Major Functions of the SFI Board

• Advising and assisting the Director General and senior management of the Foundation in formulating and achieving the Foundation’s mission.
  
  
• Providing for the preparation, implementation, and review of strategies and operational plans that promote the undertaking of basic research of the highest international standards in Ireland—particularly in areas that are related to Ireland’s economic competitiveness.
  
  
• Ensuring SFI compliance with corporate governance requirements for State bodies.
  
  
• Approving annual and multi-annual budgets for the Foundation and ensuring appropriate accountability for the disbursement and management of these budgets.
  
  
• Establishing the organisational structures and resources required to enable the Foundation to undertake its functions efficiently and effectively.
  
  
• Providing annual and ongoing review of the results, impacts, and organisational effectiveness of the Foundation.

Board Members

Prof. Patrick Fottrell
Mr. Peter MacDonagh
Dr. Martina Newell-McGloughlin
Dr. Jim Mountjoy
Mr. John Travers
Dr. Don Thornhill
Mr. Martin Shanagher
Dr. Rita Colwell
Mr. Tom Boland
Ms. Bernie Cullinan
Mr. Sean Aherne

Biographies

Prof. Patrick Fottrell (Chairperson)
Former President
National University of Ireland, Galway

A former Professor of Biochemistry at NUI Galway, Prof. Fottrell served as president of the University from 1996-2000. He also served as Chairman of the Dublin Institute of Technology, the Irish Council of Bioethics and the Ireland-USA Fulbright Commission. Prof. Fottrell is currently Chairman of Westgate Biological. He is a member and former Vice-President of Royal Irish Academy.

Prof. Fottrell obtained the B.SC. and M.Sc. from University College Cork, the Ph.D. from the University of Glasgow, and the D.Sc. from the National University of Ireland.

Peter MacDonagh
Peter MacDonagh was educated at UCD and Cambridge University.  Before undertaking post-graduate research he worked for Proctor & Gamble in the United Kingdom.

In 1997 he became the special advisor to the Minister for Education & Science.  In addition to responsibilities relating to all policy areas covered by the Minister’s department, he was centrally involved in the development and implementation of policy in relation to research.  Initiatives included the Scientific & Technological Education Fund established in 1997 with over ˆ300m in funding, the Programme for Research in Third Level Education (PRTLI) and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS).  In this role he was centrally involved in the negotiation of a public/private funding agreement which secured the largest ever philanthropic donation in Ireland.

In 2000 he became a special advisor to the Taoiseach, where amongst various other areas, he had responsibility for education and research policy.  During this period the Government implemented a major expansion in research funding and development of both programmes and institutions.

He currently lives in Prague and is a research consultant.

Dr. Martina Newell-McGloughlin
Director, University of California Systemwide Biotechnology
Research and Education Program
Co-Director, NIH Training Program in Biomolecular Technology

Prof. Martina Newell-McGloughlin, an internationally recognised authority on biotechnology, the science and its societal implications, directs the UC Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education Program (UCBREP), which covers all ten campuses and the three national Laboratories run by UC, Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley and Los Alamos. Prior to this, she was director of the UC Systemwide Life Sciences Informatics Program and the UC Davis Biotechnology Program. She is co-director of an NIH Training Grant in Biomolecular Technology one of only three in California the others being at UC Berkeley and Stanford University.

Among her qualifications are a broad knowledge of biotechnology research in academia and industry; experience in developing biotechnology training and education programs; and experience in managing grants programs. She has published numerous papers, articles, book chapters, two books on biotechnology, edited two and has a third in progress. She contributed a chapter on Genetically Modified Microorganisms for Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg’s Encyclopedia of Microbiology. Her personal research experience has been in the areas of disease resistance in plants, scale-up stability for industrial and pharmaceutical production in microbes and microbiological mining. Prof. Newell-McGloughlin has a special interest in Developing World Research and is part of the USAID $19 million Agricultural Biotechnology Research Support Project.

She has served on panels for the UN, the World Bank, the OECD and the World Trade Organization. The UC Davis Academic Federation selected her to receive its 2001 James H. Meyer Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2003 the Council for Biotechnology named her one of the DNA Anniversary Year Faces of Innovation among such luminaries as Norm Borlaug, Ingo Potrykus, Barbara McClintock and Roger Beachy. She received a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Dr. Jim Mountjoy
Chairman
Prospectus Consultancy Group

Dr. Mountjoy founded Euristix, an innovative supplier of advanced network management software solutions for the telecommunications industry. Euristix became a market leader and was sold to Fore Systems for US $80 million in February 1999, a value that increased to US$175 million in two months when Fore Systems was acquired by Marconi. Dr. Mountjoy is currently involved in a non-executive capacity with a number of software companies.

Mr. John Travers
Business & Economic Consultant and former CEO of Forfás & Science Foundation Ireland.

As CEO of Forfás, Mr. Travers led the State's policy and advisory board for industrial development, science, and technology, and the body in which the main legal powers for State industrial promotion and technology development are vested. In 2000-01, he also acted as director general of SFI during its startup phase.

