Dublin

Dublin executive search and headhunting specialists

Demand for executive recruitment in Dublin comes from a broad mix of employers, including the Irish operations of international groups, Irish-owned and family-owned companies, regulated financial services firms and public bodies. Part of every brief for executive search in Dublin is deciding where to look. A Dublin role may be best filled from within Ireland, or it may need a leader currently based in Britain, continental Europe or further afield who would consider the move.

Multinational and Irish-owned organisations

International investment is a substantial part of the Irish economy. According to the IDA Ireland Annual Report 2025, the agency’s client base spans more than 1,800 multinational operations, and in 2025 those companies directly employed 312,468 people, around 11% of total national employment.

Leadership roles in these operations often carry responsibility for an Irish company and its people while reporting into a regional or global management team. The appointee needs credibility with Irish stakeholders. Experience of working within a matrix structure matters just as much. Manufacturing is a significant sector for us, and our Manufacturing practice appoints managing directors, operations directors and technical leaders for manufacturers and engineering businesses.

Irish-owned businesses bring a different brief. A family-owned company appointing its first managing director from outside the family, or an investor-backed business strengthening its leadership ahead of growth, needs someone who fits the owners’ plans as closely as the role itself. In our experience, more small and medium-sized companies now use professional headhunters for senior appointments.

Regulated appointments in Irish financial services

Regulated firms in Ireland must seek the prior approval of the Central Bank of Ireland before appointing individuals to certain senior roles, known as pre-approval controlled functions (PCFs). The proposing firm carries out its own due diligence first. The applicant may then be called to interview by the Central Bank as part of its assessment.

The Senior Executive Accountability Regime has applied since 1 July 2024. It covers executive PCF roles in in-scope firms, which must set out clearly where responsibility and decision-making lie within senior management, and it places a legal duty of responsibility on the individuals who hold PCF roles. When executive search in Dublin covers a PCF role, the approval stage needs its own place in the timetable, and a shortlisted candidate’s record has to stand up to the firm’s due diligence as well as the regulator’s assessment. Our Insurance practice handles leadership appointments for insurers.

Board and non-executive appointments in Ireland

The Irish Corporate Governance Code, issued by Euronext Dublin in September 2024, applies to Irish-incorporated companies with an equity listing on Euronext Dublin for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. It says that open advertising, an external search consultancy or both should generally be used to appoint the chair and non-executive directors. Where a search consultancy is engaged, the annual report should name it, together with a statement about any other connection it has with the company or its directors. The chair should not stay in post beyond nine years from first appointment to the board, although the Code allows a limited extension with a clear explanation.

Under section 137 of the Companies Act 2014, at least one director of an Irish company must be resident in an EEA state, unless the company holds a bond in the prescribed form or falls within a statutory exception. Where a board is being built around directors who live outside the EEA, residency is best settled at the briefing stage. State agency boards work differently: appointments to them follow a separate, open process run by State Boards, part of publicjobs.

Chair and non-executive appointments are handled by our non-executive director recruitment practice. Across the firm, most of our board searches are for companies with a turnover of between £15 million and £200 million, and we also run board searches for AIM-listed and FTSE-indexed organisations.

Irish and cross-border assignments

APCOA Parking Ireland instructed Stone Executive to appoint its Finance Director, a business-critical role. In his testimonial, Neil Cunningham, the company’s Managing Director, describes the person appointed as a superb fit who was already making a very positive impact on the wider business.

Our published opportunities have included a group managing director role for a privately owned dealership group in Northern Ireland, with a remit that included identifying new business opportunities across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. For the European product leadership appointment we handled for Yamazaki Mazak, a role with a pan-European remit, our search covered candidates across Europe.

Running a Dublin search from Manchester

For clients looking for headhunters in Dublin, each assignment is run as a retained, research-led search. We make direct, confidential approaches to leaders who are performing well where they are, which puts candidates in front of clients who would not otherwise come forward. Many of the organisations we work with have already tried to make the appointment themselves, often in markets where suitable candidates are in short supply.

For executive search in Ireland, the candidate pool can extend to both sides of the Irish Sea. Under the Common Travel Area, British and Irish citizens can work in either country without needing permission from the authorities, which keeps leaders based in Britain within reach of a Dublin appointment. Candidates of other nationalities need their right to work in Ireland confirmed early.

Organisations comparing executive search firms in Ireland should know that we serve the country from our Manchester office. Over twenty years, Stone Executive has placed more than 1,000 senior directors and managers, and the firm was recognised in the Financial Times’ UK’s Leading Recruiters 2024 ratings. We are a boutique by design. We work with a select number of clients in each sector, and every search is led by a partner from brief to appointment. Assignments typically reach the offer stage within four to eight weeks of the briefing, and where the role is a PCF, the Central Bank’s approval is then needed before the appointment takes effect.

FAQs

To discuss executive search in Dublin, or executive recruitment in Ireland more widely, call our Manchester team on 0161 433 8960 (+44 161 433 8960 from Ireland).