Under the deal for the takeover of Kerry Dairy Ireland the board of the company would have seven representatives from Kerry Co-op and three representatives from Kerry Group.

The Irish Farmers Journal has confirmed that Kerry Group has selected Gavin Caplis, Catherine Keogh and Ronan Deasy to fill its three board positions.

Caplis is part of the 16-member executive team at Kerry Group and holds the role of chief strategy officer. He also leads Kerry’s global mergers and acquisitions activity.

Caplis was closely involved in the 2020 attempt to get the joint-venture deal completed, and so would be a fairly familiar face to the Kerry Co-op board. He has been with Kerry for more than 25 years and worked both in the US and in Ireland.

Keogh is chief corporate affairs officer at Kerry. She joined the company in 2016. Prior to joining Kerry she was with Alltech for 25 years. In her current executive leadership position, she is responsible for “public affairs, government & NGO relations, sustainability, and communications at Kerry Group”.

Deasy joined Kerry Group in 1991 and has held various positions including financial controller and head of investor relations. He currently is group company secretary and is the only Kerry Group appointee already on the board of the Kerry Dairy Ireland holding company.

As agreed as part of the joint-venture deal, Pat Murphy, CEO of Kerry Dairy Ireland will also be on the board.

The seven Kerry Co-op representatives are James Tangney (east Limerick), Conor Creedon (east Kerry), TJ Murphy (Dicksgrove), Eoghan McCarthy (Iveragh), Mike O’Flynn (west Limerick), Joseph Collins (west Limerick) and Jim McInerney (Clare).

The two independent non-executive directors have yet to be selected.