Gemma Bell has been appointed to the role of Marketing Manager, Sponsorships at Bank of Ireland. She will have a key role in activating the banks engagements across sports including at Leinster, Munster and Ulster Rugby, the FAI, Trinity Sport and with golfer Shane Lowry.

Bell previously spent five years at Diageo, joining in 2012 as as Corporate Relations Executive for Northern Ireland before being promoted to Corporate Relations Manager and taking on the Responsible Drinking agenda for the island of Ireland.

In 2014 she joined the Western Europe Corporate Relations team as Head of Communications before taking up the role of Sponsorship Manager in 2015.

As Sponsorship Manager Gemma was responsible for the strategy, management and activation of Diageo’s sponsorship portfolio across Europe, including the Guinness Pro12, Guinness’s official beer partnership with the Irish Rugby Football Union, Leinster and Munster Rugby, Galway, Punchestown and Listowel Races, the GAA, Guinness Cork Jazz and Carlsberg’s partnership with the FAI and Aiken Promotions.

Read More: Bank of Ireland Extends Lowry Deal

Gemma is a graduate of the University of Ulster and started her career at Coca-Cola before joining leading Belfast PR consultancy Smarts Communicate in 2007.

Bell’s achievements have attracted a personal letter of thanks from UK Prime Minister David Cameron for work on the G8 Summit, recognition as CIPR’s ‘Outstanding Young Communicator of the Year’ in 2014 and most recently she was named by Sport for Business as one of the ‘Most Influential Women in Irish Sport’ 2016.

This move cements her reputation and is an exciting one at a time when the battle for hearts and minds among our leading banks is leading to some really imaginative activation campaigns.

AIB have picked up multiple awards for their #Toughest campaign involving GAA, Ulster Bank will be looking to replace the now gone sponsorship of the Six Nations and this new appointment from Bank of Ireland means that the game between them will be raised another notch.

Learn more about what makes a great partnership between sport and business at Partners ’17 on Wednesday, April 26th.