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NEWS

Aug/Sept 2011 www.esb.ie/em

Paddy Stapleton retires

Paddy pictured with his wife Ann, son Conor and his dad, Pat Joe at celebrations to mark his retirement.

AFTER 41 YEARS service, Paddy Stapleton retired from ESB on June 2nd last.

Paddy’s father Pat Joe, his son Conor, family and a great many friends and colleagues from joined Paddy and his wife Ann to mark the occasion. Paddy and Ann’s other sons Alan and Ian are abroad at the moment and so were unable to attend the event.

Paddy started his ESB career in Dublin in No. 58 Mount Street on Monday 6th October 1969 with an initial assignment in Maintenance & Efficiency Division in Generation Department. Over the following years Paddy worked in Accounts Department, Internal Audit, and Dublin Generation Region before a stint on consultancy in Ghana in 1986. Paddy and Anne moved to Dundalk in 1987 on Paddy’s appointment as Management Accountant in the North East Region.

Following a short time in the Philippines in 1993 Paddy became Financial Controller of Power Generation in 1994 and Group Manager in 1998, a position he thoroughly enjoyed. Over the years he has made numerous friends and lasting relationships throughout the company and this was evidenced by the large gathering who travelled to his retirement event to wish him well. Paddy’s ‘unique’ sense of humour endeared him to people at all levels of the organisation.

In recent years Paddy took up the position of Senior Executive Coach and brought coaching to the fore in ESB. This brought a new dimension to his career.

Paddy has been a force behind the Ghana Schools refurbishment project over the past few years and had donned his overalls to joint the painting teams in the various volunteer groups that have travelled to Accra. This was something that was particularly close to his heart given his previous time there on consultancy.

Paddy was also heavily involved with ESB GAA and Golf Societies and has lent his support at all levels over the years. A special presentation was made to Paddy on behalf of ESB GAA by Colum Grogan at the event.

Paddy joined ESB when he was 18 years old and over his career pursued further education and developed a deep knowledge of all aspect of the business and of human nature over those four decades. He has been described as “optimistic, wise, wryly humorous, unhurried and respectful” to all.

His larger than life presence, calm demeanour and valued insights into anything you could name will be missed throughout ESB by many friends and colleagues. An avid sports fan, particularly hurling, he also has a great love of rugby and golf.

We wish Paddy, Ann and his family many years of health, happiness and enjoyment as he heads into a new chapter of his life.

SUSTAINABILITY WEEK 2011

THE YEAR’S ESB Sustainability Week is taking place from Monday to Friday October 10th to 14th. It coincides with National Corporate Responsibility Week, which is co-ordinated by Business in the Community Ireland, and our week will focus on both the environmental and the CR aspects of sustainability.

During this week, each day will have a different theme and you will see items and initiatives related to the theme profiled during each relevant day.

If you have any ideas about initiatives that could be organised in your location during the week, please contact your local Sustainability Champion or a member of the Sustainability Programme Team.

See the next edition of EM for a feature on Sustainability Week 2011.

Future Finance Project

THE FUTURE FINANCE Project was established to design the most effective finance processes, systems and organisation to meet the current and future challenges facing ESB. The Design Phase of the Project ran from February 2011 – June 2011 and has finished on time.

The deliverables of the Design Phase included:

• Analysis of the current processes across the business;
• Capturing opportunities for improvement in processes and systems; and
• Designing the future finance processes and an Operating Model for Finance across the ESB Group.

The Future Finance Project Team has successfully analysed the current processes across the business by carrying out over 55 ‘As-Is’ workshops with over 120 people in attendance. The data captured was analysed to identify opportunities for improvements in processes and systems.

The Design Phase also included the Future Finance Project Team carrying out four major workshops covering the ‘To-Be’ process designs for Order to Cash (OTC), Requisition to Pay (RTP), Record to Report (RTR) and Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting (PBF). An output of the ‘To-Be’ workshops included an assessment of the end-to-end business processes, identifying the areas of greatest potential for improvement and a validation of the process designs that were proposed.

Overview of the ESB Future Finance Operating Model

During the Design Phase the Future Finance Project team designed an Operating Model for all of Finance across ESB Group. The model composes of the Corporate Centre, Business Unit and the Business Service Centre. The key elements of the model are: The overall Operating Model was approved by the Executive and Project Boards. Once approved, the Project Team is spending July and August planning the implementation phase. Implementation will start from September with resource mobilisation for the project.

The project organisation

The project organisation is as outlined in the diagram above. When all positions have been filled we will complete the charts with the individuals who will be working on the project during implementation.

Over the next number of months the Change & Communications Team will work on the following:

• Job sizing criteria and levels
• Role development and scaling
• Detailed organisation structure
• Change impact assessment
• Staff selection criteria and methodology
• Transition planning
• Communication and stakeholder management for implementation
• Timeline for implementation needs to be agreed but Business Partnering roles will be the first priority

Updates via Frequently Asked Questions, project milestones and company-wide communications will continue through-out for all those interested and affected by the Future Finance Project. The Change and Communications Team want to make information easily accessible to all and as such we are developing a FFP Intranet site which will be live by mid August. This site will communicate updates, information about the Future Finance Project, the team, project updates, media publications, presentations, training and technology updates, FAQs and contact details. Once the site is up and running a link will be distributed and we welcome all to come and view the information that interests you.

In the mean time if you have any feedback please contact the Change / Communications Team @ FFP.Communications@esbelectricireland.ie