People who are starting a new job in Ireland

Here is a selection of people starting new roles in Teagasc, Four Star Pizza, Global Fresh Exotics, Murray Group Taxback.com and ECS Group.
Dr Joe Patton has been appointed Head of Dairy Knowledge Transfer at Teagasc following Dr Tom O’Dwyer’s decision to lead the Teagasc Signpost program. Dr Patton will lead the organization’s team of dairy specialists. He started his career at Teagasc in 2006 with a contract research position in the field of dairy herd nutrition. In 2009 he took up a position as dairy specialist for winter milk production at Teagasc, based in Teagasc Grange. He led the Teagasc Winter Milk Systems Project at Johnstown Castle. In 2020, he becomes a specialist in ruminant nutrition. He holds a degree in agrosciences from UCD and a doctorate in dairy nutrition from Teagasc and UCD.
Ciara Kellett has been appointed COO of Irish pizza chain Four Star Pizza. Ciara has worked with Four Star Pizza for three years as a Project Manager Consultant engaging with franchisees for the creation and development of the Bun Bros brand, Four Star’s hamburger offering. She brings 20 years of experience in senior commercial and operational positions in the retail and foodservice sectors, notably at Musgrave Wholesale Partners (head of national accounts), Primeline Group (head of national accounts) and Johnson Brothers ( sales manager of Ngage). She will now manage operations, liaise with franchisees and oversee the continued rollout of Bun Bros across the store network. Four Star Pizza employs over 1,000 people in 60 stores on the island of Ireland.
Richard Moore has been appointed Managing Director of Global Fresh Exotics, the importer, producer and distributor of fresh food products based in Meath. He brings to this position more than 25 years of leadership experience in the international and national fresh produce industry, most notably during the last ten years as Commercial Director of the Global Fruit Company, headquarters of the Del Monte brand in Ireland. Richard also previously held Managing Director positions at Keelings Wholesale and Seed Potato Company. Global Fresh Exotics has been operating in the Irish market since 2000. Mr. Moore will now guide the company through a period of strengthening its already respected position in the industry. He holds a diploma in business management from DIT.
Paul O’Kane has been appointed director of his corporate and financial public relations team with communications consultants Murray Group. He brings over 30 years of experience in communications and national newspapers. He has been Director of Communications (CCO) at Dublin Airport Authority for the past 12 years, after joining as Director of Communications in 2006. He created and managed the airport’s award-winning Twitter account. He chaired Airports Council International (ACI), the European digital communications forum, from 2013 to 2015. He also spent 15 years in journalism in roles with The Sunday Tribune and The Irish Times. A native of Whiteabbey, County Antrim, Paul holds a BA in Modern and Political History from QUB and an MA in Journalism from DCU.
William Maher has been appointed Director of Business Development at Taxback.com, Financial Consultants, based in Co Kilkenny. In his new role, he will manage outbound B2B prospecting to Irish organizations, from SMEs to multinationals; generate and manage a sales pipeline; develop and manage campaigns; build solid professional relationships with prospects, customers and major accounts. He was previously Managing Director of Hermitage Technologies for the past two years. Previously, he was Commercial Director at Amgen for 13 years. He was also previously a director at eFrontiers. After studying at WIT and UCD, he holds an MBA, Hdip in Education and BA in Business Studies. He is also a former manager of the Tipperary U21 hurling team.
Adrien Thominet has been appointed executive chairman of the air services company ECS Group, succeeding Bertrand Schmoll. Based in France, the Irish wing of ECS Group is Globe Air Cargo (GAC) in Dublin. With the group for 25 years, Mr. Thominet has been CEO since 2017; prior to that he was COO since 2011. Over the past four years, the ECS Group has experienced tremendous development in the network, growing customer base, as well as innovation and digital technology, including new internal business intelligence and training platform tools. A leader in General Sales and Service Agents (GSSA), ECS partners with airlines, marketing their air cargo capacity and overseeing local operations. It represents more than 150 airlines of all sizes around the world, supporting around 10,000 freight forwarders.