RTÉ appoints UCC graduate Mari Hurley as new chief financial officer

RTÉ has announced the appointment of University College Cork (UCC) graduate Mari Hurley as its new chief financial officer.

Ms Hurley replaces Richard Collins, who resigned from the role at the troubled national broadcaster last October.

RTÉ said Ms Hurley, who will take up her new role in the summer, will join recent appointments to director-general Kevin Bakhurst’s leadership team, including commercial director Gavin Deans and director of legal Daniel Coady.

In addition to being a UCC graduate, Ms Hurley has completed the executive management programme at the Harvard Business School in the US.

She brings a wealth of experience to her new role, having served as CFO with AA Ireland, Premier Lotteries Ireland (operator of the National Lottery), Hostelworld Group plc and the Sherry Fitzgerald Group.

Ms Hurley also has non-executive board experience with two of Ireland’s leading semi-state bodies. She is currently a non-executive director of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) and until 2021 held a similar role at Ervia. She has served as chair of the audit and risk and credit and renumeration committees with both bodies.

Commenting on her new role, Ms Hurley said she was “delighted” to be joining RTÉ and its leadership team at what she described as “this critical time for the organisation and for the future of public service media in Ireland.”

“I look forward to working with the director-general, the RTÉ board, its audit & risk committee and the finance team to develop RTÉ’s financial strategy and to bring my experience of successfully leading and implementing change and transformation programmes to RTÉ, in line with the unique values and obligations of public service,” said Ms Hurley.

Kevin Bakhurst said Ms Hurley was a highly experienced CFO with extensive experience in setting and driving the strategic direction of global businesses.

“Mari’s broad corporate finance experience means she is skilled at embedding strong governance and controls in regulated businesses,” said Mr Bakhurst .

”Her proven deliveries in the development of systems for enhanced governance, control processes and provision of regular reporting, aligns strongly with RTÉ’s renewed mission around transparency, accountability and good governance,” he added.