Alan Phelan has been appointed as chief operations officer in Teagasc, the agricultural authority has announced.

Phelan will take responsibility to lead the corporate services, procurement, finance, human resources, ICT departments, as well as authority affairs and secretary to the Teagasc Authority.

The appointment was approved by the Teagasc Authority at its meeting today (Wednesday, October 7).

He takes over from Tom Doherty who retires later this year after serving as chief operations officer since 2010.

Phelan has been head of Human Resources (HR) in Teagasc for the last 14 years. He has led Teagasc through a number of organisational change programmes and headed up the delivery of three HR strategies, the authority notes.

Previously, Phelan had been HR operations and employee relations manager and has been central to the development of the HR function in a long career with the organisation, the authority notes.

He graduated from Dublin City University (DCU) with a Bachelor of Business Studies specialising in HR and has an MSc in Executive Leadership, an MSc in Organisational Behaviour and is a qualified coach graduating from the Smurfit Business School, University College Dublin (UCD).

Teagasc chairman Liam Herlihy congratulated Phelan on his appointment, saying:

Alan has a lifetime’s knowledge and experience of the Teagasc organisation, its people and its programmes, which will help the organisation to make the operational changes required to meet the challenges facing farmers and the agri-food sector.

“I look forward to working closely with Alan in the future,” he added.

Director of Teagasc, Prof. Gerry Boyle, in welcoming the appointment, said: “Alan will make an excellent chief operations officer.

“The efficient management of Teagasc operations is hugely important to ensuring the resources provided by taxpayers and our stakeholders are used wisely and effectively. I’ve no doubt he’ll bring a huge degree of energy and creativity to the role.”