Governance

Richard Lyons Chairperson

Richard Lyons is a senior counsel who has a wide ranging civil law practice based in Dublin. He has a longstanding interest in the visual arts and music, having worked as a DJ in a previous life. Richard has a close association with a number of galleries in Dublin.

Date of Appointment: June 2018 (Appointed Chairperson January 2024)

Joe Prendergast Vice Chairperson

Joe Prendergast is an investment professional, working with Goodbody in Dublin. A graduate of University College Dublin and the London School of Economics, he has long experience in financial market analysis and investment. Joe has a wide range of creative interests in modern art, architecture, graphic design, photography, literature and music.

Date of Appointment: January 2023

Mairead O'hEocha Company Secretary

Mairead O’hEocha’s work is held in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Ire land, the Arts Council and the Office of Public Works. She is represented by mother’s tankstation Limited, Dublin & London. She was elected to Aosdána, an Irish association of artists, in 2020.

Date of Appointment: September 2022

Bassam Al-Sabah Board Member

Bassam Al-Sabah is a visual artist who works across digital animation, painting, sculpture and textiles creating visions of resistance, transformation and queer possibility. He completed a BA in Visual Art Practice from Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in 2016. Recent solo exhibitions include: ITS DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS, Douglad Hyde Gallery (2022), I AM ERROR, Gasworks, London (2021), and De La Warr Pavilion, Sussex (2022)

Date of Appointment: February 2023

Michelle Darmody Board Member

Michelle is an entrepreneur and food journalist who founded the award winning bakeries The Cake Café and Slice. She also established Our Table, the social enterprise supporting people living in direct provision, and she is currently undertaking a research project exploring food literacy in Ireland. Michelle has extensive experience of project management having completed major projects in IMMA, with the Arthur Guinness Foundation, and various other cultural institutions. Michelle is also a regular commentator on food, culture and travel for Irish print media, on television and radio.

Date of Appointment: February 2019

Anne Mathews Board Member

A senior communications professional, Anne has extensive experience of leading the communications strategy across the corporate, business and consumer divisions within the financial services industry. Working with two household names, namely Aviva Ireland and Bank of Ireland, she has a depth of experience in creating and implementing successful communications strategies to support business growth. She recently joined Aviva Ireland as Communications & PR Manager.

Anne is a Director of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, Chair of the Friends’ Council of Business to Arts, a member of Dublin City Council’s Cultural Company’s Cultural Advisory panel and a trustee of Tara's Palace Museum.

Date of Appointment: February 2018 (Appointed Chairperson 15 October 2018)

Paul McAree Board Member

Paul McAree is Curator at Lismore Castle Arts in Co Waterford, which has hosted solo exhibitions by artists including Gerard Byrne, Dorothy Cross, Camille Henrot, Rashid Johnson and Wilhelm Sasnal. Previously McAree worked at Breaking Ground, Tate Modern and Ikon Gallery Birmingham, and also ran an independent commissioning project, FLOOD,from 2013-2014. He co-founded and directed Colony Gallery in Birmingham from 2007 – 2010. He has curated freelance projects, co-curating Traces at Kasteel Wijlre, TheNetherlands in 2018, was curator in residence at Rua Red from 2014-2016, and curator in residence at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, 2012-2013.

Date of Appointment: March 2020

Peter McGovern Board Member

Peter McGovern is an award-winning architect, born in Dublin in 1970. He is a director at Henry J Lyons, where he has practiced since graduation. Peter's work is epitomised by the pursuit of an architecture which responds creatively to contemporary social, economic and environmental factors. Among his works of note are the Criminal Courts of Justice, Parkgate Street (2010), Central Bank of Ireland, North Wall Quay (2017), No.26 York Street for the Royal College of Surgeons (2017) and the Grant Thornton Headquarters, City Quay (2018).

Peter was elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in February 2019.

Date of Appointment: March 2020

Isabel Nolan Board Member

Isabel Nolan writes, makes sculpture, textiles, paintings and works on paper. In unison these works give form to a quasi-scholarly inquiry into the fundamental question of how the world is made meaningful. Recent exhibitions/commissions include solos at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2016); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, (2016); Mercer Union, Toronto (2016), Launchpad Art, New York (2015) and Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, (2015). Nolan represented Ireland at the 2005 Venice Biennale in a group exhibition. Nolan is represented by Kerlin Gallery, Dublin and GalerieKrinzinger, Vienna.

Date of Appointment: November 2016

Lye Ogunsanya Board Member

Lye Ogunsanya is a US State Dept IVLP Alumni, Humanitarian innovator and a Unicef Champion for children Awardee. He is a hands-on advocate for building the change needed in the dual/climate technology space and has extensive experience in setting up of philanthropic change driven programs in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Colombia and the Mediterranean. Lye is EX-Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics, Smart Dublin and was founding CEO at Didean where he successfully disrupted the Irish government’s accommodation policy and services within the Refugee and International Protection applicant service sector in Ireland. He was recently awarded the IUSA Emerging Leader 2022 for his contributions to society and Irish USA relations.

Date of Appointment: May 2022

Elaine Russell Board Member

Elaine Russell is CEO and Founder of Omega Consulting and Head of Women Returners Ireland. She has worked across finance, customer experience, customer care, strategy, transformational change, coaching and general management.

Date of Appointment: October 2018

Geraldine Shanley Board Member

Geraldine Shanley is a litigation solicitor with over 30 years in practice and holds a BCL degree from UCD. She is a qualified collaborative lawyer with a particular interest in alternative dispute resolution. Her skills and experience include an ability to make clearly considered, impartial decisions mindful of the need to reach consensus in a timely manner. She was previously a member of a State Board for 5 years.

Date of Appointment: February 2019

Joe Hanly Board Member

Joe Hanly is a painter, printmaker and occasional installation artist living in Dublin who has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland since early 1980s with solo exhibitions in such venues as Project Arts Centre, Limerick City Gallery, The RHA Gallagher Gallery, Butler Gallery Kilkenny, Model Arts Centre and as well as Temple Bar Gallery + Studios and his work is included in many private and public collections. He lectured in Fine Art, at the Dublin Institute of Technology from 1984 until retirement in 2014. He cofounded No9 Screenprint Workshop in 1977 and was a founding member of Temple Bar Gallery + Studios in 1983 where he set up The Print Studio at TBG+S.

Date of Appointment: 2020