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Board of Directors

Age Action Ireland's current Board of Directors are listed below.

If you would like more information about Age Action Ireland and its Board of Directors, please contact us:

  • Post: 30-31 Lower Camden St, Dublin 2
  • Phone: 01 4756989

Michael Ahern, Chair

Michael is the CEO of Dubco Ireland Credit Union Limited since 2013. He is a current member of the Credit Union Advisory Committee that advises the Minister for Finance with respect to the Credit Union sector .

Michael has a wide breadth of experience across industry, having trained with O’Brien Cahill & Co. and then joining PWC. Michael has held senior financial positions with Golden Vale plc, Glanbia plc, Dairygold, Marchmont Packaging, SIAC Construction, Niall Mellon Property, Reddy Architecture, Concast Precast, Merlin Motor and the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital.

He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds qualifications in Mediation (CEDR London & MFI), diplomas in Forensic Accounting and IFRS, and is a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA).

  Colm Nagle, Treasurer

Colm is non-executive Chairman of a number of owner-managed businesses and also provides strategic advice and guidance to growth-oriented SMEs. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

From 2010 until late 2016, Colm was Chief Financial Officer of Heatons which has 60 department stores across the island of Ireland and employs more than 2,000 people. Prior to that, he had been a Partner in BDO where he advised a diverse portfolio of indigenous Irish businesses and led the firm’s Family Business Advisory team

 

Ciara O’Donoghue

Ciara is a Director with Legal Services, KPMG Ireland. Ciara has in excess of 20 years’ experience as a Chartered Secretary working with a range of Irish and multinational clients operating in a number of sectors, advising on Irish company law and corporate governance matters. She is a Fellow of ICSA, The Chartered Governance Institute. For the past five years, Ciara acted as the voluntary Company Secretary of Nandri, a charity whose mission is to empower disadvantaged women in rural India.

Ailbhe Smyth

Ailbhe is a long-time campaigner on feminist, LGBT and other social issues. Most recently, she played a leading role in the marriage equality referendum campaign in 2015, and was Co-Director of the Together for Yes campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment. The former founding head of Women’s Studies at UCD (University College Dublin), she has published widely on feminism, gender, politics and culture. 

 

 

Tonya Myles

Tonya started her career as a journalist, writing about social and political issues for one of the leading Russian newspapers before moving to Ireland. In Ireland, her passion for human rights and interest in advocacy brought her to Cairde- a health advocacy organisation working to reduce health inequalities among ethnic minorities through the rights based approach – to take up a role as Women’s Health Development Worker, engaging directly with women, experiencing inequality and advocating on their behalf.

Tonya has over 17 years of experience in working with minority ethnic individuals and groups with a particular interest in women’s health. Currently, she is a General Manager of Cairde.  She previously worked as Community Development and Policy coordinator in Cairde and was involved in policy development initiatives with the ethnic minority communities. Tonya holds MA in Digital Media from Dublin Institute of Technology, MA in Journalism from Moscow State University and Professional Diploma in Human Rights and Equality from the Institute of Public Administration.

 

 

Tony Kehoe

Tony’s career, over some forty years, ranged over many sectors from Consumer Products, Aviation, to Medical Devices, and spanned many roles from Plant Manager through Operations Director to CEO, operating in both indigenous and multi- national companies. He holds a M.Sc. Eng from Trinity College Dublin and an M.Sc. in Sustainable Energy from UCC. Tony is an active volunteer with Age Action’s Care and Repair service in Cork. Born in Wexford, raised in Dublin, Tony has lived in Cork for the past 30 years. He and his wife Dorothy, also an active volunteer, have four adult children and six grand-children.

 

Ray McGrath

Ray lives at the edge of the Glazing Woods in Cheekpoint Co. Waterford where the Barrow River meets the Suir. His joy of walking, local history and the environment are brought to public attention in his Heritage Rambles in Gaultier weekly column in the Waterford News and Star.   Formerly a teacher and college principal in Canada he returned to Ireland in 1992 and became a lecturer in Lifelong Learning at WIT.   He is active in community matters, being a member of Waterford Council for Older People and the Waterford PPN Environmental Linkage Group.  He also served two terms as a board member with Waterford Leader and was a committee member on several Strategic Policy Committees of Waterford Council.  Ray is currently chairperson of Waterford U3A.

