RTÉ Executive Board

The RTÉ Executive Board, despite its name, was not a board of directors, but rather was a committee composed of the senior management of the Irish public service broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, responsible for the day-to-day running of the broadcaster.

The executive board reported to the RTÉ Board through the director general. It was disbanded by the newly appointed Director General Kevin Bakhurst on his first day following the RTÉ secret payment scandal, and replaced by a "temporary interim leadership team".[1]

Composition

The executive board was chaired by the Director General of RTÉ.

The remainder of the committee included managing directors of television, radio, news and current affairs, and heads of content, channels and marketing, corporate development, commercial, legal and other functions, the chief digital officer, the chief technology officer, the chief financial officer.

The director general is appointed by the RTÉ Board, with the consent of the government and the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media,[2] while the other board members were appointed by the director general.

The executive was disbanded following the RTÉ secret payment scandal and replaced by a "temporary interim leadership team to continue running the organisation".

A new executive board was put in place in October 2017.[3] The new board dropped the Director of TV and the Director of Radio, replacing them with the Director of Content and the Director of Audience, Channels and Marketing. Frances Abeton left the role of Director of Operations and Production Services at the end of 2018.[4]

In November 2018 Willie O'Reilly left the executive board to take up the position of chairman of iRadio,[5] Geraldine O'Leary replaced him as commercial director; she initially did not sit on the executive board.[6] In 2019 Rory Coveney became Director of Strategy and was appointed to the board, O'Leary was also appointed to the board at this time. Paula Mullooly then joined the Executive board as Legal Director. In 2020 Breda O'Keeffe left RTÉ "under a voluntary restructuring programme" and left her position as CFO[7] and she was replaced by Richard Collins.

On 21 June 2022, Jon Williams announced his resignation as Managing Director of RTÉ News and Current Affairs and stepped down at the end of July.[8] He was replaced by Deirdre McCarthy on an interim basis,[9] before taking up the position permanently on 19 December 2022.[10]

It was announced on 18 April 2023 that Kevin Bakhurst, former Deputy Director General and Managing Director of News and Current Affairs was appointed Director General and took the position in July 2023, returning to the broadcaster after a period of 7 years.[11]

Adrian Lynch, Director of Channels & Marketing, was appointed to the position of Deputy Director General in June 2023;[12] he also assumed the role of interim Director General following the suspension and later resignation of Dee Forbes, and prior to the arrival of Bakhurst in July 2023.

On 7 July 2023, in the wake of the RTÉ secret payment scandal, Director of Strategy Rory Coveney resigned from his position with immediate effect following a meeting with the incoming Director General Kevin Bakhurst.[13]

On 11 October 2023 it was announced that RTÉ's CFO Richard Collins had resigned from the organisation. [14]

The final members of the executive board were:[15]

PositionOffice holder Notes
Director generalDee Forbes Suspended / resigned
Chief financial officerRichard Collins Resigned on 11 October 2023
Director of contentJim Jennings
Director of audiences, channels & marketing

Acting deputy director general

 Adrian Lynch Became acting DG on resignation of Dee Forbes.
Managing director of RTÉ News and Current AffairsDeirdre McCarthy
Director of human resourcesEimear Cusack
Director of operations & technologyRichard Waghorn
Director of strategyRory Coveney Resigned on 7 July 2023
Director of commercialGeraldine O'Leary Took early retirement from 10 July 2023, due to retire later in 2023
Director of legal Paula Mullooly

Temporary interim leadership team
PositionOffice holder Notes
Director generalKevin Bakhurst
Group financial controllerMike Fives
Deputy director of contentNiamh O'Connor
Director of audiences, channels & marketing

Acting deputy director general

 Adrian Lynch Former member of the executive board
Managing director of RTÉ News and Current AffairsDeirdre McCarthy Former member of the executive board
Director of human resourcesEimear Cusack Former member of the executive board
Director of operations & technologyRichard Waghorn Former member of the executive board
Head of strategy & commercial complianceConor Mullen
Director of legalPaula Mullooly Former member of the executive board
Head of public affairs Vivienne Flood

Controversies

Mission to Prey

Following RTÉ's defamation of Father Kevin Reynolds in its "Mission to Prey" episode of Prime Time, RTÉ announced that Ed Mulhall, MD News, had "retired" on 3 April 2012.[16]

Presenter pay and other matters
Main article: RTÉ secret payment scandal

In June 2023, RTÉ admitted that it paid its top presenter Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than publicly declared between 2017 and 2022.[17][18] Dee Forbes was suspended as Director General a day prior to the controversy,[19] and ultimately resigned with immediate effect on 26 June.[20] A statement from the interim Director General claimed that only Forbes had a complete picture, although someone prepared all the materials, advised her and enacted the actions to engage and pay Tubridy.

References
  1. Bakhurst, Kevin (10 July 2023). "A message from Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General, RTÉ". RTÉ about.rte.ie. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  2. "RTÉ announces next Director-General – RTÉ Ten". Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  3. "Appointments Complete RTÉ Executive Board". RTÉ About. 28 August 2017. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  4. "RTÉ Executive Board – RTÉ About". RTÉ About. Archived from the original on 16 January 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  5. Slattery, Laura (30 November 2018). "Willie O'Reilly appointed iRadio chairman". The Irish Times. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  6. Slattery, Laura (18 January 2018). "RTÉ appoints Geraldine O'Leary as group head of commercial". The Irish Times. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  7. "Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed)". Houses of the Oireachtas (oireachtas.ie). 5 July 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  8. "Jon Williams to leave RTÉ". rte.ie. 21 June 2022. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
  9. Curran, Ian (28 June 2022). "RTÉ names Deirdre McCarthy as interim head of news". The Irish Times. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
  10. "Deirdre McCarthy Appointed Managing Director, RTÉ News & Current Affairs – About RTÉ". about.rte.ie. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  11. Crowley, Sinead (18 April 2023). "Kevin Bakhurst confirmed as new RTÉ Director General". rte.ie. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  12. Woods, Killian (22 June 2023). "RTÉ appoints new deputy director general". The Sunday Business Post. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  13. Murphy, David (9 July 2023). "Rory Coveney resigns as RTÉ Director of Strategy". RTÉ News. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  14. O'Donovan, Brian (11 October 2023). "RTÉ Chief Financial Officer Collins resigns". rte.ie.
  15. "RTÉ Executive Board – Inside RTÉ". RTÉ. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  16. "RTÉ MD of News & Current Affairs Ed Mulhall retires, changes to current affairs announced". RTÉ News. 3 April 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  17. Goodbody, Will (22 June 2023). "RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared". RTÉ News. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  18. "Statement by the RTÉ Board – June 22, 2023". rte.ie. 22 June 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  19. Burnhill, Eleanor (23 June 2023). "Minister made aware of Forbes suspension yesterday". RTÉ.ie. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  20. "RTÉ Director General Dee Forbes resigns amid payments controversy". RTÉ News. 26 June 2023. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
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