RTÉ appoints Geraldine O’Leary as group head of commercial

RTÉ has appointed Geraldine O'Leary as its group head of commercial for the broadcaster. Ms O'Leary has been commercial director of RTÉ Television since 2003 and originally joined the broadcaster in 1997 as manager of TV sales.

Her promotion to group head follows the departure of group commercial director Willie O’Reilly, who left RTÉ at the end of 2017.

Before joining the broadcaster, Ms O’Leary worked in a number of advertising agencies, including DDFH&B, Saatchi & Saatchi and Zenith Media.

She will now be responsible for the generation of commercial revenues across all of RTÉ’s departments. These amounted to some €158 million in 2016, the last year for which figures have been published.

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RTÉ has recently merged its sales teams for television, radio and digital into one division as part of an organisation-wide restructuring led by director-general Dee Forbes.

Voluntary exit scheme

The first tranche of employees to leave under a voluntary exit scheme departed RTÉ late last year, with further tranches expected in March and May. Various head of department roles are also due to be confirmed shortly.

In December, Mr O’Reilly, the former chief executive of Today FM, became the latest senior executive to leave RTÉ, saying he would not seek another similar position in the media, but would devote more time to his roles in the charity sector.

Ms O’Leary will not be joining the executive board of RTÉ, of which Mr O’Reilly was a member. A spokesman for RTÉ said the role had not always been part of the executive board historically.