Governance committee

Sean Baker is an entrepreneur based in Dublin and co-founder of IONA Technologies plc, where he held many executive positions including CTO, SVP of Customer Services, Chief Scientist, and VP Applied Research.

He is Chairman of Incaplex, a healthcare IT startup; and a director of Calom Technologies. He is Chairman of the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC), and a member of the centre’s investment committee. He was Chairman of the Irish Software Association from 2009 to 2011.  He is a member of the governance boards of a number of Science Foundation Ireland funded projects including Lero, ICHEC and Clique; and is a member of the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. He is also a mentor under Enterprise Ireland’s iGAP programme. He was a member of the boards of Iona Technologies plc, Havok, Gridstore and Delta Index. He is also an Adjunct professor at UCD.

Professor Feely is Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact and a Professor of Electronic Engineering at University College Dublin. She holds a BE degree from University College Dublin and MS and PhD degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, where her PhD thesis won the DJ Sakrison Memorial Prize for outstanding and innovative research. While at UC Berkeley, she also won the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.  She leads a research group in nonlinear circuits and has been awarded research grants and prizes from a number of national, international and industry sources.

Professor Feely is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Engineers Ireland and the Irish Academy of Engineering. She has served as Chair of the Irish Research Council and of the IEEE Technical Committee on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems, and as a member of a number of Editorial Boards. She is a director of the Young Scientist and  Technology Exhibition.

Professor Feely is Chair of the EU Horizon 2020 Advisory Group on Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions and is also a member of the Higher Education Authority.

Philip is Chairman of Ilex Urban Regeneration Company Ltd. Ilex URC was established by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland to promote the physical, economic and social regeneration of Derry-Londonderry and has specific responsibility to manage and re-develop the large former military base of Ebrington. He is former CEO of The Digital Hub a Government Agency established in 2003 to create a centre of excellence for Digital enterprise, education and the arts to accelerate the development of Ireland’s digital

Bill Kearney is Vice President IBM Ireland Lab and Director of IBM Dublin Campus where 1000 people are employed over three different cities in Ireland. The lab is involved in a wide range of software projects and engages with businesses, communities and universities throughout the country

John Mc Sweeney was appointed  Head of  Innovation of ESB in 2012. He previously held senior positions as Executive Director of Energy International in 2011, Manager of ESB Asset Development ,Manager of Engineering and Facility Management at ESB International and Manager of ESB IT Solutions and Telecoms .A physics  graduate and a mechanical engineer John joined ESB in .1992 and is now retired from this role. Prior to his career in the energy sector he held senior positions in the Industrial Development Authority including Director Germany and is a former Irish Army Officer.

Professor Norelee Kennedy was appointed Vice President for Research at University of Limerick in July 2019 and took up the post in January 2020. Professor Kennedy is an Associate Professor of Physiotherapy in the School of Allied Health at UL. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BSc in Physiotherapy in 1999 and a PhD (2004) in the field of physiotherapy and rheumatology. She also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics (TCD 2000) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (NUI Galway 2004).

Prof. Kennedy was appointed as Lecturer in Physiotherapy at UL in 2004, becoming Associate Professor in 2018. She was the Head of School of Allied Health, UL from 2014-2019. During that time she oversaw the first external quality review of the school, six regulatory body programme approvals and monitorings of professional programmes as well as the establishment of two new professional graduate entry programmes. She also co-led the successful first School of Allied Health, Athena SWAN application for a Bronze award in 2018.

Alongside her academic leadership Norelee leads a programme research in the field of rheumatology/physiotherapy. To date she has been awarded almost €3 million in research funding from national and EU funders. Currently, she leads a Health Research Board funded project and is also part of a EULAR-funded European wide group developing an educational programme for health professionals to promote physical activity in people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs). In 2018, Norelee was invited to sit on a EULAR European working group to develop recommendations for physical activity for people with RMDs. She also served on the EULAR Health Professionals committee (2014-2019).

As Former Divisional Manager for Enterprise Ireland, Jennifer was responsible for the development of Enterprise Ireland’s policy and strategy for the growth of the Irish software industry. This included software and internet companies targeting key global software markets including financial services, public sector, eLearning, telecommunications and digital media. Prior to joining Enterprise Ireland, Jennifer gained extensive experience in the software industry having worked in software design and development, project management, software sales and marketing. For a period of 10 years up to 1997, Jennifer was Managing Director of Fujitsu-ICL's Information Technology Centre in Dublin. Jennifer is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institute of Engineers Ireland and Fellow of Irish Computer Society.