Sharon McCooey, head of LinkedIn in Ireland, is to retire at the end of June.
Ms McCooey, who joined the professional networking site in 2010, made the announcement in a post on the LinkedIn website on Monday.
“I have been very fortunate to call LinkedIn my dream job for 13 years,” she said. “It has been the icing on the cake of my 35-year professional career. Today, I shared with our team at LinkedIn, my intention to retire at the end of June.
“LinkedIn was in its infancy when I joined in 2010 with just 78 million members and only a small footprint of employees and customers outside of the US.
“In those early days, it was just me and three colleagues in Dublin. How things have changed. Now there are over 900 million members — with over two million in Ireland — with more than 80 per cent of our member growth coming from outside the US.”
‘Dysfunctional and illogical’: Developer Michael O’Flynn on Ireland’s new vacant land tax
She said it had been a “remarkable period”, and added she feels “very lucky to have played a role from humble beginnings, hiring initial employees, to opening our wonderful Dublin campus space, and to this year marking our 20th anniversary”.
“It is now time to hand over to another lucky person, a job I would recommend in a heartbeat,” she said. “A process to appoint my successor will kick off shortly, more news to follow. As for me, I plan to fulfil a long-held promise to myself to travel. For starters, I will be back on my bike with my friends from Paris to Nice.”
Ms McCooey scaled the business in Ireland from three employees to more than 2,000 over the period of her stewardship.
LinkedIn’s office space in Dublin now spans two sites across a combined 283,000sq ft. The website has more than two million members in Ireland.
Ms McCooey will remain in her role until June 30th. It’s understood a process to appoint a new country manager is under way and her successor will be announced in due course.
