Geraldine O’Leary has announced that she is to take early retirement from her role as RTÉ’s Director of Commercial with immediate effect.
After the broadcaster’s new Director-General Kevin Bakhurst announced the disbandment of the RTÉ Executive Board, Geraldine confirmed her departure from the organisation.
Geraldine said: “My career at RTÉ is a great source of pride and honour to me. Bringing my retirement forward by a number of weeks is not something I had anticipated. However, I recognise that a fresh leadership team, starting today, is vital as Kevin Bakhurst sets out to renew RTÉ, and I have agreed to facilitate that.”
“The talented Commercial Team at RTÉ will continue to co-operate fully with all requests for information. I would like to thank them, along with my industry colleagues and friends, past and present, who have shown me much needed support in recent weeks.”
“Over more than 40 years in the advertising industry, I have acted with integrity, and my positive reputation has been hard earned. I truly hope that this will be my legacy. I believe in the importance of public service broadcasting.
“And I am proud of the vital contribution that RTÉ’s commercial activities have played in sustaining public service media in our dual-funded system. I look forward to watching RTÉ recover and thrive under the stewardship of Kevin Bakhurst.”
Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General of RTÉ, said: “I’d like to thank Geraldine for her huge contribution to RTÉ over many years. Geraldine has guided our commercial team through significant change and many challenges.”
“She has brought in substantial commercial revenue over the years to help deliver high quality programmes and serve our audiences. Geraldine is much liked and admired by both our commercial partners and her colleagues at RTÉ. And she is rightly recognised as a trailblazer in what was a tough and male-dominated industry.”
The news comes after RTÉ’s Director of Strategy Rory Coveney resigned from his role with immediate effect on Sunday.
Geraldine O’Leary joined RTÉ in 1997 as Manager Television Sales and was promoted to Director Sales and Marketing in 1999.
In 2003, she was appointed Commercial Director RTÉ Television.
She was appointed Group Head of Commercial RTÉ in January 2018 and was responsible for leading all of the divisional and cross-divisional commercial staff and operations at RTÉ. Geraldine is a Fellow of The Marketing Institute of Ireland, Founding Director of TAM Ireland and a Member of the Council of the Marketing Society of Ireland.
In 2018 Geraldine was honoured with the Media Hero as nominated by her Industry Peers. In 2023 she received an Honorary Fellowship from IAPI, the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland, and was named an Honorary President of egta (the International Association of TV & Radio Sales Houses).