Previously, Mr. Travers worked as chief economic advisor in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and in senior management posts in the Office of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), the Department of Finance, and IDA Ireland.

In these posts, Mr. Travers has held key responsibilities in shaping the industrial development strategy of successive government national development programmes since 1978. He has also worked as a consultant on development projects for the United Nations and World Bank in several countries and worked in the private sector industry and services sectors before joining the public sector.

Mr. Travers is a member of the management boards of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation; the Irish National Competitiveness Council; and the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at University College Dublin.

Mr. Travers holds a master's degree in planning from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied at Wharton School, and postgraduate qualifications in planning, economic development, and business management from the National University of Ireland.

Dr. Don Thornhill
Chairman, National Competitiveness Council of Ireland

Dr Thornhill is a former Executive Chairman of the Higher Education Authority and a former Secretary General of the Department of Education and Science. He has been a leading figure in the development of education and research policy in Ireland – particularly in the development and operation of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI). He is a board member of a number of organisations in the Irish public and private sectors and is involved in a consultancy capacity with a number of organisations.

Mr. Martin Shanagher
Assistant Secretary
Science, Technology and Intellectual Property Division
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Martin Shanagher heads the division at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment responsible for developing, promoting and coordinating Science, Technology, Innovation and Intellectual Property policy and programmes. He is the chair of the Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation that has overall responsibility for driving and monitoring implementation of the Government’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-2013 and reporting to the Cabinet Sub Committee on STI. He also has responsibility for Ireland's involvement in a range of international research and technology programmes involving the European Union and the European Space Agency.

A graduate of the Institute of Public Administration, Mr. Shanagher has previously worked as Assistant Secretary heading up the Corporate Services and Economic Policy Division and was a member of the Tax Strategy Group. He has previously served as Director of the Office of Science and Technology and was a member of the Interim Board of SFI during its formative years. He has broad experience across the Department, working on SME policy, taxation policy, corporate and strategic planning, on intellectual property and patent policy, competition and mergers policy.

Dr. Rita R. Colwell
Chairman, Canon US Life Sciences, Inc.
Distinguished Professor, University of Maryland College Park and Johns Hopkins University
Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Rita Colwell is Distinguished University Professor both at the University of Maryland at College Park and at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Chairperson of Canon US Life Sciences, Inc.

Dr. Colwell served as the 11th Director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1998-2004. In her capacity as NSF Director, she served as Co-Chair of the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council. During her term as head of the NSF, Dr. Colwell oversaw a significant increase in budget and a consolidation of the support levels provided to scientists and engineers with NSF grants. In addition she broadened the NSF range of programmes with special interaction in K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate science and engineering education and the increased participation of women and minorities in science and engineering.

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Dr. Colwell holds a B.S. in Bacteriology and an M.S. in Genetics, from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Washington. She is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and has a number of honorary doctorates and serves on science advisory boards worldwide. She received the National Medal of Science from the President of the United States in 2006.

Mr. Tom Boland
Chief Executive Officer, Higher Education Authority

Mr. Tom Boland is Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Authority, a post he has held since January 2004. Mr. Boland has also had a distinguished career in the Department of Justice, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Education and Science. In the Department of Education and Science, he worked as legal adviser and as Director of Strategic Policy. He played a central role in putting in place a modern legislative basis for the education sector at all levels, including the first Education Act, the first Universities Act and the first Act relating to the education of people with special educational needs.

Currently a member of the Board of the Fulbright Commission, the Board of the Central Applications Office he is also Chairman of the Board of HEAnet. Mr. Boland is also a member of the Governing Board of the OECD’s Programme for Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE). Mr. Boland holds qualifications in civil engineering from NUIG and law (The King's Inns), and was called to the Irish Bar in 1989.

Ms. Bernie Cullinan

Bernie is CEO of Clarigen (www.clarigen.com), a company providing a full HR solution for companies in the SME sector.  Bernie is also a non executive director of Supplierforce.  Prior to this, Bernie was CEO of SteelTrace, an Irish company which was sold to Compuware Corporation in Detroit in 2006.  Prior to SteelTrace, Bernie was for five years COO of Performix Technologies, another technology company whose major market was the the US. In these roles, Bernie has played a key role in driving growth through sales and acquisition in addition to raising funds in the US, UK and Ireland to support the growth strategies.

Prior to Performix, Bernie has held challenging roles driving business growth within organisations, in Ireland, the UK and Australia.

Bernie is a past Chairman of the Irish Software Association.

Bernie has a BComm from UCD, an MBA from UCD and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Bernie is a past President of CIMA.

Mr. Sean Aherne

Vice President of Operations, Boston Scientific Limited,Tullamore

Mr. Aherne has been involved in industry for over 30 years including involvement in three start-up operations.  He has held positions in both production operations and engineering with Boston Scientific, Sherwood Medical and Braun. During this time he has led technology projects ranging from facility design and build to process automation and technology transfers.