Our Board Members have all signed up to our Board Code of Conduct.
Detailed Terms of Reference for all Barnardos Board Sub Committees are also available.
Chair
Martin is a Chartered Accountant, and was CFO at KPMG Ireland from 2006 to 2017. He retired from KPMG in May 2017.
Martin studied Commerce in UCD graduating in 1977. After completing his training with KPMG he has worked at senior management and board level in a wide range of industries including printing and Publishing, Transport; IT and Professional Services in Ireland and Germany.
He was Finance Director of the Sunday Tribune from 1983 to 1992. He was Finance Director for Securicor in Ireland and European Finance Director based in Germany from 1992 to 1997. On his return from Germany he joined the Dell in Bray where he headed the finance team for the UK Ireland Direct Sales and Marketing business.
He joined Vision Consulting as CFO in 2003 and then returned to KPMG as Head of Finance in 2006.
Martin has been associated with Barnardos since 2004. He continues to be a trustee of the KPMG Staff Pension Schemes and has recently taken on a number of other non-executive Director roles.
Married with 3 children, Martin is a regular golfer and a keen supporter of Munster rugby.
Vice Chair
Gary is Managing Partner of Genesis, a business advisory firm that specialises in enabling people and organisations to address complex customer, market and organisational issues, enhance performance and create sustainable value for the benefit of all stakeholders. She has a lifetime’s experience and interest in consumer behaviour and the capacity of people and organisations to evolve, innovate and change.
Gary has extensive experience on the boards of private and public sector companies and not-for-profit organisations including as Deputy Chair of the inaugural board of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency where she served for four and a half years. She has also chaired a number of industry and political taskforces on behalf of government and state agencies.
Gary is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisors and the Marketing Institute of Ireland. Her qualifications include B.Soc.Sc; Diploma in Internal Consulting; Diploma in Company Direction; Diploma in Women’s Studies and an Advanced Professional Diploma in Executive Coaching. She is currently pursuing Chartered Directorship with the Institute of Directors.
Treasurer
Ivan is Chairman of Invoicefair Limited a technology enabled provider of working capital to Irish SMEs. He has over 26 years experience in investment management and financial services.
Ivan is currently an active private investor, Chairman of Merrion Investment Managers and a director of a number of other companies. Prior to this Ivan was Head of Irish Equities and Global Financials Research at Bank of Ireland Asset Management. He holds an MBA from UCD and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and the Institute of Directors.
Professor Louise Crowley is a family law expert at the School of Law, UCC where she is the Director of the LLM (Children’s Rights and Family Law).
Louise is the author of the leading Irish text Family Law (Roundhall Thomson). Her research focusses on the regulation of family formations and intimate relationships in a modern and diverse Ireland. Louise is a national voice on intimate partner violence having published widely on the adequacy of legal and educational responses to the challenges of gender-based violence.
Louise was a member of the Government appointed expert group that developed the National Framework to end Sexual Harassment and Vioelnce at Third Level and continues to advise on law and policy reform. At UCC, Louise has developed the campus-wide Bystander Intervention initiative which seeks to educate and empower staff and students to challenge the normalisation of sexual abuse and to recognise their role as pro-social bystanders to effect change and bring about a new normal of safety and respect.
Sue has worked in the communications industry since 1987, when she began hercareer in London with Hill and Knowlton.
Sue has worked in the communications industry since 1987. She is currently Group Director, Employee Experience for Smurfit Kappa and brings a wealth of knowledge in marketing and communications the Board
Previously Sue held the position of Director of Marketing Communications for the Taste & Nutrition division of Kerry Group. Sue has been with Kerry since February 2014, where she initially held the role of Director of Employee Communications and Engagement, before transitioning into her current position.
Before joining Kerry, she was with Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland (MRPI) for over seven years, as Head of Communications for MRPI and their two retail brands SuperValu & Centra. Prior to that Sue was on the board of Fleishman-Hillard, where she played a key role on the Consumer & Brands team.
Her areas of expertise include retail and food marketing, sponsorship negotiation and management, crisis communications, corporate & public affairs, as well as event management, sports marketing and consumer focussed communications programmes.
In 2000 she won her first Public Relations Consultants Award (PRCA), with a Supreme Award for work undertaken for Diageo on the Budweiser Frogs & Lizards campaign, She has won several PRCA awards since, for campaigns such as the SuperValu’s ‘Kids in Action’ programme, SuperValu Tidy Towns 50th Anniversary Celebration, Centra’s Action Breast Cancer Campaign and SuperValu’s Commitment to Ireland Inc.
