Dee Forbes

 

Dee Forbes is the Director-General of RTÉ. She has been in the position since 2016 and has been a consistent champion of sporting content as a key element in the national broadcaster’s output.

Throughout the European Championships, the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Gaelic Games All Ireland’s we were given the best seats in the house in a way that viewers across Europe and the rest of the world could only imagine for the most part.

The challenges of putting on a great show in conditions that could hardly have been imagined can only be met if there is unstinting support from the top and that is what Forbes has delivered.

Winning the Guinness Six Nations back alongside Virgin Media and the United Rugby Championship alongside TG4 gives us a vision of the present and near-future where free to air televised sport has a renewed vigour.

Looking to the longer term it is clear through the partnership with the URC on a full streaming platform that the station is in sport for the long haul and looking for ways to be imaginative as she told us in an interview in September.

Forbes has always been a great supporter of sport and an unequivocal backer of RTÉ’s commitment to Women’s sport.

She was a senior executive in Discovery when they signed a €1.3 Billion deal to bring Olympics coverage away from the European Broadcasting Union. She is a passionate fan of Munster Rugby and has been involved on the commercial board for that organisation.

She has also been a great supporter and strong contributor to our Annual Women in Sport event hosted at the RTÉ Studios which we hope to bring back early in 2022.

 

 

This is the ninth edition of our Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport.

We are proud to do so this year with a new partner in AIG, an organisation that have pledged their commitment to equality in their partnerships with Gaelic Games, Tennis, Golf and more, for whom “Effort is Equal” and with whom we have ambitious plans to extend the reach of this annual celebration of the Women who are making a difference.

They are drawn as before from the worlds of leadership, partnership, storytelling and performance.

We began this journey in 2013 when challenged that we would never be able to produce a list of twenty Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50 and it still does not do justice to the talent that is out there.

This year once more, to keep things fresh we will introduce at least 30 per cent of fresh names from last year. That will be the hardest part to have some names replaced but if it was too easy it would be of less value.

The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of those women who are making a mark on how sport is played, consumed, grown and delivered.

They are part of making the role of women in sport unexceptional by being exceptional in what they do.

Recognition of their contribution is rarely asked for but is fully deserved, and we want your help in identifying those who you feel should be among them.

So, who do you think should be on the list for 2021?

 

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