Kieran McGowan

Kieran McGowan became Chairperson of Business in the Community Ireland in 2004. He is Chairman of CRH plc and retired as Chief Executive of IDA Ireland in December 1998. He is also a director of a number of companies including Elan Corporation plc and United Drug plc.

Padraig McManus

Padraig McManus was appointed Chief Executive and member of the board of ESB in July 2002. He joined ESB in 1973 and spent 15 years on the company's international businesses, later becoming managing director of ESB International and ESB commercial director. He is a board member of the Irish Management Institute and a member of the Conference Board. Padraig McManus is also Chairman of the Steering Committee for BITCI's Ready for Work programme.

Aileen O'Toole

Aileen O'Toole is the Managing Director of AMAS and acts as a strategic adviser to private and public organisations on their online channels. The founder of two businesses, she has been a senior media executive in Ireland for more than 20 years. She is a co-founder of The Sunday Business Post newspaper. Since 2001, when she founded AMAS, she has led a series of challenging projects for private and public sector clients. Aileen was a shareholder in The Sunday Business Post until 1997 and was a Director and Deputy Editor of the newspaper. Previously, she was Editor of Business & Finance magazine and was the first woman to edit a national business title in Ireland. Aileen O'Toole is a member of several policy and not-for-profit boards. She is a Director of Chambers Ireland and ASH Ireland. In 2004, she was appointed by Tánaiste Mary Harney as a member of the Consumer Strategy Group, which reported to government on consumer issues.
 

Bernie Gray

Bernie Gray was appointed to the Board of EirGrid in September 2005 for a five-year term. She was appointed Chairperson in April 2006. She formerly worked with Eircom between 1984 and 2002, holding a number of management positions within Finance and HR areas and latterly served as HR Director from 1998 to 2002. She also served as a Worker Director of The Company between 1988 and 1992. Ms. Gray is currently Chairperson of EirGrid and a member of the Board of the Public Appointments Service, and works as an independent HR consultant working with a range of public and private sector companies.

Brian Geoghegan

Brian is Director, Leaseplan Ireland and MRPA Kinman. He is a member of the National Economic & Social Council and sits on the Advisory Council of the Policy Institute of Trinity College, Dublin.

Bryan Mohally

Bryan Mohally is currently Vice President, Supply Chain Operations with Johnson & Johnson, and is also a board member of several other J&J affiliates in Ireland. He is a Past President of PharmaChemical Ireland, the representative body within IBEC for the pharmaceutical and chemical sector, and he also serves on the Board of Directors of the Cork Cancer Research Centre, a cancer research partnership between University and the Cork Hospitals.

 

Harry Byrne

Harry Byrne - Retired Director of Guinness Ireland Ltd. He was employed within the Guinness Ireland Group for most of his career, appointed to the Board in 1977 as F&A Director and became Assistant MD in 1992. Earlier appointments included a period as MD of a Diversified Group of Subsidiaries. He retired in 1996 but has continued as Chairman of the Guinness Ireland Pension Scheme Trustees. He is currently one of Ireland's representatives on the EU Economic and Social Committee. He is also Chairman of the Iveagh Trust, a Council Member of the Eye and Ear Hospital and a Director of the Foundation for Investing in Communities. He was Chairman of Lifetime Assurance Ltd until his retirement in 2001. He has been a Council Member of CIMA since 1992 and was President for 2002/2003.
 

John Trethowan

John Trethowan MBA lives in Lisbane, Co Down, and is a Non Executive Director of the South East Health and Social Services Trust in NI. John has recently retired as an Executive Director of National Irish Bank, having formerly also held a similar position with the Northern Bank from 2001 to 2005. He was President of the Institute of Bankers in Ireland in 2006, and Chaired the National Irish Bank Pension Trustees Ltd. John was a member of the Taoiseach's Task Force on Active Citizenship. John is Head of the Credit Review Office.

Maurice Pratt

Maurice Pratt is the former Chief Executive Officer of C&C Group. He is a non-executive director of Eircom Group plc, Chairman of European Movement Ireland and Chairman of Barretstown.

He is a past president of IBEC, past non-executive chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) Limited, a council member of Dublin Chamber and the Irish Management Institute, a non-executive director of Repak Ltd and Uniphar plc,  and a fellow of the Marketing Institute of Ireland.

Patricia Callan

Patricia Callan is the Director of the Small Firms Association. The SFA is Ireland's largest small firm representative organisation, with over 8,000 member companies. Patricia is a business pillar representative in the national social partnership negotiations and is a member of the National Economic & Social Forum (NESF), the Credit Supply Clearing Group, the Management Development Council, the High Level Group on Business Regulation, and the BusinessEurope Entrepreneurship & SME Committee, amongst others.

Patricia holds a Masters in International Studies from the University of Limerick, a BA (mod.) in Economics from Trinity College Dublin, and a Diploma in Employment Law from the National College of Ireland (NCI).

Paul Rellis

Paul Rellis was appointed Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland in December 2007. As MD he is responsible for Microsoft Corporation’s business in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and also represents Microsoft on all strategic policy and communications issues in Ireland.

Prior to being appointed MD, Paul was the Managing Director for Microsoft’s European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operations Centre, based in Sandyford, Co. Dublin.  His role included overseeing Microsoft's channel partners, supply chain, finance and order management across the region.  The EMEA Operations Center services 131 countries across five timezones.  Previously, he held the position of Finance Director for Microsoft Operations in EMEA and Asia-Pacific. He joined Microsoft in January 2000 from The Coca-Cola Company, where he held a variety of senior positions in Finance, Marketing and Operations in both the Coca-Cola HQ in Atlanta and in Germany.  Paul was President of the American Chamber of Commerce in 2008 and continues to be a board member of the organisation. He is also a member of the Governing Body of IBEC, is a member of the Board of the IMI and of the National Digital Research Centre.   He is also Chair of the expert group that has been established to look at how the Department of Education can work with the private sector to improve ICT in the classroom.  He is alsoa the Chair of the steering group that is looking at the development of a new national strategy for higher education in Ireland.  

Paul qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse Coopers and Waterford Regional Technical College. 

Debbie Smith

Debbie Smith, Managing Director of Boots, has worked for the pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer for 25 years.  She originally began her career as a Boots pharmacist and quickly progressed through various store leadership roles including store manager, area manager and regional manager.  Debbie was appointed as Managing Director of Boots Ireland in April 2010 having previously been the Divisional Director for the East Division in Boots UK.  As Managing Director for Boots Ireland, Debbie is responsible for the implementation of Boots ambition to be the healthcare partner of choice, provide exceptional customer care and offer innovative products and services.  There are 69 Boots stores in Ireland which employ over 1,900 people nationwide. 

Aengus McClean

Aengus McClean is the Vice President & Managing Director, AOL Global Operations Ltd. Aengus qualified with an honours degree in Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin in 1983, joined Ashton-Tate in late ’83, working for the Multimate Division in Dublin and later in Hartford, CT, USA. From Ashton-Tate he joined Lotus Development in Dublin in 1987 and later the Apple Computer software subsidiary Claris Corporation, as Software Development Manager. In 1993 together with colleagues from Claris, he formed a new company, IONA Software focused on delivering multimedia products to the educational markets, also developing revolutionary tools to aid animation. He joined AOL in 2000 charged with helping the movement of the centre towards a more integrated development organisation. He has held various positions at AOL, including Director of the Bangalore Development Centre in India and most recently as Vice President of Search and Advertising Technologies and also Managing Director of the Dublin R&D centre.