AN APPRECIATION:AS AN undergraduate, Ruth Brennan talked about becoming a teacher. Twenty years later, by which time she was responsible for thousands of employees and staggeringly large multimillion pound budgets, a friend said, "It's a long way from teaching, Ruth." Her reply, "But that's what I do all the time – teach." And that was indeed the case for, from her teens when she gave maths grinds to neighbouring kids, Ruth Brennan was preternaturally gifted at bringing out the best in people. It made her an inspired and inspirational leader and mentor to hundreds of friends and colleagues.
Ruth died in a motorbike accident in Mexico on August 27th. She was 45 and one of the most senior Irishwomen on the international financial scene. During a 20-year career with banking giant HSBC, Ruth’s ascent was inexorable. In latter years she took on a number of global roles, heading IT teams in its investment banking operations worldwide. Her last job was also one of her favourites, as part of the top management team in HSBC Mexico, where she was its chief technology and services officer.
Effectively she was responsible for all IT and operational aspects of the bank’s functioning in the country. She was the first woman to reach the upper management tier in the bank in Mexico and she actively encouraged other women to follow in her footsteps.
Ruth grew up in Bray and before going to Trinity College to study maths in 1983, she attended secondary school at St Laurence’s College, Loughlinstown. As a student, her defining trait was already evident: not only did she accommodate difference and contradiction, she embraced and celebrated them. Her parties were amazing feats of fun and mass catering on a shoestring budget. At the same time, she was a quiet, steady and wise presence in many people’s lives, someone who was discreet, sympathetic and supportive, but also straight-talking and challenging.
Ruth was short, plump and deeply tanned with sparkling light blue eyes, a beaming smile and a loud earthy laugh. Despite her charm, she was a woman people quickly learned not to underestimate. Apart from formidable technical skills (one colleague recalls that in their early careers she was already mapping out complex derivatives while he was still struggling with foreign exchange algorithms) she had great managerial clarity and vision. Her calm decisive leadership stayed with people long after they had moved on to other roles or organisations. Dozens of HSBC colleagues and former colleagues from around the world travelled to Wicklow for her funeral, such was her presence in the bank and in many of their lives.
Ruth moved to Mexico in January 2009 and it was the start of a love affair. Being a sun-worshipper and lover of light and colour, Mexico was her idea of bliss.
Though there was necessarily talk about her personal security, she played it down and treated it as a detail: in this lively, cosmopolitan, informal, fun-loving country, she had found a home from home.
However much she relished the challenge of work, Ruth never lost sight of what was most important to her – celebrating her relationships and having a good time.
Ruth’s hospitality and generosity were legendary. Her love of her family was a constant and wherever she was in the world she stayed in close contact. Not for her the fleeting catch-up call, but she spent hours on Skype chatting with all of her family, including a growing brood of nieces and nephews in whom she took great pleasure.
Apart from family and friends, Ruth had many passions: travel; being in or on the water; art; cooking, food and drink (whether in a backstreet dive or a high-end restaurant, you always ate well when out with Ruth); belly-dancing; rock music and motorbikes. To her great excitement, she had just been accepted into a biking club in Mexico City, Mañosos Riders de Toluca (https://www.facebook.com/manososriderstoluca), and she was travelling with the club towards Guadalajara on the Saturday morning she died. It is fitting that her coffin was escorted to the airport by a cavalcade of motorbikes.
Ruth is survived by her parents Fran and Ed; siblings Claire, Jean, Paul, Kieran and Ian; in-laws Rob, Kamel, Rachel, Sarah and Suzanne; and adored nieces and nephews, Niamh, Eoin, Michael, Tara, Orla, Róisín, Lily, Aislinn and Maeve, a close extended family and a vast circle of friends and colleagues.
Ruth once told a colleague, “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong.”
That was Ruth Brennan – she worked, played and loved with utter conviction. Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís – codladh sámh, a chroí. – PATRICIA DEEVY