National Council
Menu 
Colin Dunne
2023Â President, Irish Exporters Association & Joint Managing Director
International Warehousing and Transport (IWT)
Colin has over 20 yearsâ experience in the world of shipping and transport. He has worked for three years in the Netherlands in Rotterdam Port and founded IWT Rotterdam â the objective to forming IWT in the Netherlands in the 90âs was to get closer to his customers.
Colin has worked in Commercial Operational and General Management roles for many years and has a large reach having travelled extensively in his business life.
Colin was part of the team that lead the successful Management buyout of the IWT Group in 2003 which incorporates 5 companies involved in all modes of transport logistics and supply chain solutions.
Gabbie White
Senior Vice President, Chair of Dublin Network Group, Irish Exporters Association & Director, Global Logistics
Alexion Pharmaceuticals
Gabbie has 20+ yearsâ experience in global imports, exports, transportation & warehousing across the pharmaceutical & FMCG , while also involved in all aspects of logistics & supply chain.
Gabbie has worked with Alexion Pharmaceuticals since 2013 as part of their Global Supply Chain, responsible for their product shipment and distribution network.
Gabbie is a graduate of UCD Smurfit Business School with an MSc in Business Leadership & Management Practice.
Patrick Joy
Immediate Past President, Irish Exporters Association & Director
Suretank
Patrick Joy is the founder of Suretank Group and was the 2013 Irish EY Entrepreneur of the Year. He is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer (University College Dublin, 1974) and also has an MBA (Trinity College Dublin, 1988).
Patrick recently sold two thirds of his business to Hitecvision, a Norwegian private equity and he has now stepped back from his previous full time role of Chairman and Managing Director. He devotes his time to mentoring and investing in new start-up businesses. He is a director and investor in a number of companies. He has spent four years on the Board of Intertrade Ireland where he chaired the Funding for Growth and Acumen Committees.
Outside of his business interests, Patrick is a member of Engineers Ireland, Boyne RFC, Royal Dublin Society and Co. Louth golf club.
Simon McKeever
Chief Executive
Irish Exporters Association
Simon McKeever is the Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association (IEA) having held this position since 2013. Simon leads the Associationâs work on several policy areas including COVID-19, Brexit, Market Diversification, Sustainable Trade and Investment and Trade Compliance.
The IEAâs participation on a number of Government stakeholder groups and EU forums is driven by Simon on behalf of the IEAâs broad membership base, which includes companies across the international trade industry. This broad membership base well places the IEA as a key interlocutor in the supply chain.
Prior to Simon taking up his current position as Chief Executive, he spent 3 years as Director of Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Dublin, which placed him at the forefront of joint trade strategy between Ireland and the UK, where he developed a close working relationship between UK Trade and Investment and Enterprise Ireland. Simon was the driving force behind the creation of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, and his leadership on the Agri-food agenda created a joint initiative that has kicked off the first Irish British Food Business Innovation Summit in Dublin.
Barry Cullen
Head of Sales, Silver Hill Duck, Chair of Border-Midlands Network Group, Irish Exporters Association
Silver Hill Foods
Barry has over 20 years experience in the FMCG sector, the last 10 of which has been focused in developing Export Markets for the various companies he has worked for.
Barry had previously spent 12 years with the Kerry Group in various Senior commercial roles both nationally and internationally.
During the last 7 years with the Silver Hill Company and during his Tenure, sales have doubled and the number of Export markets has increased from 9 to 30.
Barry is the current President of the IEA. Barry joined the IEA Council in May 2018 and chairs the IEAâs Border-Midlands Network Group in which he brings together exporters in the region to discuss issues of concern to members, particularly Brexit.
Niall Savage
Retail and Manufacturing Lead
KPMG
Niall holds and B.Comm and an M.B.S. in International Business from UCD and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. He is a partner in KPMG Ireland with over 20 years of experience across Consumer Markets.
He is the current Irish market lead for Retail and Manufacturing, working with Irish owned and controlled businesses with Global operations. He has worked extensively in the US, the UK, Europe and Asia for Groups with interests in the Automotive, Utility, Engineering, Construction, Media and Food sectors.
Outside of work Niall is a player and supporter of Greystones Rugby Club, where he serves on the Clubâs Executive Committee.
Louise Bannon
Head of Marketing
Dublin Airport
Louise is Head of Marketing at Dublin Airport and a member of the Executive Team. Louise has overall responsibility for consumer and B2B/Partner marketing programmes and digital channels, as well as an extensive customer research and planning function.
