RBS") Group Management Committee and as Deputy Chief Executive of RBS UK Retail.  He was previously Chief Executive of the RBS Retail and Commercial Division in Europe and the Middle East and Chief Executive of the bank's European Consumer Finance Division.  Prior to 2004, he was Chief Executive of First Active plc.  Cormac is also a non-executive director of BWG Limited, the Irish-owned food retail and wholesale distribution business.

Chairman

Nigel Northridge

Nigel Northridge was appointed as a non-executive director in July 2003 and as Chairman from January 2009. Nigel spent 32 years with Gallagher Group plc in sales and marketing roles, becoming group chief executive in 2000, a position in which he oversaw significant growth in shareholder value. leading to the sale of the company in 2007 for £9.4 billion.  Nigel is Chairman of Debenhams plc and a non-executive director of Inchcape plc.

Non-Executive Directors

Tom Grace - Senior Independent Director

Tom Grace was appointed as a non-executive director in January 2006 and became senior independent director in January 2009. Tom was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers from 1983 to 2005, where he led the Insolvency Department from 1987 onwards. With 34 years experience in total at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tom has also worked in the audit and management consultancy divisions, principally in the area of financial advice. Tom is also well known as a former rugby international and is currently honorary treasurer of the Irish Rugby Football Union. He won 25 international rugby caps for Ireland between 1972 and 1978 and captained the side on eight occasions. He also toured as a British and Irish Lion in 1974.

 

  

Stewart Kenny

Stewart Kenny was a co-founder of Paddy Power in 1988. He has considerable experience in the betting industry, training with Ladbrokes in London for two years before establishing a chain of betting shops, Kenny O'Reilly Bookmakers. He sold that business to Coral in 1986 and subsequently re-entered the business, opening ten betting shops between 1986 and 1988. He was Group Chief Executive from 1988 to 2002, and Chairman from 2002 to 2003.

 

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Pádraig Ó Ríordáin

Pádraig Ó Ríordáin was appointed as a non-executive director in July 2008. Pádraig is Managing Partner of Arthur Cox, a leading Irish law firm. He studied law in the National University of Ireland and Harvard Law School and has practiced in New York and Dublin.  In addition to his role in managing Arthur Cox, Pádraig advises a range of public companies, private companies and State related entities on their transactional and business issues and has a specialist expertise in regulated industries. In 2009, he was named European Managing Partner of the Year at the Lawyer European Awards and the British Legal Awards.  He is also a non-executive director of TVC Holdings.

  

Jane Lighting

Jane Lighting was appointed as a non-executive director in September 2009. She was Chief Executive of Five, the UK's fifth terrestrial television channel, until 2008.  Prior to joining Five in 2003, Jane was Chief Executive of Flextech plc.  Jane is a Trustee and Fellow of the Royal Television Society and a Council Member of the British Screen Advisory Council and is a non-executive director of Trinity Mirror Group Plc.

 

Ulric Jerome

Ulric Jerome was appointed as a non-executive director in December 2012. Ulric studied in France before completing his degree in economics in Montréal. He was a founding partner and executive director of Pixmania, the only pan-European online retailer of digital photographic and consumer electronic goods and has extensive experience of consumer technology in the online sector. Ulric was instrumental in the growth and development of Pixmania from a start-up to a business with revenues of over €800 million that operates in twenty six countries across Europe through bespoke transactional websites. He is a partner and Chief Operating Officer of Matches Fashion, a UK multi-channel online and retail business.

Danuta Gray

Danuta Gray was appointed as a non-executive director in January 2013. Danuta brings to the Board significant leadership experience as the former Chief Executive Officer of O2 Ireland, a position she held from 2001 to 2010. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President of BT Europe in Germany and, previous to that, was General Manager at BT Mobile in the UK. Danuta is currently a non-executive Director of Aer Lingus plc. She holds a B.Sc. in Biophysics and an MBA and is a Board member of Barretstown Children's Charity and of Headstrong, a charity supporting the mental health of young people in Ireland.

	Member of Nominations Committee
	Member of Remuneration Committee
	Member of Audit Committee
	Member of Risk Committee

Terms of Reference:

Terms of Reference Remuneration Committee

Terms of Reference Nominations Committee

Terms of Reference Audit Committee

Terms of Reference Risk Committee