Energy trading firm ElectroRoute hires Glen Dimplex CFO Donal Flynn

Finance director Yvonne Burke to succeed Flynn at electrical heating appliances group

Donal Flynn will take up the new role in December. Photograph: ElectroRoute
Donal Flynn will take up the new role in December. Photograph: ElectroRoute

Irish energy trading firm ElectroRoute has hired Glen Dimplex's chief financial officer Donal Flynn to become its managing director of finance and operations.

Mr Flynn, who has been group CFO with the Irish electrical heating appliances group for the past five years, following a six-year stint as executive director of group finance with ESB, will take up the new role in December, ElectroRoute said on Tuesday.

Separately, Glen Dimplex’s chief executive of two months, Fergal Leamy, told staff in an email on Tuesday that the group’s director of finance, Yvonne Burke, has been appointed to succeed Mr Flynn. A spokesman for the company confirmed the appointment.

Mr Flynn was also previously CFO at Airtricity, now SSE Airtricity, where he worked with several of the senior management team of ElecroRoute, including its chief executive Ronan Doherty, before the latter was set up in 2011.

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Growth

ElectroRoute co-founder and current CFO Bernie Fitzpatrick, another Airtricity alumnus, will now move to the role of business development director focused on the company's growth into Japan, home of Mitsubishi Corporation, which acquired a 60 per cent stake in the Irish company in 2016 for an undisclosed sum.

ElectroRoute, registered in Donegal but Dublin-headquartered, has grown rapidly from a start-up in 2011 to now employ about 90 professionals located throughout Ireland, Great Britain and Europe. The company trades energy 24 hours a day across the entire spectrum, including spot trading, futures trading, commodities and green certificates trading.

It currently manages the trading of almost 15 per cent of the average daily electricity demand on the island of Ireland on behalf of the likes of wind farm owners and Ireland’s first major renewable energy battery portfolio, located in Co Offaly, on behalf of Korean firm Hanwha Energy Corporation.

Liberalised

ElectroRoute has sent some senior executives to Japan to spearhead the development of a business in that market, which has only been liberalised since 2016 and is about a decade behind the European market in terms of the ability to trade power.

Glen Dimplex also announced internally that Pamela Bingham, currently managing director of CRH's infrastructure products group operations for Europe and Australia, will join the business as chief executive of its heating and ventilation division on November 1st.

Meanwhile, Neil Stewart, who has been with Glen Dimplex for more than two decades, will take on the new role of chief operating officer from the same date.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times