Business to Arts is proud to announce that following our open recruitment earlier this summer for new Board Trustees, the Board of Business to Arts has overseen the appointment of five fantastic new additions to our Board. We are excited to welcome Aisling, Conor, Garry, Joanne and Maura and look forward to working with them over the next few years. They bring a wealth of experience and a broad network to Business to Arts including sustainability, fundraising, operations, governance, finance and legal expertise.
Stepping down from our board after multiple years of service this year were Chair, Davina Saint, Ger McNaughton, Jeanne Kelly and James Hanley, RHA. We are so grateful for their support over many years and will do a separate story honouring their time with BtoA later this autumn.
We are delighted to announce the new Chair of our Board is Myles Clarke, MD of CBRE who became a Director of Business to Arts in 2021 and is a proud supporter of the arts.
Board Trustees are crucial to charitable organisations in Ireland, as they provide strategic leadership, ensure legal and financial compliance, and safeguard the charity's mission. Their governance and decision-making are vital for the organisation's integrity, sustainability, and impact on the community.
Aisling McCaffrey
Aisling McCaffrey is a Director in the Advisory department of Grant Thornton Ireland specialising in Sustainability. Recognised externally for her commitment to delivering the Sustainable Development Goals, Aisling is a purpose-driven chartered accountant with over 10 years experience working with clients across Europe. She leverages her deep understanding of financial services infrastructure to translate ambition and regulatory requirements into practical actions to deliver sustainable change.
A strategic thinker with a passion for the arts, finance and effecting social change - Aisling wants to use her skillset to empower others to unlock their potential and have a positive impact on our planet and society. One of her key aspirations in life is to work to minimise barriers to economic participation and seek to create opportunities, particularly for individuals from minority groups.
Garry Ferguson
Garry is a retired lawyer and is currently pursuing a Masters in Literature in UCD. He spent over 20 years in practice as a debt capital markets lawyer during which time he worked on several award winning transactions and was ranked as a DCM industry leader in each of the leading international law journals.
In the last 12 years of his career as a lawyer he held various leadership positions including as Managing Partner of Walkers Ireland and as a member of a management committee responsible for the strategic direction of international financial services law firm, Walkers Global. Earlier in his career, Garry also lectured in the Law Society of Ireland.
Outside of law, Garry has always had a keen interest in cinema and literature and various sporting activities.
Joanne O’Hagan
Joanne O'Hagan is a senior media producer and non profit consultant with over 30 years experience in the creative and non profit sector. She has worked across film, television and commercial content production as a Production Manager and Producer for most of her career and been involved in strategic non profit development and fundraising alongside her creative career. Her philosophy in development and creativity is 'be effective, be smart, be kind and make a difference.'
Conor Delaney
Conor is an accomplished leader with 21 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a broad background across Operations, Supply Chain and Commercial management, with responsibility now for leading External Manufacturing Operations at Biomarin, recently ensuring ongoing supply and launch of commercial and clinical products throughout the challenging pandemic period.
Conor established his career at Pfizer, where his positions included Supply Chain Leader and EU Commercial Lead, a role in which he led the implementation of the company’s generic product portfolio sourcing and launch across 16 European markets. Conor trained in Industrial Microbiology at University College Dublin and holds a Master of Business Administration from University College Cork.
Maura Moore CDir
Maura Moore MBA CDir has over 25 years of national and international experience having held strategic leadership roles (AIB Group, Aventura Venture Partners, Eircom, Enterprise Ireland and Amicon Ireland) across diverse growth sectors of listed financial services including housing, professional services advisory, venture capital investing, economic development, telecoms/ICT, med tech, education and research. Her board executive and non-executive director experience spans the public and the private sector. She is an accredited Chartered Director and holds the Certified Investment Fund Director designation. Maura is an external board member (ministerial nominee) and deputy chair of Maynooth University Governing Authority. She completed an all-female expedition to the Arctic in 2018 for Debra Ireland.
A final note on team updates; we welcomed Chris Chapman this month who has commenced as our new Arts Portfolio Manager, stewarding our arts membership and looking after the development and delivery of our capacity-building programme for arts members. We are also looking forward to welcoming back Emily Carson, our Head of Strategic Partnerships & Communications, who returns in mid-September after a year of maternity leave.
Chris Chapman
Chris has two decades of experience working in the fast-growing environments of festivals, business, marketing, and tech. As an arts organisation founder (Open Ear Festival), business founder (Weekl.ie & Warehouse Food Market), in the world of tech (Ve Global) and experiential marketing (ModernGreen) he has been at the cross-section of business and arts for his entire career.
Chris will utilise his experience to help build the capabilities and capacity of our arts membership supporting their financial and operational sustainability.
