David qualified in Law from UCD in 1979 and subsequently practised as a solicitor. In 1986 he joined Fyffes plc where he spent 34 years in leadership roles becoming Managing Director in 1989, Chief Executive in 1995 and Executive Chairman in 2006. He retired from the company in 2020. David was Chairman of the Temple St Foundation until 2018.
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.
Eilísh Hardiman is Chief Executive since 2013 of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI, previously the Children’s Hospital Group).
Eilísh’s professional background is in nursing and has over 30 years acute academic teaching hospital experience, 20 of which at senior corporate management level in several roles, including: Chief Executive, Children’s Health Ireland, Chief Executive of Tallaght University Hospital, Deputy CEO / Chief Operations Officer, St James’s Hospital, Director of Nursing, St James’s Hospital.
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 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.
Chair
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.
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.
Sinéad has been a key leader within the Twitter team since she joined the company in 2012. Prior to Twitter, Sinéad was Director of Communications for An Garda Síochána from 2007 to 2012 and before that was Director of Media and Public Relations for the Police Service of Northern Ireland between 2004 and 2007.
From 1996 to 2004 Sinéad held a range of political advisory positions in the Irish government including roles as Special Adviser to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and, prior to that, at the Attorney General’s Office.
A native of Midleton, she studied law at University College Cork and qualified as a barrister in 1993. She began her working life as a parliamentary transcriber in the Dail debates unit of the Houses of the Oireachtas.
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.
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.
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