Here is a selection of people starting new roles with Comyn Kelleher Tobin, Allianz Ireland, DP Energy, Linked Finance, Free Now and CubeMatch.
Karen Tobin has been appointed as partner in the family law team of Comyn Kelleher Tobin LLP (CKT) solicitors. A member of CKT for 25 years, she qualified as a solicitor in 2011. She represents clients in the area of child care and family law, primarily practising in the area of divorce, judicial separation, civil partnership, cohabitation, nullity, surrogacy, custody and access disputes, maintenance and domestic violence disputes in contentious and non-contentious matters. In the area of Child Law, she represents State clients primarily in proceedings pertaining to the Child Care Act appearing daily at District and Circuit Court level. In 2019, Ms Tobin qualified as an accredited mediator with the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland (MII). She studied Law in UCC.
Geoff Sparling has been appointed as chief customer officer with insurance firm Allianz Ireland, managing sales and distribution channels. He was previously head of customer retail for Allianz, where he led a retail team of 130 people in intermediated and direct distribution programmes. He also served as Allianz’s controller for financial reporting and associate CFO, where he led the finance, actuarial and risk management teams. He has previously served as a board chairman for the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland (MIBI), and is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI). He has also held previously senior roles with Westpac and Marsh in Australia, and with PwC Ireland. He studied Accounting in WIT.
Dr Sara Armstrong has been appointed as grid manager with DP Energy, the global renewable energy project developer headquartered in Buttevant, Co Cork. DP Energy currently has a 5GW portfolio of wind, solar and offshore energy projects across Ireland, Australia, UK and Canada. Sara has been an electrical development engineer with DP Energy for the past four years. She joined in 2016 as a researcher into grid integration as part of the Science Foundation Ireland Industrial Fellowship Programme on a part-time basis, taking on a full-time role in 2018. She holds a PhD in Electronic Engineering and Photovoltaics from NUIG. She was previously a research fellow, then acting head of the electrical group at UCC for six years.
Richard Glavin has been appointed as commercial director with Linked Finance, the peer-to-peer (P2P) digital lending platform, which has to date delivered €166m in loans to more than 2,900 local businesses in every county in Ireland. Clients include: Tara Slevin, The Agile Executive, Lolly & Cooks and Murphy’s Ice Cream. Richard joins following five years as commercial director with Chill Insurance. He was also previously head of sales and business development in 123.ie for ten years. In January, Linked Finance became the first non-bank lender to offer loans through the Government’s flagship Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme (CCGS); it has funded almost €30m worth of CCGS and standard loans to SME customers to date this year.
Claire Walsh has been appointed as senior global brand manager with taxi app Free Now. Having previously been senior marketing manager in the Irish market, she will now support the director of global brand in developing the company’s brand strategy. She will relocate to Hamburg for the role and will deliver campaigns for the multi-mobility app. With nearly a decade of experience, Ms Walsh is an accomplished marketeer who has delivered a wide range of award-winning TTL integrated campaigns throughout her career. She was shortlisted three years running for the Cannes Young Lion IAPI. She holds a diploma in Financial Advice from the Institute of Bankers, an MSc in International Management and a BComm from NUIG.
Tom Lane has been appointed as group chief operating officer with CubeMatch, the global change and transformation consultancy based in Dublin. Tom will have responsibility for service development and delivery as well as IT and operations across CubeMatch Ireland, UK, Netherlands and APAC. Prior to taking up this position, he was COO at CubeMatch Ireland. With Tom’s experience in building high-performing teams, delivering aggressive key change and transformation initiatives, he will align CubeMatch’s employees, processes and systems to match the company’s rapid expansion. He has 20 years’ experience leading and delivering business transformation programmes and complex IT initiatives within financial services, with teams of up to 100 people and budgets of over €30 million.
