Appointment of Chair and Members to the Board of Children’s Health Ireland
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Health
Published on
Last updated on
In accordance with the provisions of the Children’s Health Act 2018 the Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD has appointed Dr James J Browne as Chairperson to the Board of Children’s Health Ireland. This appointment is for the period from the 4th December 2018 to the 3rd December 2023.
Dr Browne is the former President of NUI Galway. Dr Browne’s leadership roles include membership of Irish Universities Quality Board until 2012, President of Engineers Ireland 2008/2009, member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland, member of the board of Central Applications Office, member of the former National Research Support Board, member of the former Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, member of the EPSRC Review Group on Engineering Research Centres in the UK; member of the board of Galway University Foundation and member of the board of Music for Galway.
He has extensive experience both as a project leader and partner in multi-million euro European Union funded research and development projects including joint industry / university projects between European partners and partners in China, United States and Japan. He served as a European member on the board of IMS (Integrated Manufacturing Systems). Dr Browne has significant industrial experience, having spent some years working with Nortel Networks (then Northern Telecom) in Canada and Ireland. Dr Browne has also consulted with a wide range of Irish and international corporations.
In accordance with the provisions of the Children’s Health Act 2018 the Minister for Health, Simon Harris T.D. has appointed 11 Ordinary Members to the Board of Children’s Health Ireland. This appointment is for a period of up to five years from the 4th December 2018.
Mr Sheehan is Chair of the Board of Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Certified Accountants. Mr Sheehan joined Brother Ireland in 1987 as Financial Controller, having worked at senior management level in the hotel/catering and agricultural business sectors also.
Prior to joining Brother, he was a locum Accounts and Finance Director at Temple Street, Children’s University Hospital and has extensive skills in financial planning, strategic planning and change management. Mr Sheehan has a broad range of business skills and became Managing Director of the Irish subsidiary of Brother International in 1994 until his retirement in March 2013.
Liam Dowdall is the Chairman of the Board of Tallaght Hospital. He has been a Non-Executive Director of the Hospital Board since 2011 and was until recently the Vice Chairman of the Board.
Liam is a Director in the Restructuring & Recovery Department of Smith & Williamson. With qualifications in Business Studies and a Master’s of Arts, his background in business has seen him spend over 30 years working in the Corporate Recovery field and 27 years working with BDO including five years as Managing Partner. Between 1997 and 2009, Liam was the Partner in Charge of BDO’s Corporate Recovery Unit. Liam also has sectoral experience in healthcare, construction and hospitality and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants as well as being a licensed Insolvency Practitioner in the UK and Northern Ireland.
Dr Kilgallen is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine. Prior to taking up post as Chief Executive of the Western Trust, she worked as Deputy Chief Medical Officer with responsibility for population health policy in the Department of Health, Belfast.
In 2013/14 Anne was funded by the Health Foundation and supported by the Western Trust to undertake a Quality Improvement Fellowship for one year based at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, USA. She had the opportunity to study international healthcare systems that have successfully brought clinical leadership, improvement science and system thinking together to transform care. She has a particular interest in the use of IHI’s Triple Aim framework as a means to improve outcomes at population level. Prior to her fellowship, Anne served for 6 years as Medical Director in the Western Health and Social Care Trust.
Anne has a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University (2016) and from University College Dublin (1995). She is a fellow of both the Faculty of Public Health (UK) and the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in Ireland, where she has served on the board.
Brigid McManus served as Secretary-General of the Department of Education and Skills from 2005 to 2012. During her civil service career in the Departments of Finance, of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht and of Education and Skills, Brigid worked a diverse range of public policy and management issues. As Secretary-General of the Department of Education and Skills she oversaw the policy framework for and funding and governance of primary, second-level, further and higher education. During that time she was a member of the Top Level Appointments Committee for senior civil service appointments.
Prior to her appointment as Secretary-General she worked as Assistant Secretary -General leading the tax policy area in the Department of Finance and responsible for advising on the tax policy elements in annual Budgets and Finance Bills as well as EU taxation matters.
Currently Brigid chairs the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the Audit Committee of the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and undertakes public sector recruitment and governance work. She is a member of the Board of Governors of the National College of Ireland.
Catherine Guy is a partner in ByrneWallace. She was Managing Partner of the firm from June 2012 – June 2018. As Managing Partner, Catherine had overall responsibility for the management and direction of the firm’s strategy, finance, corporate governance, business planning and development and overall oversight of, and responsibility for, the operational functions of the business and management of the firm.
