Former health minister Mary Harney joins Dublin PR firm as 'strategic advisor'
The ex-tánaiste will be providing ‘strategic counsel’ to clients of Hanover Communications.
FORMER TÁNAISTE AND health minister Mary Harney has joined the Irish arm of PR company Hanover, where she will be providing “strategic insight and advice”.
London-based Hanover Communications, which works in communications and public affairs consultancy and has about 80 staff across Europe, has also announced that it is opening an office in Dublin.
The new Dublin office will be headed up by Lorna Jennings, formerly the managing director of Irish public relations firm Keating & Associates.
The firm said that Harney, the former leader of the Progressive Democrats, will work with Hanover Dublin as a ‘senior advisor’.
Strategic counsel
A spokesman for the company said: “We are delighted that Mary Harney has joined Hanover Dublin to help us scale and grow.
“Drawing on her extensive knowledge and experience in policy, communications and business, Mary will provide strategic counsel, insight and advice to Hanover staff and clients.”
Hanover Group chief executive Charles Lewington said the company had planned to open an office in Dublin even before the UK’s decision in the Brexit referendum.
“We see great opportunity in Ireland’s strong growth in Hanover’s traditional areas of sector expertise such as financial services, health and technology,” he said.
“I look forward to working with Lorna and Mary to create new opportunities to reach our ambitious two year revenue targets of £2 million+, in areas such as Dublin’s Silicon Docks.”
Business ventures
The appointment marks yet another new venture for Harney, who switched to the world of business after leaving politics in 2011.
Mary Harney after appearing before the Oireachtas banking inquiry.
Harney was a founding member of the Progressive Democrats party, which formed several coalitions with Fianna Fáil. She went onto become the leader of the PDs and served as Tánaiste from 1997 to 2006.
She is probably best known for her role as minister for health, a position she held between 2004 and 2011.
She resigned from her position in January 2011, just before the February election in which the ruling Fianna Fáil government was decimated.
Since leaving politics she has become involved in many business ventures and is a director at several companies, including Asian biopharmaceutical firm Biocon and Dutch-owned insurance company Euro Insurances.
