- Paul Connolly – Chairman
- Alma Carroll Ryan – Vice Chair
- Una Molony
- Ivor Fitzpatrick
- PJ Mara
- Philip O’Brien
- Tom Hayes
- Andrew Weld-Moore
- Sinead Kelly
Paul Connolly
Paul Connolly holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (B.Comm) from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA) in Ireland. After graduating from University College Dublin Paul joined KPMG in Dublin. Since March 1991 Paul has owned and managed Connolly Corporate Finance a boutique investment banking firm based in Ireland. Connolly Corporate Finance has worked closely with a number of companies, particularly Esat Telecom Group plc , Hibernia Foods plc. and the Digicel Group.
Paul serves on the Boards of Independent News & Media plc, Communicorp Group, Melita Cable plc and he is chairman of the private Irish media group Business & Finance. In the past Paul has served on the boards of two NASDAQ quoted companies - Esat Telecom plc an Irish fixed and mobile telecoms operator and Hibernia Foods plc a UK based food processor as well as the board of Digicel a privately owned mobile communications company operating in 32 countries in the Caribbean, Central America and the South Pacific. In October 2010 Paul was invited to become an external Senior Adviser to Credit Suisse.
Since joining the board of UNICEF Paul has been on a number of field visits including a visit to Bosnia to learn more about the impact of conflict and unexploded ordnances on children as well as a visit to Haiti in July 2010 following the devastating earthquake there on January 12th 2010. Paul has also represented UNICEF Ireland at the 54th and 55h Annual Meetings of all the world wide UNICEF National Committees in Luxembourg and Korea respectively.
Una Molony
Una Molony is a proud Unicef board member since 2004. She believes in gathering good people around a good idea to make good things happen and is very organised and persuasive.
Una has a wealth of experience in public relations, sales, marketing and event management, she is a graduate of GMIT and previously worked in some of Ireland's finest hotels including Ashford Castle and The Shelbourne. Her career in London took her to The Five Star Excelsior and The Westbury and following that she established the Overseas Sales Office for Trust House Forte Hotels Ireland. Since leaving fulltime work after the birth of her second child Una has returned to the hotel business working on various projects, she temporarily re- opened The Shelbourne during the Ryder Cup and keeps herself up to date working with The Firm Recruitment Company.
Una lives in Sandymount with her husband and four children. Amidst friends and family Una is always known for her creativity, her west of Ireland work ethic, good humour and natural project management skills - all very useful in a busy life.
Ivor Fitzpatrick
Ivor Fitzpatrick is a Solicitor and the founding partner of Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co. one of Ireland’s leading law firms.
PJ Mara
PJ is the Chairman of Mara & Associates, a firm that he founded in 1992 and which acts as advisors in the areas of financial planning, public relations and public affairs to financial institutions, public companies and transnational corporations. Also in 1992, he was appointed Media Relations Adviser to Guinness Peat Aviation, the Irish-based aircraft leasing group. Since then, PJ has been an advisor to a large number of Irish and UK PLCs, as well as many transnational corporations.
PJ is one of Ireland’s most highly respected political advisors. In 1983 - following a brief period as a Member of the Irish Senate - he was appointed Press Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Fianna Fáil, in the Irish Parliament and continued in this role until 1987, when he became Press Secretary to the Prime Minister and Government of Ireland. He ran Fianna Fáil's national election campaigns in 1997, 2002 and 2007 - all of which proved successful for the party.
PJ served on the board of the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, which took almost four years to organise and was the first such Games to take place outside of the USA in its 36-year history. It was also the world's largest sporting event for 2003, featuring 7,000 athletes from more than 150 countries, participating in 21 sports. PJ is also a board member of Digicel, the mobile phone operator with operations in the Caribbean, Central America and the South Pacific.
Between 2003 and 2008, PJ acted as an Advisor to the Prime Minister and Government of Croatia.
Philip O’Brien
Philip O’Brien is the Executive Vice President of Communications, Advocacy, and Development at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The Public Policy, Advocacy, and Communications Department and the Department of Development and Marketing, which he oversees, are charged with increasing visibility and global support for the Foundation through coordinated marketing, communications, advocacy, and fundraising initiatives. Prior to joining the Foundation, Philip spent more than 20 years at the UNICEF, most recently as the Director of Private Fundraising and Partnerships, where he led global development, advocacy, and communications initiatives. In his role, Philip managed the relationship with 36 UNICEF national committees, providing guidance and strategic support related to the individual programs’ brand-building, fundraising, and outreach activities. Philip worked with international and non-governmental organizations in Europe, Sudan, Bangladesh, Yemen, and Tanzania. He received his undergraduate degree in social policy and administration, and a master’s degree in economic science, at the University of Wales, Swansea. He is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Tom Hayes
Tom was appointed Chief Executive, Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking, in January 2006. He has over 30 years experience in banking across retail, business banking and corporate banking platforms. Under his leadership, Bank of Ireland’s Corporate Banking business has consolidated its market leading position in Ireland and significantly expanded its international footprint across a range of niche businesses.
Corporate Banking has five main divisions, Corporate Ireland and UK, Leveraged Finance, Asset Based Lending, Project Finance and Property Finance, with 450 staff across offices in Dublin, Belfast, London, Birmingham, Manchester, New York, Stamford, Chicago, Paris, Frankfurt and Sydney.
In 2005, Tom oversaw the acquisition of Burdale Financial, the UK headquartered asset based lender from Wachovia. The business which has subsequently expanded into the US market has enjoyed strong profit growth and represents one of the bank's most successful acquisitions.
Tom is a member of the Bank's Senior Credit Committee and a Director of the Institute of Bankers in Ireland.
Andrew Weld-Moore
Andrew Weld-Moore is manager of the Nordic markets online sales operation at Facebook’s Europe, Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dublin and oversees general management responsibilities while serving as a cross functional liaison; working with product, engineering, sales, business development, marketing and finance to drive Facebook’s most important strategic priorities within the region. He joined Facebook after over five years at UTV Radio, where he was responsible for strategic sales & marketing policies, driving revenue across the company’s portfolio of radio stations. In that role he helped build UTV’s radio network into one of the largest in the marketplace. Prior to that, Andrew served as national account director for Beat 102-103 Ireland’s first regional radio station where he devised and implemented the sales & marketing strategy for the organisation. Earlier Andrew was an account director at Lite FM where he was centrally involved in the developing strategic relationship with advertising agencies and large brands. Andrew holds a postgraduate diploma in Public relations from the Fitzwilliam Institute.
Sinead Kelly
Sinead graduated with a degree in Cultural Studies and French from DKIT in 2000 with a follow on semester at the University of Dijon. Sinead also studied theatre at DKIT for two years and acted in several college theatre productions. After completing her degree in 2000 she taught junior infants as a substitute teacher and later that year she started working as cabin crew in Aer Lingus.
Sinead has a passion for Irish humour and sense of fun and as a result was the co-founder of the website www.overheardindublin.com where people can share funny, bizarre and inappropriate stories, anecdotes and overheard snippets of conversations and she has co-written four Overheard in Dublin books, with the most recent published in September 2010.
In 2009 she returned to studies at DKIT in which she did her honours degree in Cultural Studies, graduating in 2010 with a BA (Hons) in Cultural Studies. Sinead is currently studying a Masters in Drama and Performance Studies at U.C.D with she has a particular love for acting and writing.
In September 2010 she became a UNICEF Champion for Children on behalf of Aer Lingus and went on a UNICEF field trip to Kenya.