Ms Imelda Hurley

Imelda Hurley, the new president of IBEC, Ireland’s largest business representative group has extensive executive and non-executive experience in public company, state owned, private equity and venture capital backed businesses. She has built that experience in multiple geographies including Ireland, UK, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia, and across a variety of sectors including forestry, agriculture, food, technology related product development and supply chain management.

Imelda is currently CEO at Coillte, Ireland’s state forestry company which is responsible for managing 440,000 hectares of primarily forested lands. She is also a non-executive director at Dole plc, a global leader in fresh fruit and vegetables. Prior to joining Coillte, Imelda was an executive director and CFO with agri-services group Origin Enterprises plc, during which time she worked extensively in Eastern Europe.

Earlier in her career, she was based between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, South China holding a range of senior leadership positions including CFO & Head of Sustainability at product development and supply chain management company, PCH International. She was also Finance Director at convenience food group, Greencore Group plc where she spent over a decade with the company and worked extensively throughout the UK. She also undertook a variety of projects across the world including in Australia and Angola as a Senior Manager with Arthur Andersen and previously served as a non-executive director of Total Produce plc, Valeo Foods and Ervia.

Imelda holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from University of Limerick and on graduation, was awarded a Silver Medal from the Kemmy Business School. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and notably, on completing her final admitting examinations, was placed first and additionally, became the first woman ever awarded a gold medal for exceptional merit by that Institute. Imelda is also an alumna of Harvard Business School, having completed the Advanced Management Program in 2018.

In her spare time Imelda enjoys travel and endurance adventure sport. She has hiked over 1,000km of self-supported Caminos, has hiked extensively in the Himalayas and climbed two of the Seven Summits of the world, Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) and Mount Elbrus (Russia). In 2023, she is targeting to climb Aconcagua (Argentina), that being one of the Seven Summits and the highest trekking peak in the world.

Imelda is an advocate for sustainability, workplace well-being and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She believes it is critical that the important sustainability issues of our time are not set aside while the urgent issues of today are being dealt with.  

Over the last number of years, Imelda has been named as one of the 50 most powerful and influential women in Business, included in the CEO 100 Index and invited to become a member of the International Women’s Forum, an invitation only membership organisation. Imelda is a rightly recognised leader in the field of Irish and European business and her experience and insights will no doubt support the efforts of IBEC over the coming year to help navigate the economy through a challenging period.

Imelda considers it a privilege to be appointed IBEC President for the next 12 months during a time when the economy faces unprecedented inflationary competitiveness challenges. Despite these challenges, she says it's important not to lose focus in meeting the long-term strategic issues we face as a society, particularly the climate emergency.

Imelda lives in Dublin and is a frequent visitor to West Cork where all her family are based.

The above text is an extract from the 2022 UL Alumni Awards Souvenir Booklet.

To read more about the 2022 UL Alumni Awards please click here.

To view images from the 2022 UL Alumni Awards please click here.

Watch Imelda's on-stage interview below.