Top 50 Women in Business

A compendium of the most influential and powerful Irish women in business today, commissioned by the Irish Independent in June 2008.

Anne Heraty

ann-heratyAnne Heraty is co-founder of Irish recruitment firm CPL.

She is also chairperson of the Expert Group for Future Skills Needs and a non-executive director of Bord na Móna, the Irish Stock Exchange and of Anglo Irish Bank.

Co-founding CPL in 1989, Anne Heraty has grown the Irish recruitment firm to be one of Ireland’s top companies, listed on both the Irish and UK Alternative Investment Market stock exchanges.
She became the first female chief executive of a quoted Irish company when she and her husband floated 20pc of the company in 1999. CPL was originally set up by Heraty in 1989 — then known as Computer Placement — after a stint with Grafton Recruitment. Today the company is known as CPL, reflecting its diversification out of IT and into all the major recruitment areas.
With offices in Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Westmeath, Cork, Kildare, CPL has also expanded into central Europe and has offices in Prague, Bratislava and Warsaw.
In January, CPL posted an impressive first-half performance, with revenue up 40pc to €132m and gross profit up 40pc to €27.8m, although the
company did recently issue a warning of lower expected profits than usual in the year to June 2008, reflecting the general slowdown in recruitment.
Heraty holds a BA degree in Mathematics and Economics from UCD, is chairperson of the Expert Group for Future Skills Needs and a non-executive director of Bord na Móna, the Irish Stock Exchange and of Anglo Irish Bank.
She was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006, having been nominated twice.