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.
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.
Dermot O'Riordan
Dermot 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.
Now retired from paid employment, currently Dermot is the chairman of the audit and risk committee of the Royal Irish Academy, the chairman of the governance committee of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and a member of the governance, audit and risk committee of Christ Church Cathedral Dublin. Until recently he was a member of the finance, audit and risk committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and previously a Director and Chairman of the audit committee of the National Parents Council Primary. Dermot holds a Doctorate in Governance and is a member of Institute of Directors in Ireland and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
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.
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 Legal Division 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.
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.
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
Jonah Mudewhe
Jonah is the Irish Refugee Council’s Finance and Administration Manager and brings vast experience in financial and senior management, strategy and governance, having previously held the position of C.E.O. for the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations based in Zimbabwe for 10 years.
He has held the position of Finance Manager in other organisations like World Vision in Zimbabwe and Cairde in Ireland. Jonah is also a Board member for the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and ENAR Ireland. He holds a Bachelor of Business Studies degree from the University of Zimbabwe and also an MA in International Development Studies.
Fiona Weldon – ILMI Capacity Development Officer
Fiona joined ILMI at the end of 2020 as the Strategies for Change Programme Coordinator. Since then, Fiona has taken up a new position within ILMI as Capacity Officer.
Fiona has over 30 years of experience in working in the Disability Sector and brings a wealth of experience in designing and delivering training and education programmes on a cross-impairment basis.
Fiona’s work is motivated by the reality of the effects of segregation, exclusion, and non-disabled professionalism. Henceforward promoting the need for a Rights Based Model of Support to people who are labelled disabled that is driven by both the Social Model of Disability and the Philosophy of Independent Living as professed by the Disabled People’s Movement.
Fiona’s initial work in this sector involved setting up a local Independent Living Service offering Personal Assistance to local disabled people that wanted more choice and more control over the supports that they needed to assist them with their daily living tasks.
Fiona holds an MA in Disability Studies, Diplomas in Community Development, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Counselling Skills. She also holds Certificates in other subjects including Advanced Facilitation, Equality Studies, Social Care, Reality Therapy, Assistive Technology and Supported Self-Directed Living.
Fiona has worked for the National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) in Trinity College, NUI Maynooth and the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in Dublin City University. Her work here involved evaluating/researching and/or delivering evidence based Bespoke Training Programmes that purposely intended to enable disabled people to believe in themselves to want better lives.
Dr Jennifer Okeke
Dr. Jennifer Okeke is the Anti-Trafficking Coordinator with the Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Vice Chairperson of the National Women Council of Ireland (NWCI). She is a community activist and former chairperson of a migrant women’s organisation based in Ireland.
Jennifer is a board member of the European Network of Migrant Women (ENoMW) and has extensive knowledge and expertise on issues of GBV, anti-trafficking, human rights and migration (refugees, asylum seekers, direct provision). She has a proven history of supporting local migrant communities in the promotion of integration.
Jennifer was recently awarded a PhD from Dublin City University, and her research was on the experience of African migrant women trafficked into/through Ireland for sexual exploitation. She holds a Master's in International Relations, from the School of Law and Government, DCU and a BSC from University College Birmingham.
Committee Members 2024
Rajesh Manirajan (Finance & Audit Committee)
Rajesh is a Chartered Accountant trained with KPMG in Sri Lanka, currently working as a Group Financial Controller at the Davy Group. Rajesh has worked on a number of Finance positions in Dublin for the past 17 years. Most notably Rajesh worked in PTSB between 2009 and 2019 and held various senior roles including Head of Investor Relations between 2015 to 2019.
Fergus McDonald (Governance & Risk Committee)
Fergus is an experienced banker having worked for 40+ years with Bank of Ireland Group (BOI) across Corporate, Retail & Risk divisions. Over that time, he has developed a core capability in banking, lending, risk, governance, compliance and strategy execution. His last position in BOI was as Chief Operating Officer of the Corporate Banking division where he managed the operations of a business located in Ire/UK/EU/US with c400 employees. He has held senior management positions in BOI and is recognised as having extensive knowledge and expertise in all aspects of dealing with the financial requirements of Irish and International (UK/EU/US) clients with a demonstrated track record of significant commercial achievement.
Fergus is married with 4 children, lives in Rathfarnham and his hobbies include cycling and football.
Edel Murphy (Governance & Risk Committee)
Edel is Head of Business Assurance for the National Lottery and a graduate of UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
