CGU Life, the life assurance company, has appointed Ms Kay Roche national sales manager as part of its expansion plans. Ms Roche joins the company from KPMG where she was manager in its personal financial service section. Prior to that she was a pensions specialist with Irish Life.

Ms Alison Norman has been appointed brand manager at Edward Dillon & Co, the spirits distributor. She previously worked with C & C Ireland and Telecom Eireann.

Mr Barry Bedford has been appointed media director of McConnells Multimedia which specialises in the provision of Internet development, and interactive relationship management. Mr Bedford worked as manager, Internet technologies, with KPMG prior to joining McConnells.

The Boardroom Centre has appointed Mr Sean Henneberry non-executive director to Aer Arann, which operates a flight service to the Aran Islands, from Dublin to Donegal and the Isle of Man, and a freight service out of Dublin. Mr Henneberry, a chartered accountant, is chairman of Ryan Hotels and Qualceram, as well as being a director of several other companies.

Ms Patricia King has been appointed to the new position of staff relations secretary with the State's largest trade union, SIPTU. The new post has been created as part of a strategic development initiative at the union which employs 350 people. Ms King was formerly branch secretary representing SIPTU members in the non-commercial semi-state sector.

Professor Michael Johnson has been appointed as a non-executive director of exploration company MinMet. He is a director of environmental biology at the Industrial Ecology Research Centre at the University of Liverpool. He is also environmental adviser to Rio Tinto plc, Outokumpo, Laporte plc, the United Nations Environmental Programme and the World Bank on matters of environmental assessment of development proposals, environmental auditing, risk analysis and decommissioning.

Jurys Hotel and Towers has made three appointments. Ms Geraldine Dolan has been appointed deputy general manager (food and beverage) in Dublin, transferring from the Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersberg, Russia, where she was food and beverage manager. Ms Chanel Malone has been appointed sales manager in Dublin, transferring from the post of group sales manager for Jurys Inns. Mr Martin Mangan has been appointed deputy general manager (rooms) in Dublin, moving from the Hilton Hotels Corporation.

Mr David Dempsey has been appointed services director at Oracle Corporation where he will be responsible for customer service delivery functions in Ireland. He joined Oracle Ireland in 1990 as consultancy practice manager. Prior to that he worked with Oracle UK and Telecom Eireann.