Speaker

Elaine Birchall MBE was born and educated in Ireland, is a graduate of Dublin City University and is Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (U.K.) qualified. She commenced her career in financial management with Grand Metropolitan and Coca-Cola U.K. and joined Colgate Palmolive where she gained extensive international experience across Europe, the USA and South Pacific in Finance, Commercial, Supply Chain and Business Transformation roles. She joined to PZ Cussons U.K. as Managing Director and subsequently managed PZ Cussons Africa, leading and transforming operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Elaine was then appointed CEO of food and drink conglomerate SHS Group (Belfast) strengthening its position in the Grocery sector whilst navigating the significant impact of Brexit, pandemic, and geopolitical business risk. Elaine has been member of Women in Business Northern Ireland and was a board member of Business in the Community NI. She was appointed as the first female Chair of CBI Northern Ireland in 2020, and in 2021 was awarded an honorary MBE as part of Her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to economic development in Northern Ireland Elaine is currently a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Eakin Healthcare Group, a member of Queens University Business School Advisory Board and a member of Digital Manufacturing Ireland’s Workforce of the Future advisory.