*Anne Sheehan. Photograph: Naoise Culhane
Ennis’ Anne Sheehan has been appointed as the general manager of Microsoft Ireland.
Starting from the beginning of October, Anne will take on responsibility for the sales, marketing and services business across the island of Ireland.
She succeeds Cathriona Hallahan who is retiring from Microsoft Ireland after more than thirty five years with the company, she was one of the first Microsoft Ireland employees when the tech giant set up its Irish outpost in the 1980s.
From the Cahercalla Rd in Ennis, Anne joins Microsoft from Vodafone UK, where she is currently the enterprise director with responsibility for sales, brand, product and solution design, services and government relations across multiple lines of business. Before this, she ran Vodafone Ireland’s enterprise business for four years.
Prior to that, she worked at IBM for 16 years in a number of senior positions including vice president of sales and services for the Nordic Region, sales and services director for IBM Ireland, head of channel, and head of infrastructure & technology services.
On her new role, she stated, “I am delighted and honoured to join Microsoft. It is a company I have admired and worked in partnership with over recent years. Microsoft has been on a very exciting journey in Ireland. I look forward to working with the team to take the business forward in a market that has huge opportunity.
“I am motivated by working with great teams, collaborating with our customers and winning in the market. I am passionate about fostering an environment where learning, being curious, bold and ambitious are core to achieving our goals. I feel incredibly privileged to be joining such a great team, and I look forward to us working to support our customers on their digital transformation journey together,” she added.
A past pupil of the Holy Family and Colaiste Muire, Anne is the third youngest child of John and Phil Sheehan. Her siblings include Ennistymon dentist John and sisters Denise and Emma.
Cindy Rose, president, Microsoft Western Europe, said: “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Anne in the past, during my own time at Vodafone. I was always impressed by her high energy and pace, her growth mindset and customer obsession. I know she is passionate about partnering with businesses and the public sector, whatever their size, industry or ambitions, to help them find ways to use technology to drive success now and in the future”.
Microsoft Ireland employs more than 2,700 people at its campus in Leopardstown, which opened in 2018, and at its data centre in Dublin. The company has teams across software development, operations, finance, HR, sales and marketing.