Sue is a fanatic sports fan following Leinster RFC, Liverpool FC, the Chicago Bears and her beloved Dubs. She has her own horse and enjoys riding, reading, the movies, good food and great wine. She is married with a teenage daughter.
Maria Kelly is a barrister practicing mainly in employment law.
She has over twenty-five years’ experience working as a senior executive in Human Resources, and general management. Maria started her career in Aer Lingus where she worked in sales and human resources. She held the positions of Head of Staff Relations, General Manager HR and Director of Change – Airline. Maria was appointed as Staff Secretary (Director of HR) at Trinity College Dublin in 2002 with responsibility for academic, administrative and general staff. She worked with the General Council of the Bar of Ireland for ten years having responsibility staff and several general management functions before returning to private practice.
She is currently a member of the College Fitness to Practise (Student) Committee at Trinity College Dublin.
Having worked as a child and family social worker and service manager for some 10 years, Trevor took up his first academic position in the University of Ulster in 1997.
He moved, subsequently, to Queen’s University Belfast in 2000. He took up the position of Professor in Childhood Research and Director of the Children’s Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin in 2014.
Trevor’s research interests emanate from his experiences of social work practice. Initially an interest in professional decision-making developed into a broader concern to study the impact of social policies on both professionals and families, in relation to the systems designed to afford children protection. The challenges facing children as they develop have encouraged collaborations between professionals and researchers representing different disciplines, so much of his work is interdisciplinary.
One of Trevor’s main research interests is how the experience of adversities in childhood come to be expressed over the life-course in physiological, psychological and social outcomes. His current work is concerned both with establishing what constitutes good childhoods as well identifying those children who are vulnerable to the impact of adversity in order to assist policy makers and professionals in providing effective interventions.
Trevor is married to Hilary, has a daughter called Katie and a dog called Dexter. To relax he enjoys walking, talking and visiting faraway places.
Irene Gunning is a former CEO of Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) and prior to that Irish Preschool Playgroups Association (IPPA).
ECI is one of the largest organisations in the early years sector. Its 3,800 childcare members support over 100,000 children and their families through preschool, afterschool, and full day-care provision nationwide. Her work focused on quality enhancement, publications, advocacy, training, business support & information for a sector that employs over 25,000 people.
Over the years, she has worked in many positions and situations. She inspires a strong practitioner perspective having worked directly with children and delivering professional support, teaching, tutoring and lecturing early childcare professionals. Developing training, especially accredited training from foundation level modules to level 7 and 8 full degree courses. In addition to training, she has hands-on experience across business management, amalgamation-merger, communications, team leadership, partnerships, media relations and training, research, events, advocating, negotiating, issues and crisis management.
While she started her working life as a health professional in clinical biochemistry, her main commitment over 45 years has been in early childhood education and care. Currently, she is an independent consultant and is a member of several boards: - CORU, Regulating Health & Social Care Professionals serving on the Speech and Language Therapist registration Board, Irish Group Analytic Society and European Early Childhood Education and Research Association (EECERA)
Since completing studies in Group Analytic Psychotherapy in the School of Psychotherapy at St. Vincent’s University Hospital and the School of Medicine, UCD, she has a keen interest in facilitating groups to promote attunement and bonding between parents, their babies and toddlers.
Paul O’Faherty is an actuary and is an independent non-executive director of a number of companies in the financial services and not-for-profit sectors. He also acts as a strategy consultant and an executive coach.
Paul started his career in New Ireland Assurance and then worked with Mercer for 33 years in a range of business and consulting roles in the investment, pensions and health fields. He became Chief Executive of Mercer Ireland in 2001 and retired from that role in June 2013. He is a Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors. He is a Fellow and a past president of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland. Mr O’Faherty Is also a past chair of the Irish Association of Pension Funds.
Ken has worked in the IT industry for over 30 years, starting with Bank of Ireland in their Information Technology centre in Cabinteely.
Ken is currently Information Technology Director with Sisk Group, the family owned Construction business, with operations in Ireland, UK and Europe. Prior to joining Sisk in 2005, Ken worked with Hewlett Packard and Perot Systems in service delivery and customer relationship roles.
His areas of expertise are leading teams and change agendas, with a key focus on customer satisfaction and service delivery.
Ken is married to Suzanne, with three daughters Eva, Ruth and Lucy (and of course our dog Tiki!). An avid trail runner, Ken has competed in several Ultra mountain events and marathons (very slowly) and enjoys sea swimming and golf.
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