Members of the Board
Ms. Helen Conlan - President
Helen was appointed Chair of the CMRF in 2017. She joined the Board in 2010. She is a Business Studies graduate of Trinity College Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. She has worked in the property industry for the past 25 years. She lives in Kildare town, where she is involved in various community and voluntary groups.
Dr Ruth Barrington
Dr Barrington is a director of the Voluntary Health Insurance Board and a member of the Press Council of Ireland. She is the Chair of TREOIR, the federation of services for unmarried parents; the Chair of the Council of the National Children’s Research Centre; and Chair of the St John of God Research Foundation. She is a director of the Children’s Medical Research Foundation and the Daniel O’Connell Summer School.
She was chief executive of Molecular Medicine Ireland from 2007-2012 and of the Health Research Board from 1998 to 2007. She previously served as an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Health.
From 2002 to 2012 she was a governor of The Irish Times Trust, serving as Chair of the Trust from 2010 to 2012. She was a director of the Board of Irish Times Ltd. from 2008-2012. She was previously a Director of TASC, a not-for-profit research organisation dedicated to reducing economic inequalities and improving the quality of democracy in Ireland.
She is a graduate of University College Dublin and the College of Europe, Bruges and was awarded a PhD from the London School of Economics in 1985. She was awarded an honorary degree in laws by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in May 2005.
Prof Owen Smith
Professor Owen Patrick Smith is Professor of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine at University College Dublin, Consultant Paediatric Haematologist at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin and is Chief Academic Lead to the Children’s Hospital Group. Professor Smith also holds the title, Honorary Regius Professor of Physic (1637) in the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin and is Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin.
Christian Kinnear
A Dublin native, married to Suzie and father to son Daniel. Having fund raised for a variety of charitable organisations in Ireland over many years, Christian was delighted to join the board of CMRF in 2017 and accept the invitation to directly support the tremendous work of CMRF. He brings a wealth of commercial experience from the IT and Software industry where he has held international leadership roles in Sage, Oracle, Google and now his current role as Managing Director of Hubspot's EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) operations. With a lifelong passion for rugby, Christian is a member and past Exec Board Member of Monkstown FC in Sandymount helping to grow the amateur and underage game in Ireland.
Barry Reid
Barry was educated in Newbridge College, Newbridge, Co Kildare and graduated from the National University of Ireland Galway (B Corp Law) and qualified as a solicitor in 2004. Having spent 8 years in practice in Newbridge Co Kildare he is now the principal of Reidy Associates Solicitors based in Dublin 2. Barry’s specific areas of practice relate to property and company law including corporate governance advices for directors and shareholders. He is a member of the Law Society of Ireland and the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association. He lives in Dublin with his wife and two children.
David Phelan
David is Managing Partner of Hayes solicitors, based in Dublin. He advises on commercial issues for clients in the media, retail, aviation, sports and motor sectors, amongst others.
Paula Kilbane
Dr Kilbane is a member of the Boards of Health Information and Quality Authority, the Centre for Effective Services, the Children’s Medical and Research Foundation, chairs the Strategy Advisory Board of ESHI, The Environmentally Sustainable and Health Institute, DIT Grangegorman, and she is also a member of Grafton Recruitment in Ireland and Europe. Her professional interests include Quality and Patient Safety, Health Information Systems and Technology Assessment, and HIV and AIDS, Inequality and Health, and Intersectoral working and Public Policy development.
Dr Kilbane trained in London in Public Health Medicine where she held two Consultant posts. On return to Northern Ireland in 1986 she became a Director of Public Health and, entering management, subsequently served as CEO of the Southern and then the Eastern Health and Social Services Board in Belfast from 1993 till her retirement in 2009. She chaired the Corporate Risk Committee of the HSE from 2011-2013 on her relocation to Dublin in 2012.
In addition to her extensive UK experience in Health and Social Care, Paula has served on a number of All Island Bodies. For example, she was the first Director General of CAWT (a cross border health collaboration), and she has also served in fields and sectors outside Health including European Funding Bodies and the Higher Education Funding Council N.I. She also has served as a member of the Strategy Advisory Groups of the IPH (Institute of Public Health Ireland) and of the Northern Ireland Research and Development Office.
A graduate of Queens University Belfast, she is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (UK and Ireland). She was awarded the CBE for services to the NHS in Northern Ireland.
Liam Marnane
Liam Marnane, B.Comm, MBS, Dip Corp Gov,
Liam joined the CMRF Board in 2015. He was formerly Marketing Director and CEO of Cadbury Schweppes Ireland.
He also served as a Non Executive Director of Crumlin Children's Hospital.
Cara Ryan
Ms Cara Ryan is a Non-Executive Director of IFG Group Plc a listed financial services group on the Irish and London Stock exchanges. She also sits on the Audit and Remuneration Committees of the Group and is the Chair of the Nominations Committee. Ms Ryan is also a director of Harmony Capital Partners, a private investment company.
Ms Ryan was appointed Managing director of IFG Investment Managers from 2001 until the business was sold in 2006. Ms Ryan has held board positions on numerous companies and investment funds and was an executive director of Manor Park Homebuilders where she dealt with all financial and legal matters of the Group.
Ms Ryan holds a BA in Economics and an MSc in Investment and Treasury.
Dr Michael McDermott
Dr Michael McDermott MB, FRCPI, FRCPath is a Medical graduate of University College Dublin, Ireland in 1987. Returned to Ireland in 1997 after training in the United States at Washington University Medical Center in St Louis and was appointed as a Consultant Paediatric Pathologist at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin. Currently clinical lead for Paediatric Laboratory Medicine in the Children’s Hospital Group. Michael is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, a Member of the Faculty of Pathology of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and an associate member of the Faculty of Paediatrics in the same college. Formerly a member of the Irish Medical Council fitness-to-practice jury panel. Vice-chairman of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Irish National Accreditation Board, the organization responsible for laboratory accreditation in Ireland.
Anne-Marie Whelehan
Anne-Marie is Head of Operations for the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Anne-Marie joined the team to develop the business activities of the Fund into a world class operation.
Prior to her current role Anne-Marie worked in London as Chief Financial Officer for Source, an ETF business created by a consortium of investment banks. Before that, she was Chief Operations Officer and Executive Director for Irish Life Investment Managers and Group Financial Controller for Digicel based in Jamaica.
Anne-Marie is a Chartered Accountant having started her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers then moving onto Irish Life & Permanent plc in a number of finance and operational roles. She has an MBA from Dublin City University. Most recently she has gained a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors in the UK.
John Greely
John Greely qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte and spent eight years as Financial Controller/Finance Director in the advertising/bakery/house building industries. He is partner in a three partner practice in Naas, Co. Kildare. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Institute of Taxation in Ireland and the Internal Audit Institute. He is a member of the Audit committee of the Kildare Wicklow Education and Training Board. He is a Director of Trifol Resources Limited, a clean-tech company. He is also a Trustee of Naas Lawn Tennis Club and Naas Hockey Club and Treasurer of Birdwatch Kildare and Chairman of the Board of Monread Community Centre.