Mr Hayes is survived by his wife Gráinne and their six children.
Working with Kerry Group for over three decades before he retired in 2020, Mr Hayes was one of the country’s best-known executives across the corporate, farming and media fields.
As an executive he was polished, shrewd and accessible and he was well liked and highly respected.
Since retiring just under four years ago, Frank had remained active in public affairs
The former civil servant joined Kerry Group in 1991 – and in his time in Tralee he worked with all four of the food group’s CEOs, starting with Denis Brosnan and ending with the incumbent Edmond Scanlon.
Since retiring, Mr Hayes had remained active in public affairs. He served on the board of Coillte, the State forestry agency, where he was appointed by Green Party minister Pippa Hackett, before he stood down last year.
Outside the commercial world he had been a director of Siamsa Tíre, the folk theatre in Tralee, and of the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.
Before joining the private sector, Mr Hayes was an agricultural inspector at the Department of Agriculture and served as agriculture and food attaché at the Irish Embassy in London.
After joining Kerry Group, he was hands-on in managing its global reputation as the business emerged from its roots as a dairy cooperative into a major international food ingredients business.
He was the public face of the business at numerous agricultural and sporting events
It meant his responsibilities could range across anything from local creamery openings in rural Kerry to the group’s stock market announcements or the communication strategy around multi-billion investment deals – any of which could be vitally important to individual Kerry Group stakeholder constituencies.
His role also meant him being the public face of the business at numerous agricultural and sporting events.
Ironically for a Galway native, he became the point-man over many years for Kerry Group’s sponsorship of Kerry GAA, one of the longest-running commercial sports sponsorship deals in the country, as well as Kerry’s sponsorship of Rás Mumhan, the cycle race over a route through Kerry and Cork.