 

Susanne Moran

Originally from Sweden, Susanne lives in Dublin with her family and her dog. Over the past number years she has developed an interest in ageing matters, chairing a corporate Intergenerational Committee. 

Seeking an opportunity to contribute her extensive risk management expertise to the voluntary sector brought Susanne in contact with Age Action. Susanne holds a number of academic and professional qualifications. 

 

Dermot O'Riordan

Dermot has spent most of his career working in the public sector in various roles in the areas of corporate governance, internal audit, risk management and financial management. He is very experienced in providing consultancy and training services in these areas and latterly managed the governance function of several public sector bodies.

Currently Dermot is an external member of the audit committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and also the governance committee of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. He was until recently a director and chairman of the audit committee of the National Parents Council Primary. Dermot holds a Doctorate in Governance, is a member of Institute of Directors in Ireland and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Eithne McCarthy

Eithne is a solicitor and economist. She specialises in competition/antitrust law and has extensive experience in enforcement, regulatory and public law, human rights, and litigation at EU and national level.  She has previously worked for a leading international law firm in Brussels and London, the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority and is currently Lead Counsel at the Financial Conduct Authority in London; where she also chairs GCD Women driving real and practical change on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In addition, she is a visiting lecturer in law at the University of Limerick.

 

Niall Fitzgerald FCA

Strategy, sustainability and compliance do not often keep Níall awake at night as these are the kinds of things he eats for breakfast as Head of Ethics and Governance for Chartered Accountants Ireland, and again for lunch in any of his non-executive and/or advisor roles with several multinational organisations. Being a Galwegian living in Dublin he likes to also focus on wearing the green (Connacht) jersey in the RDS, ensuring his bi-lingual abilities can keep up with his family and that he can get to Croker for the All-Ireland! The mission, vision and values of Age Action Ireland have particular appeal to Níall who has been involved in advocacy and representation work, including for the Charity sector where he is a Judge for the Irish Good Governance Awards and co-founder of an Irish non-profit organisation, Chapter Zero Ireland. Níall is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds a number of professional and academic qualifications. Níall on Linked-in 

Age Action Awarded Investing In Volunteers National Quality Standard

Age Action is delighted to announce that we have been awarded the Investing in Volunteers quality standard. Investing in Volunteers (IiV) is the national quality standard for good practice in volunteer management in Ireland.

The Investing in Volunteers standard assesses the organisation’s volunteering programme in six areas: vision for volunteering, planning for volunteers, volunteer inclusion, recruiting and welcoming volunteers, supporting volunteers, and valuing and developing volunteers. As part of the process, we completed a self-assessment of our volunteering programme, and with the assistance of an Investing in Volunteers mentor, we then put together an improvement plan. Over the course of the assessment forty of our volunteers were interviewed as well as staff and board members.

Every year, hundreds of people volunteer with Age Action in our Getting Started digital literacy programme, and with our Care and Repair DIY Service. We would like to thank all of our wonderful volunteers who bring their time, energy and skills to Age Action and are the reason that our volunteering programme is so impactful. Volunteers are at the heart of our programmes and services at Age Action and without our volunteers we couldn’t fulfil our mission to support older people to live full and independent lives. Achieving the Investing in Volunteers quality standard shows our commitment to providing an experience that reflects how much we value our volunteers.

Here’s what some of our Volunteers said as part of the process:

‘I’ve gained a lot of skills from volunteering.  It has built my confidence in teamworking and communication.’

‘It keeps me active being able to help people and improve their quality of life’. 

‘I think they’ve got it just right with the amount of information to keep you in touch.  The monthly newsletter let’s you see what’s going on”.

“Emails keep you informed.  They are very willing to take suggestions on board, they encourage you to give them feedback’.

Going through the Investing in Volunteers process has helped us to review and improve our volunteering programme in its entirety, from how we recruit, train and support volunteers, to how we communicate with and involve our volunteers at all levels of the organisation. As we celebrate achieving the standard, we reiterate our commitment to providing the best possible volunteering experience for our volunteers who make an incredible difference in the lives of those older people we serve.