When the Going Gets Tough

WORDS: NESSA O'MAHONY

The worst recession Ireland has seen in decades, and the collapse in the commercial and residential property markets which accompanied it, might suggest that it is a tough time for anyone working in the property sector. But for Angela Keegan, who was appointed Managing Director of MyHome.ie in June, there couldn’t have been a better time to take up her new position.”

Angela, who replaced founder Jim Miley at the helm of the Irish Times -owned property website, is positively ebullient about the challenges facing her. “I’m thrilled to be here. What an opportunity. Who would want to take something on at the top because what can you do with it when it’s at the top?” Angela has considerable experience of stormy weather; In the early 1990s, she was heading up the customer service division of Irish Life Assurance (having joined there in the 1970s), and faced a range of controversies, including the endowment mortgage scandal, the sale of company-owned Mespil Road apartments over the heads of their pensioner tenants, not to mention a major restructuring at the company.

Angela took advantage of the redundancies being offered to managers at that stage, but soon found herself in demand by the nascent IT sector. Including 10 years as Chief Operating Officer of the Consumer/SME division at ESAT-BT.

Angela left ESAT-BT in April 2005, took a few months off to catch her breath (“For the first time in my career, apart from maternity leave”) but by September had decided she wanted to return to work. “I saw an opportunity at MyHome.ie, met Jim Miley and ended up in MyHome November four years ago. I came in as Chief Operations Officer and my main focus was on sales and operations and making sure we were delivering for our customers and consumers,” she says.