Events
Leading with Purpose: With Francesca McDonagh, Bank of Ireland
Date: 12/11/2021
8am, Friday 12th November 2021.
Our final guest speaker event in 2021 featured Francesca McDonagh, CEO of Bank of Ireland.
Francesca began her conversation with ACESA members talking about her tenure at Bank of Ireland since her appointment in 2017.
Francesca shared her thoughts and views on leadership in the public sector, the need to lead by example and organisational culture as key components of leading complex organisations. She highlighted sustainability, culture, and innovation as three features of good leadership.
Francesca shared her thoughts on how public organisations in Ireland should lead by creating strong organisational culture and should always seek to innovate. She also mentioned Ireland’s potential leadership role in combatting the climate crisis as a small but effective and wealthy nation.
Francesca McDonagh joined Bank of Ireland as Group Chief Executive in October 2017. Founded in 1783, Bank of Ireland is a diversified financial services group. It is the largest Irish bank with international presence in the UK, US, France, Germany and Spain.
Francesca joined HSBC as a graduate in 1997, rising through the ranks to become one of the youngest Group General Managers in 2014. In HSBC, Francesca worked in investment banking, private banking, retail banking and wealth management in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe. Before leaving HSBC, Francesca was Regional Head of Retail
Banking and Wealth Management, UK and Europe. In this role Francesca led the largest retail network in the HSBC group, was a member of the UK and European leadership teams as well as a member of the Global Retail Banking and Wealth Management team.
Passionate about customers and colleagues, Francesca has constantly led front line focused innovation. Francesca also has a powerful and ongoing commitment to inclusion and diversity. This passion for customers and colleagues was recognised in 2017 when Francesca was awarded an OBE for services to banking. Francesca was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Banking in 2019.
Francesca is a member of the PRA Practitioner Panel and sits on the board of Ibec, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation. She has previously served on the Board of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), where she was Deputy Chair, and on the Board of the National Centre for Universities and Business in the UK. Francesca has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.