Louise has over 20 yearsâ experience in marketing and product management/development roles, focused on driving customer-led strategy development and implementation in complex customer service environments.
Louise joined the DAA in 2006, having previously held senior management roles in two of Irelandâs key utilities; Eircom and ESB. A former president of the Association of Advertisers in Ireland, Louise remains on the Council. Louise is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Technology and holds an MBS from Dublin City University.
Tom Keogh
Managing Director
Tom founded Keoghs Crisps in 2011 in response to declining potato sales from his family potato farm in North Co Dublin.
Since then Keoghs Crisp have been one of the fastest growing food businesses in Ireland and have developed sales in over 18 export markets.
Proudly holding many national and international awards in both quality and business excellence, Tom works tirelessly across all business areas
Paschal McCarthy
Head of Business Services, Mercy Hospital Foundation
A Science Graduate of NUIG, Paschal hold an MBA from NUIG and a Diploma in Corporate Governance from the Institute of Directors (London). Paschal is also a Chartered Director.
Paschal has spent 35 years in Management in the Pharmaceutical industry in Ireland with Baxter Healthcare, Schering Plough, Nycomed Ireland, Amersham Health and laterally General Electric Healthcare (GEHC).
Currently Paschal is Director of ATEX Verification Services, Hol-Den Installations, Steel and Roofing Systems, Cronus Ventures Ltd, and Managing Director of Paschal McCarthy Management & Consultancy Services. Paschal was President of the Irish Exporters Association 2016/17.
Glenn Carr
General Manager
Rosslare Europort & Rail Freight Irish Rail
Glenn was appointed General Manager Rosslare Europort & Rail Freight Irish Rail in September 2017. He had previously been General Manager Rail Freight since 2013, responsible for all rail and road freight services within IarnrĂłd Ăireann Irish Rail.
Glenn leads the management teams in both Freight and Rosslare that are focused on commercially driving the businesses forward and is overseeing the largest capital investment in Rosslare Europort in the coming years. Rosslare Europort is one of Irelandâs leading ports and offers the quickest daily direct services to the UK and mainland Europe.
Prior to working in the rail, Glenn held a number of senior positions within the retail industry across Human Resources, Logistics and Operations. Glenn is a graduate of DCU where he received an MBA.
Dr. Cera Slevin
Founder & Director
Climate Matters Ltd
Cera is an experienced engineer and company director with 25 years across energy; from design, construction, operations & maintenance, trading, project development to establishing joint ventures, new business models and investment management. Cera founded Climate Matters Ltd to deliver Climate Risk Solutions for Business Models and works with clients on Climate Related Financial Disclosures with reporting to TCFD recommendations.
Prior to this Cera was involved in establishing and developing a number of Innovative Solar PV and battery storage businesses and has worked in Africa, Middle East, Australia and Europe.
Cera holds a BEng and PhD in Mechanical Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer (CEng). Â She also has Postgraduate Diplomas in Coastal Zone Management, Leadership & Management as well as Business Coaching.
Liam Hyland
Director of Export & International Trade, Musgrave
Liam Hyland is the Director of Exports and International Trade for Musgrave with a wealth of experience in breaking new channels and markets within the food sector. Supported by over 30 years in the food industry, Liam has a proven track record of âGrowing good businessâ as a number one priority for Musgrave.
Hugh Hennessey
Divisional Director, Indecon & IEA Honorary Economist
Hugh Hennessy is an experienced professional economist with over 15 yearsâ experience working in a variety of roles. He is currently a Divisional Director at Indecon Economic Consultants. Prior to this, he was part of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) Â and held a number of senior roles in the Department of Justice. He started his career as a researcher in the Economic and Social Research Institute. He is the Honorary Economist for the IEA.
John Mee
Global Director of Supply Chain, Trinity Biotech
John is an accomplished and experienced Supply Chain professional with a first class record of international achievements across multiple industry sectors. He has highly developed skills in Supply Chain Management, Business Analytics, Creative Problem Solving, Business Strategy. He has previously held positions in EY, Grifols and Glanbia.
Eoghan Doyle
Partner, Philip Lee LLP
Eoghan is a partner specialising in corporate, commercial and technology matters. Eoghanâs key practice areas include corporate transactions, corporate re-structuring, corporate advisory, commercial contracts and data protection. Eoghan advises Irish and international clients on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance matters.
Eoghan has extensive experience advising on a range of corporate transactions, Â including mergers and acquisitions, project finance, private equity and venture capital transactions, corporate re-organisations and management buy-outs. He also works with companies setting up in Ireland as part of our foreign direct investment offering.