Julie Sinnamon and Aongus Hegarty have been announced as the new co-chairs of Balance for Better Business (B4BB), an independent review group which was established by the Government to improve gender balance in senior business roles in Ireland.
Its work covers companies listed on the Irish Stock Market (Euronext Dublin), private companies and multinational companies with significant operations in Ireland.
Ms Sinnamon, the former CEO of Enterprise Ireland and Aongus Hegarty, President of International Markets at Dell Technologies have both been among the business leaders on the B4BB review group since 2018.
In their new roles, they will continue the work of outgoing co-chairs Brid Horan and Gary Kennedy in engaging with the business community to advocate the business benefits of gender balance at board and senior leadership levels.
"By failing to include women in leadership teams, businesses ignore the talent of half the population," said the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar.
"I launched Balance for Better Business in 2018 to correct this disparity and I really welcome the significant progress that Ms Horan and Mr Kennedy have made during their tenure," he said.
Ms Horan, outgoing co-chair B4BB, said over the past three years they have shone a light on the low percentage of women on company boards and in senior executive positions.
"In this time, the percentage of women on the boards of the top publicly listed companies in Ireland has increased from 18% in 2018 to 30%, and the gap between Ireland and the EU average has reduced from eight percentage points to one percentage point," she said.
Ms Horan said that companies need to maintain and broaden this momentum to derive the real benefits of gender balanced leadership.
"With sustained focus and effort, progress can also be made in smaller companies and at senior executive levels where there are still significant imbalances," she said.
Mr Kennedy, outgoing co-chair of B4BB said he is proud of the progress Ireland has made.
"I am eternally grateful to business leaders who listened to the mood music and embraced the direction of travel," he said.
