Teagasc has announced that Valerie Farrell has been appointed as the new chief operations officer.
She succeeds Alan Phelan, who is set to retire later this year after serving as chief operations officer since October 2020.
In the role, Farrell will lead the operations directorate and will have responsibility for the finance, human resources, corporate services, business delivery and ICT departments, as well as authority affairs and serving as secretary to the Teagasc authority.
Farrell has previously held the role of head of human resources with Teagasc for six years.
She also held roles as HR services manager, HR operations and development manager and HR business partner over the last 21 years with Teagasc.
In her early career she worked with Intel and Xilinx Ireland.
Graduate
Farrell graduated from University of Limerick with a degree in business studies and she completed a masters in change management and innovation at the University of Brighton.
She has been a non-executive member of the UCD governing authority since January 2024 and is also a member of the UCD finance committee.
Previously, she served on the governing body of the Institute of Technology Carlow (now SETU), including two years as vice-chair from 2020 to 2022.
She was also a member of the South East Technological University implementation steering group and she is a chartered director with the Institute of Directors Ireland.
“Valerie brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of Teagasc, its people and its programmes to this role.
"She has successfully developed and implemented a number of people strategies and corporate change programmes,” Teagasc chair Liam Herlihy commented.
“Teagasc is continuously improving how it operates and delivers services to its farmer clients, students and other stakeholders.
"Valerie will play a key role in leading further improvements and efficiencies in our operations, empowering our staff and ultimately delivering for the agri-food sector,” director of Teagasc professor Frank O’Mara said.
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