Tara McCarthy will step down as CEO of Irish Food Board Bord Bia in June after five years at the helm.
McCarthy, who previously worked as CEO of Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency BIM between 2015 and 2017, and as a director of Bord Bia’s food and beverage division between 2007 and 2015, is leaving the organisation to take up a new position in the private sector.
The Cork native helped to steer Bord Bia through Brexit preparations for Irish food and drink businesses during her tenure, and was thanked for her “dedication and commitment to our client companies and the food, drink and horticulture sector”, by Bord Bia chairman Dan MacSweeney.
“Tara has made a significant contribution to Bord Bia, and the organisation is in a very good place due to her leadership, energy and drive over the last five years,” he added.
The search for a successor to McCarthy would begin immediately, he said. “In the interim, I have full confidence in the leadership team in Bord Bia to continue to successfully execute our new and exciting strategy.”
Bord Bia’s Tara McCarthy: Brexit and borders
McCarthy had guided the organisation and supported the industry through “many challenges”, added Ireland’s minister for agriculture, food and the marine Charlie McConalogue.
She had also “nurtured top talent, as well as building Ireland’s voice in thought leadership on sustainability, with benefits for the sector as a whole, while also developing new markets and building on existing ones to the benefit of our world-class primary producers, farm families and fishers”.
McCarthy described leading Bord Bia as a “wonderful privilege”. It was “an exciting and thought-provoking organisation, with a powerful and inspiring mission”, she added.
“The wider agri-food industry faces many challenges, but thanks to the amazing people that work in and with the industry, it continues to thrive.”
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