Gerry Collins will don the chain of office at business lobby group Ibec, where he replaces Larry Murrin, Dawn Farm Foods CEO, as president.

Collins is vice president of global manufacturing at Janssen and his appointment as Ibec’s new president was passed by the group’s national council in Dublin earlier today, in advance of Ibec’s annual president’s dinner at the RDS this evening.

Collins will lay out some of his reform proposals for the government at Ibec’s dinner, which include a call for an additional €1bn for capital expenditure to address what he describes as “major infrastructure and investment deficits fast emerging across the economy”.

Collins will also warn of a major imbalance emerging as economic activity gravitates to the east coast.

Having commenced his career as a marine engineer, Collins joined Aughinish Alumina in 1984 and held various roles within that organisation.

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In 1994, Collins joined Janssen Pharmaceutical in Cork, where he worked in several operations roles before transferring to the US as general manager of Noramco Inc, another Johnson & Johnson company.

In 2009, he was part of the team that consolidated all of the pharmaceutical manufacturing sites within one global organisation. Thereafter, Collins was appointed as general manager for Janssen Biologics and Janssen Pharmaceutical, located in Cork, with the objective of integrating the two operations to form one.

Having spent a number of years as general manager for a variety of sites, Collins is now responsible for the large molecule platform within J&J globally.

Ibec CEO Danny McCoy with incoming president Gerry Collins (right)