Niamh Cleary:NIAMH CLEARY, who has died aged 44, was managing director in Ireland of JCDecaux, the outdoor advertising company.
Among her most notable achievements in recent years was paving the way for the popular dublinbikes bicycle rental scheme operated in association with Dublin City Council.
A highly regarded and spirited figure, she helped pioneer many advances in the outdoor advertising industry, including the development of the joint national outdoor research industry data.
The JNOR data provides net audience figures for outdoor advertising campaigns. She saw advertising as an important part of street culture, and was instrumental in the roll-out of new formats.
Born in 1966, she was one of four children of Mike and Joy Cleary, and grew up in Blackrock, Co Dublin. She often remarked that she inherited her business acumen from her father, and her artistic impulse from her mother.
After attending the local Dominican Convent, Sion Hill, she continued her formal education at the College of Marketing and Design, Dublin, and graduated in 1985.
Following a summer working in Boston, she returned to Ireland and was appointed marketing director of the Irish Chocolate Company under a Córas Tráchtála placement scheme. “I was lucky to start in a small company that was just about to take off,” she said. She travelled extensively overseas promoting the Butlers and Bewleys brands.
At 23 years of age she stood alongside RTÉ presenter Joe Duffy at Russia’s first St Patrick’s Day parade, handing out chocolates to puzzled Muscovites more accustomed on such occasions to displays of military hardware than free samples of soft centres.
In 1992, she was one of five finalists for the Marketplace Executive of the Year award. She won it outright the following year, enabling her to attend a marketing management course at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.
In the mid-1990s, she joined David Allen, and was at the forefront of the company’s operations, first as sales and marketing director for six years and then from 2001 in its rebranding as JCDecaux.
The French-owned company revitalised outdoor advertising in Ireland, transforming it with a host of innovations. In 2004, she led the company’s successful bid for the Luas advertising contract, which was renewed in 2008.
And she was to the fore when, in 2006, JCDecaux won the tender to implement Dublin City Council’s outdoor advertising and public amenity scheme.
This ground-breaking contract provides for the funding of public amenities in exchange for advertising panels, including a civic information network, the dublinbikes scheme, a reduction in billboards in the city and a new “wayfinding” system to assist visitors navigate Dublin.
A director of Barnardos Ireland, she is remembered by chief executive Fergus Finlay as an outstanding board member – visionary yet practical, very talented and inspiring.
She devised the concept of the annual fundraising event “Spirit of Christmas”, initially held at Farmleigh House and subsequently at Dublin Castle. One of the most successful events of its kind in Ireland, tickets usually sell out a year in advance.
She is survived by her husband Ciarán McMahon, son Ryan, daughter Ella, stepdaughter Sian, mother Joy, sister Susan and brothers David and Michael.
Niamh Cleary: born January 24th, 1966; died July 15th, 2010