Iconic Businesswoman of the Decade
Breege O’Donoghue is an experienced Board Member of Primark. With a strong focus on strategy, people and product, Corporate PR and CSR, Breege has had an extremely successful 37 years as an executive across many functions. As well as possessing considerable expertise in 11 markets, Breege O’Donoghue has significant experience of leadership, diverse teams, and complex cross functional business projects.
Furthermore, Breege chairs the Remuneration Committee at C&C, a Non-Executive Director of C&C, a manufacturer, marketer and a distributor of branded cider, beer, wine and soft drinks. Headquartered in Dublin, the C&C also has manufacturing operations Scotland, England and Vermont, USA. In addition to this, Breege O’Donoghue has also sat as Non-Executive Director on 2 commercial state boards. Finally, Breege has chaired two Government bodies, and has experience of chairing Audit and Remuneration committees, as well as being a member of a Nominations committee.
Areas of expertise:
• Leadership of major business projects, decision making and strategic thinking skills, strong negotiation skills.
• Corporate Public Relations.
• Deep international multi-site retail experience.
• 17 years in hospitality sector in Ireland and Internationally.
Key achievements:
• Managed, a business through significant growth and expansion from 17 stores to over 300 in 11 markets.
• International experience developing and operating in markets such as Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy and the U.S.
• Spearheaded Primark’s entry into the US market after successfully capturing continental Europe, including the opening of our first store in Italy in April 2016.
• Established and developed the Human Resources function at Board level and led the organisation people strategy, as well as large scale operational delivery for Primark across the markets.
• Breege has considerable experience outside Primark in the private sector, public commercial sector and in education at university level.
