Board Members - Children's Charity Ireland | Children's Health Foundation

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Board Members

Mark Moran

Mark graduated from University College Dublin with a degree in Chemical Engineering and spent his early career in pharmaceutical manufacturing with U.S multinationals. Having graduated with an MBA from Erasmus University, Rotterdam he joined Centocor Inc., a leading biopharmaceutical company, becoming European Finance Director.

Since returning to Ireland in the mid-1990s, Mark has held a variety of business leadership roles including CEO of the Mater Private Hospital, Chairman of EBS and Chairman of Sisk Healthcare Group. He is a director of The Fitzwilliam Hotel Group and a former director of Uniphar plc.

Mark has served on several civic society Boards, including the Irish Blood Transfusion Service, The Galway University Foundation, Common Purpose Ireland, the Mater Foundation, and the Dublin Neurological Institute.

David Phelan

David qualified as a solicitor in 1998 working for Hayes Solicitors based in Dublin, he was Managing Partner from 2011 to 2021 and is now Head of its Commercial and Business Law department. He advises on commercial issues for clients in the media, retail, aviation, sports and motor sectors, amongst others. David is chair of the Governance Committee of Children’s Health Foundation.

John Chase

John retired from a distinguished 16 year career in Investment Banking in the US and UK in late 2015 having held various senior executive global and regional roles within Citibank, BNP Paribas and Merrill Lynch.

John managed diverse businesses such as Capital Markets, Foreign Exchange, Commodities, Fixed Income, and Pensions and built various cross-asset “Corporate Solutions” advisory businesses focussed on optimising a Company’s risk profile through strategic situations such as M&A, divestiture or ratings pressures. In 2016 John established Chase & Co and uses his knowledge and contacts to help various companies globally in the not-for profit and commercial sectors, where he holds various Board and Advisory Board roles.

Julia Davenport

Julia Davenport has worked in numerous multi-national Financial Services and Information Technology organisations including Deloitte, AIG and Fidelity investments and is a graduate of Cornell University. She has had extensive experience in large scale programme management, service delivery and strategic organisational development.

Her most recent role was as a senior leader in Fidelity Investments in Ireland managing an IT delivery organisation of 600 staff, development of their 250 person Business Operations group, and responsible for their Risk and Compliance function.

Julia is an advocate for STEM and was the sponsor of the Women’s Leadership group in Fidelity Ireland.

Dr. Owen Hensey

Owen Hensey

Owen is a Consultant Paediatrician, who qualified in University College Dublin. He recently retired from the Children’s University Hospital Temple Street, where he served as Chair of the Medical Board for 5 years. He is currently Medical Director of the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC).

He has 35 years’ experience in the areas of paediatric neurodisability and general paediatric medicine. Nationally Dr Hensey has been a member of several high level national advisory groups on disability policy including the National Rehabilitation Board, National Steering Committee for the Development of Progressing Disability Services (PDS), and Development Board of the new National Paediatric Hospital.

Brendan Jennings

Brendan is Chairman of the PM Group, and Glenisk. He is also a non-executive member of University of Galway Finance and Resource Committee and a non-executive director of Business in the Community. Prior to his current roles he worked in professional services with Deloitte Ireland.

He was the CEO of Deloitte Ireland between 2011 and 2019 and served on the executive of Deloitte Northwest Europe. He is a former board member of Galway University Foundation, Devenish Nutrition, Paralympics Ireland and the Irish Management Institute.

He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and a graduate of the University of Galway.

Oonah McCrann

Oonah Mc Crann

Oonah McCrann was called to the Bar of Ireland in 1983 and to the Inner Bar in 2003.

She has served on the Bar Council of Ireland and on the Barristers’ Professional Conduct Tribunal.

She was elected a Bencher of the Honourable Society of Kings Inns in 2009.

She is a former Chairperson of the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. She is currently Judge Advocate General to the Defence Forces, the first female to be appointed to that position.

She practices in the area of medical negligence, medical law and product liability. She is a CEDR Accredited Mediator and is an experienced Mediator in disputes involving medical and professional negligence, employment issues and product liability.

Dr. Anne Kilgallen

Oonah Mc Crann

Dr Anne Kilgallen, FFPHMI, FFPH (UK), MB BCH BAO (UCD), MPH (UCD), MPH (Harvard), Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Boston).

Anne is a doctor who specialised in Public Health Medicine and has worked in senior leadership positions in the health and social care sector in Northern Ireland including as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Northern Ireland Department of Health and Social Care in Belfast.

She was Chief Executive of the Western Health and Social Care Trust, a post she retired from in 2021. In that role, she had corporate responsibility for 12,000 staff and for the delivery of community and hospital services, both general and specialist, across the age span.

She has a special interest in quality improvement and safety in health care. During her career she was awarded a Fellowship by the Health Foundation (UK) to spend a year at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Boston MA, and that experience continues to influence her work.

Anne has served on the Boards of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Co-operation and Working Together (CAWT), the Institute for Public Health, the Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre (C-TRIC) and Children’s Health Ireland and on the Quality and Safety Subcommittee of the HSE

Anne lives in Donegal and is married to a GP. She has three sons.