Carolan Lennon has been appointed co-chair of Balance for Better Business (B4BB), an independent review group established by Government eight years ago tasked with improving gender balance in senior business leadership in Ireland.

Lennon, whose appointed was announced Friday by Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke TD, succeeds outgoing co-chair Carol Andrews and will work closely with sitting co-chair Bernard Byrne to deliver on the initiative’s mandate of advancing gender balance at board and leadership level in businesses across Ireland.

Lennon was most recently country leader for Salesforce Ireland. She is a former chief executive of Eir and previously senior independent director at AIB, where she served on the company board for six years.

The EU’s Gender Balance on Corporate Boards Directive, which comes into force in June, require companies above a certain size to ensure that at least 40 per cent of non-executive directors are members of the underrepresented gender.