A partner with ByrneWallace since 1998, Catherine previously headed up the Property and Construction Division and specialised in large scale commercial property development projects. She is ranked as an “Eminent Practitioner” by Chambers Europe and holds a diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors.
Ms Cryan is a former Employer Member of the Labour Court, a position she held for six years up to October 2016.
A Social Science graduate of University College Dublin, she began her career as an Industrial Relations Executive with Ibec, where she represented employers in direct negotiations with trade unions and at third party fora.
For the greater part of her career, she worked with the Brown Thomas Group, ultimately as Human Resources Director, with responsibility for all aspects of the Human Resource and Industrial Relations functions.
Throughout her career, Ms Cryan has served on a number of boards, including the Employment Equality Agency, the Dublin Institute of Technology and the National Employment Rights Agency.
A first class honours Science graduate of University College Dublin, Prof Niamh Brennan qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, holds a PhD from the University of Warwick and is a Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors (London).
Prof Brennan is Michael MacCormac Professor of Management at University College Dublin and Academic Director of the UCD Centre for Corporate Governance. She holds/has held a number of significant non-executive directorships and governance positions of state and private sector organisations.
She was a board member of the Health Service Executive from 2003-2011 and chaired the Commission on Financial Management and Control Systems in the Health Services.
She has published widely on Financial Reporting, Corporate Governance, Forensic Accounting and Clinical Governance.
Current Appointments
Management and Board Level Experience
He helped set up many teams, notably thoracic transplantation (he led this team from 2000 to 2010) and ECMO at GOSH and formed the Tracheal Service at GOSH (which he led from 2000 to 2015). This became the English National Service for Severe Tracheal Disease in Children in 2006. He sat on relevant NHS specialist committees.
He was Divisional Director of cardiorespiratory and intensive care services at GOSH from 2000 to 2010.
He was co-Medical Director of GOSH from 2010-2015, and a full Board Member. He took part in successful Foundation Trust application. He was appointed a non-Executive Director of The Royal Marsden Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2017, and the Trust was judged outstanding in the recent CQC review, and outstanding in the ‘well-led’ component.
Internationally, he has been a Board member of the European Congenital Heart Surgeons Foundation, and the (international) Pediatric Intensive Care Society. He established the European Congenital Heart Defects Database (Now the EACTS database). He provided advice on the organisation of Transplantation Services in Australia.
Turlough O’Sullivan is currently Deputy Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.
Turlough served as Director General of IBEC from 2000-2009.
He was a member of the Executive Board of Business Europe, the Council of the International Organisation of Employers in Geneva, a member of the National Implementation Body, the National Economic and Social Council and a board member of the Labour Relations Commission.
He is Managing Director of Resolve Ireland, a company that provides independent investigation, dispute resolution and whistleblowing services in the private and public sectors.
Turlough is also a company director and chairman and provides consultancy services in business strategy and organisation.
He was educated at University College Dublin and The London School of Economics.
Con Cronin is Chairman of GVA Donal O Buachalla and is one of the most experienced Chartered Surveyors in the country with a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of property market countywide.
In practice for 39 years, Con has advised numerous clients, including semi-state and corporate clients, on various property related matters with a proven track record of getting results. Con is a past Chairman of the general practice committee of the Society of Chartered Surveyors and is also past Chairman of GVA Europe and is currently a Board Member of GVA worldwide.
Dr Lavery graduated as MB, BCh, BAO (honours) from The Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB) in 1979. He trained as an anaesthetist, specialising in Intensive Care Medicine and Trauma Care. He completed his Fellowship (FFARCSI) in 1983 and an MD (by Thesis) in 1986. In 1986 he became Senior Fellow/Chief Resident in Critical Care at the University of Western Ontario. In 1987 he was appointed to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast as the first Consultant specifically trained in Intensive Care Medicine. In 2000 he designed and implemented a critical care transfer service for the region (NICCaTS), He led this service for 12 years which, to date, has transferred over 6000 patients.
He became President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland and was on the council of the Intensive Care Society UK. In 2011 he became Clinical Director, HSC Safety Forum, the regional lead for patient safety and quality improvement.
Gavin sits on the Patient Safety Committee, Royal College of Physicians, London and is a member of the College of Assessors at the Health Foundation. From 2014-2016 he sat on the Quality Standards Advisory Committee at the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE). He developed a significant profile in education including Regional Advisor for Intensive Care Medicine, examiner for three colleges and in research he has had more than 60 peer reviewed papers, 12 chapters and 3 theses supervised. He moved to part-time clinical work in 2017 to allow time for his other interests, including health systems’ improvement and eHealth.