Geraldine joined the Federation in 2009 and is responsible for the running of the ERF office and all divisions of the Federation, including all PR & Marketing and internal communications. Since her arrival to the ERF she has been focused on expanding the services of the ERF to members and has introduced the accredited Certificate in recruitment practice to the Irish recruitment industry the only certificate for recruiters in Ireland. Her belief and vision is that the recruitment industry should be viewed as a profession and have a full academic career path, she has been instrumental in the success of the government award of the first under graduate 3 year degree apprenticeship programme for recruiters in partnership with the National College of Ireland which commenced in September 2020. She has also successfully led the ERF to obtain their own Skillnet which provides much needed reduced funded training for members. She is listed for the 5th year running in Staffing Industry Analysts top 100 EU leaders and in the top 150 Global power Women.

Prior to joining ERF Geraldine worked with Grafton Recruitment managing 3 of their branches on the East Coast.

Geraldine is a qualified trainer and coach, and she has an MA in HRM.

Meet the Judges for 2022.....

Anthony Cooney took up the position as Chief Executive Officer of Fingal Dublin Chamber of Commerce in July 2017. Fingal is Irelands fastest growing , youngest and most culturally diverse region on the island of Ireland and the Chambers primary role is to enable the region to be at the forefront of economic development both from an indigenous and foreign direct development perspective.

Anthony would reach out to overseas organisations in order to put Fingal at the very forefront of economic development plans both incoming and outgoing.

Prior to joining Fingal Dublin Chamber Anthony worked for more than twenty years with one of Europes largest private Equity organisations specialising in the acquisition , management and turnaround of “ Recurring Income “ B2B businesses throughout the UK and Ireland.

Companies specialising in the food service , catering and hot & cold beverage supplies was Anthonys main focus and he managed some of the UK and Irelands largest businesses in this sector

Jan has co-founded and managed four start-up business ventures in Hospitality, Print, Entertainment, and Consumer Goods sectors.

During her time at IQ Branding Solutions, Jan shaped commercial strategy to deliver 7-figure turnover in 4-years, yielding double digit profit growth. She established a niche company, punching well above its’ weight by landing large blue-chip contracts and holding significant market share.

Jan speaks four languages, which has helped her accumulate international experience, transacting business across the UK, Europe, and the US. She has worked with leading brands across multiple industry sectors, including recognisable names such as Aramark, Celestica, Diageo, Google, IKEA, JC Decaux, PWC, Sport Ireland, and Verizon.

A mentor that is genuinely interested in sharing her experience and opening doors within her extensive network. Also, Jan has supported Enterprise Ireland over the last 3.5-years, both as investment panellist and mentor to HPSU and LEO New Frontiers clients.

Alongside this Jan has invested in nine start-ups, across Technology, Fintec, Events, SaaS, and Property sectors. She is also a private investor with HBAN.

Additionally, on a pro bono basis, Jan supports Common Purpose Ireland on their Advisory Board, and is a member of Foroige’s NFTE National Judging Panel, a youth entrepreneurship programme.

Alan is a venture investment specialist, working with startup and scaling business in Ire/EU to define internationalisation plans and raise investment capital to support that. Special interest across science & technology fields and currently focusing on climate and sustainability growth oriented businesses.

Joe retired from Wavin Ireland as Business Development Manager after 47 years of service. During his time in Wavin, he has been involved in direct sales, project sales, merchandising, key account management and business development. Joe has 20 years’ experience in training staff in product knowledge and sales techniques.

Since joining the ERF 4 years ago she has worked on building the offering of ERF Skillnet and supported the implementation of the BA Hons Degree for Recruitment Executives in partnership with NCI. Prior to joining the ERF Janice spent 15 years in Hewlett Packard where she was the Procurement Manager. She loves GAA football and hurling which she enjoys with her family

Gerry is a qualified accountant with 35+ years' experience working in Finance, Supply Chain and General Management for MNC companies in Ireland and UK. His most recent role was with Coca-Cola and was responsible for the Drogheda and EMEA Concentrate Supply Chain operations. In recent years, Gerry has become actively involved at national, regional and local level with a number of Not for Profit and Community organisations. These include Drogheda Alzheimer’s, Teaching Council of Ireland, North Leinster Citizens Information Service and Drogheda Tidy Towns

Rebecca Harrison, former President of Network Ireland, the leading organisation for women in business, currently sits on the National Retail Consultation Forum, the Board of Retail Excellence Ireland and the SFA’s Skillnet Steering Committee. She is managing director of Fishers of Newtownmountkennedy department store & founder of Food at Fishers Café.

Kara T. McAlister is a US educator, who has worked as a teacher educator, lecturer, and researcher in the U.S., the UK, Slovakia, Czechia and Ireland. She earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 2010, and her research interests include cultural and linguistic diversity in education. She has been a visiting researcher at Bangor University, and a lecturer for Northern Arizona University in Arizona and CIEE in Prague and London. Dr. McAlister moved to Drogheda in 2019 and is currently teaching English Language Development for SHSA.

Claudia moved to Ireland from Germany a little over 20 years ago, after completing her education in the fields of banking and geodesy. In combining these skills with information technology, she worked in a number of government departments in the field of GIS, and went on to complete an MSc in Geographic Information Sciences at TU Dublin. She now lives in North County Dublin and works as Principal M.O. for the weather service, where she currently manages the development of a visualisation and dissemination project.