DIT Foundation Board Members
Ms Angela Brady OBE
Mr Peter Coyle
Mr Sean Dorgan
Mr Jim Gahan (Chair)
Mr Ian O'Herlihy
Professor Neville Hogan
Mr David Kennedy
Mr Bobby Kerr
Ms Anna Marie McHugh
Professor Brian Norton
Dr Noel O’Connor (Company Secretary)
Biographies
Ms Angela Brady OBE
Angela is a Dublin born and educated architect who graduated from Dublin DIT school of architecture, completing with a post graduate scholarship at Kunstakademiet in Copenhagen, then spent a year in Toronto, before coming to London to set up award winning private practice Brady Mallalieu Architects Ltd, with Robin Mallalieu. Their design studio specialises in contemporary sustainable architecture
Angela was elected President of Royal Institute of British Architects (2011-2013). She reaches a wide public audience as a professional TV broadcaster, promoting Architecture on TV and Radio, along with with published articles in books, magazines and blogs as well as running design workshops in schools and galleries as a STEMnet ambassador. She is also a Design Council CABE 'Built Environment Expert’ and she is current President of the Architects Benevolent Society. She gives talks worldwide on Sustainable Cities and Integrated Design. Her latest book is a collection of UK expertise called “The British Papers” Published by RIBA Publications in March 2015
Mr Peter Coyle
Peter spent over 30 years working on the development of Irish industry and the Irish economy with the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) and latterly Enterprise Ireland (EI). He recently stepped down from EI where he was Executive Director with responsibility for International Marketing and is now a company director and business consultant. Peter was also a member of the Governing body of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) for over 15 years.
Mr Sean Dorgan
Sean Dorgan is Chairman of the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and non-executive director of a number of companies including FBD Holdings plc and the Irish Cancer Society. He has also served as Chairman of the Governing Body of DIT, of Ulster Bank Group, of Tesco Ireland and of various other boards. In his earlier career he was Secretary General of two Government Departments, Chief Executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) and CEO of IDA Ireland. He is married to Mary Lennan and they have four sons.
Mr Jim Gahan (Chair)
Jim Gahan is a Chartered Surveyor with over 35 years experience, in both the public and private sectors. He has previously held the positions of Deputy Chief Valuer, Dublin City Council; Commercial Director, Custom House Docks Development Authority; Group Property Manager, CIE and Property Investment Director, Cosgrave Property Group. He now works as an independent Property Consultant. He was Chairman of the Society of Chartered Surveyors in 1989 and has been Chairman of the Education Board of The Society of Chartered Surveyors for the past 20 years. Jim has many years involvement in education matters with the Dublin Institute of Technology.
Mr Ian O'Herlihy
Head of Mason Hayes & Curran's Employment Law and Benefits Department. Over 20 years’ experience specialising in both contentious and non-contentious employment law issues in the education and healthcare sectors and has been involved in almost all the leading education employment cases in recent years. Advises a broad range of clients on drafting and reviewing workplace procedures and employment contracts, on dealings with trade unions and professional organisations and advises widely on investigation of complaints and the conduct of disciplinary investigations and hearings.
Ian acts for all the education management organisations in the primary and secondary sectors and for a large number of individual education institutions at primary, secondary and third level. Also acts for the HR Departments in a number of large voluntary hospitals.
He is a member of the Education Lawyers Association (UK) and regularly lectures on employment law and educational law throughout the education sector. He provides training courses on a range of employment law and education law issues, and delivers seminars on a range of legal topics in his specialist areas.
Professor Neville Hogan
Neville Hogan is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Director of the Newman Laboratory for Biomechanics and Human Rehabilitation and a founder and director of Interactive Motion Technologies, Inc., a company offering innovative robotic tools to study and treat neuro-motor impairments. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he obtained a Dip. Eng. (with distinction) from Dublin Institute of Technology and M.S., M.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following industrial experience in engineering design, he joined MIT’s school of Engineering faculty in 1979 and has served as Head and Associate Head of the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department’s System Dynamics and Control Division. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Delft University of Technology and the Dublin Institute of Technology and the Silver Medal of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.
Mr David Kennedy
David Kennedy is a director of a number of international funds based in the IFSC. He is a former chief executive of Aer Lingus and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ireland. He has been a director of a number of companies based in Ireland and overseas including CRH, Trans World Airways (TWA), CSA (Czech Airlines), Manchester Airport Group, Bon Secours Health System and Jurys Hotel Group. He was Professor of Strategic Marketing in University College Dublin and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory by the Vatican in 2012.
Mr Bobby Kerr
Bobby Kerr grew up in Kilkenny where his family owned the Newpark Hotel. He qualified with an Honours Diploma in Catering Management from DIT's Cathal Brugha Street college in 1981 and embarked on a career which included work on North Sea oil rigs, sports stadia in Canada and Jury’s Hotel in Ballsbridge before joining Campbell Catering as manager of the bar and food outlets in University College Cork in 1987. He remained with Campbell for 11 years rising to the position of Development Director and overseeing development of the Bewley brand in The UK, USA and Japan . He opened his first coffee shop in 1999 and through various mergers and acquisitions he emerged in 2003 as principal shareholder and CEO of Insomnia Coffee Company which he has developed to a chain of 50 shops. In 2008 he became a Dragon on the Irish version of The Dragons' Den television program and has made a number of investments in companies that pitched for financial support on the programme.
Ms Anna Marie McHugh
Anna Marie is Managing Director/Secretary of the National Ploughing Association. She is also General Secretary of the World Ploughing Organisation (WPO), the first female to hold the position. She is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the WPO, assessing future world venues, developing the organisation worldwide as well as heading up WPO communication and media relations. She brings to the job a background in marketing and public relations having worked for the Irish National Ploughing Association for 19 years, she co-ordinated two world ploughing contests in her home country and is a former National Ploughing Champion (Ladies Category).
Professor Brian Norton
Professor Norton became the second President of Dublin Institute of Technology in September 2003. He holds doctorates from Cranfield University and the University of Nottingham, is a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and the Energy Institute and is a Chartered Engineer (both in Ireland and the UK) and a member of the Higher Education Academy. He is an Honorary Professor of the University of Ulster and co-author of over 140 journal papers in the field of solar energy. Professor Norton has chaired many national and international bodies in the fields of renewable energy and construction. He chaired the Northern Ireland Business Education Partnership and was Specialist Advisor to the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He is currently a member of the NI Government Energy Policy Steering Group and Chair of Action Renewables which is responsible for renewable energy in Northern Ireland.
Dr Noel O’Connor (Company Secretary)
Noel is Director of Student Services at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). He has overall responsibility for the management and development of student services within DIT. This covers a range of areas including the careers service, sports & recreation, medical services, community links, the international office and student administration services. In addition, his Directorate is responsible for planning the relocation of DIT to a new urban campus at Grangegorman in Dublin’s north inner city.
Noel is an academic with a background in management education, and tourism development and has a particular interest in curriculum design and development within higher education. For many years he lectured in strategic management in DIT and was Head of the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism. He is a graduate of DIT, TCD, UCD and NUI Maynooth.
