Appointments to the South/South-West Hospital Group Board

Following a Public Appointment Service (PAS) campaign, the Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, has appointed the following persons as members of the South/South-West Hospital Group Board. These appointments are with effect from 30 November 2017 to 29 November 2020.

Prof. Geraldine McCarthy, Chair South/South-West Hospital Group Board

Geraldine McCarthy is Emeritus Professor at University College Cork. She holds academic degrees from UCD, TCD and Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She has held nursing and managerial roles in Canada (Ontario), UK (London), USA (NY and Cleveland Ohio) and in Ireland (St Vincent’s, Beaumont and CUH). At University College Cork she was founding Chair of the Nursing and Midwifery School: led the establishment of diverse educational programs, was involved in the establishment and development of the College of Medicine and Health which she also led for a period of time, representing the College at a strategic and operational level. She has held membership of a number of Boards including the INO, Southern Health Board and Marymount Hospital Board and received Ministerial appointments to the Commission on Nursing, Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and Fulbright Commission. She has experience as member/Chair at Health Service and University levels. She brings to the Board knowledge of the health services together with experience in clinical practice, governance, education and strategic planning. At international level she maintains contact with managerial staff at Northwell Healthcare Organisation in NY/Long Island. She has published and presented research at national and international conferences and has supervised over 20 Doctoral Theses.

Mr John Fitzgerald

Mr Fitzgerald was Dublin City Manager from 1996 until 2006. Since 2006 he has been Chairman or non-executive board member on a number of public sector bodies including: Chair of the Grangegorman Development Agency, Chair of Limerick Regeneration, and Vice- Chair of Intertrade Ireland and Chair of An Post. He was on the board of the HSE, a board member of Reox plc, a Dairygold Co Op spin-out, Chair of the National Transport Authority. Currently John is on the board of the Property Registration Authority, a Trustee of Common Purpose Ireland and is an independent chair of the audit committee of the National Council for Special Education.

Mr Dan Byrne

Mr Byrne is a qualified Electrical Engineer and has worked in senior management positions with Fords of Cork, AnCO, Apple Computer and Digital Equipment Corp. With a distinguished international career he was a senior director of Apple’s European Operations based in Paris, France before moving to California to become a worldwide VP for Apple Inc. After Apple he was VP of European Operations for Digital’s Personal Computer Division. He co-founded Lincor Inc. a healthcare IT company with two ex-colleagues from Apple Computer where he remains as a Board member. Today, apart from Lincor, he is Chairman of a number of other technology companies based in Ireland. He was also previously Chairman of the Irish Health Services Accreditation Board and a Board member of both interim-HIQA and HIQA and is currently a Board member of Marymount University Hospital and Hospice.

Professor Deirdre Madden

Professor Madden is Professor of Law at University College Cork with research interests and publications primarily in the area of medical law and ethics.

Professor Madden was a member of the Medical Council from 2004 – 2013 and is a current member of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council. She has been a member of a number of national expert groups related to medical law, ethics and patient safety, including the National Patient Safety Advisory Group, the Board of the National Office of Clinical Audit, and the National Advisory Committee on Bioethics. Professor Madden also chaired the National Consent Advisory Group for the HSE and is current Chair of the HSE Assisted Decision-Making Steering Group. She has also acted as ethics consultant for the Health Information and Quality Authority on Health Information Technology, and was consulted by the HSE’s Expert Group on Medical Card Eligibility. Professor Madden was a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Citizens Assembly on the 8th Amendment of the Constitution, and is a member of the Independent Review Group examining the role of voluntary organisations in health and social care.

Ms Margaret Murphy

Ms Murphy has been actively involved as a patient safety advocate and is the External Lead Advisor to WHO Patients for Patient Safety (a network of 400 patient safety champions from 52 countries with 19 collaborating organisations).

The focus of her work relates to seeing adverse events as having the potential to be catalysts for change as well as being opportunities for learning, identifying areas for improvement and preventing recurrence.

She promotes this viewpoint at local, national and international levels as an invited presenter to conferences, hospital staffs and students. Her area of particular interest is education as a vehicle to achieve sustainable culture change.

Ms Niamh Scannell

Ms Scannell has 15 years’ experience leading technology research, innovation and early product concept development in the Health Tech industry. Her earlier career focused on large IT systems implementation to support internal operations as well as business process change management. At Intel, she led out their Digital Hospital programme, initially with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and later expanded the programme across Europe and into the US.

She secured significant funding to establish the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre in collaboration with the IDA, St James’s Hospital, TCD and UCD. She was Director of TRIL. She is a member of Enterprise Ireland’s expert review panel, Industry Advisor to the Insights Centre and volunteers as mentor/coach with TCD Innovation Academy, NDRC and DCU Ryan Academy. She is currently a Consultant for Technology Transformation.

Ms Helen O’Brien

Ms O’Brien has a history of public service, both nationally and community based. She has advised boards and individual directors and shareholders on matters of corporate governance, risk management, legal compliance and due diligence. She manages her own legal practice in Waterford and has advised and acted for the HSE and Tusla in this specialised area.

She is a member of numerous boards and committees including: the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and chairs the Tribunal divisions charged with inquiry into complaints by members of the public and the Law Society as to the conduct of solicitors, a member of the panel from which Personal Insolvency Complaints Committees are formed. Formerly, she held positions on the Determination Committee Panel; set up under the Stock Exchange Act and the Investment Intermediaries Act 1995 and was a member of the HSE’s legal panel.

Mr Michael O’Sullivan

Mr O’Sullivan is a Director of a number of companies and trusts operating in the private and public sector. He is currently Chairman of the Mercy University Hospital, Chairman of the Ervia Group pension scheme and a Non- Executive Director of Firmus Energy where he is also Chairman of the Board Audit and Risk Committee. He was formerly the Group Commercial Director of Bord Gais Eireann and has held Executive Director positions across a diverse range of business functions including Finance, Regulation, Infrastructure development and Strategic Planning. He played a leading role in the development and financing of a modern gas infrastructure network on the island of Ireland. He is a Chartered Management Accountant, Civil Engineer and holds an MBA from UCC. He is a member of the Institute of Directors of Ireland and a member of the leadership group of the Voluntary Healthcare Forum.

Professor Patrick O’Shea

Professor O’Shea became the 15th President of University College Cork on 1st February 2017.

A UCC Physics graduate and former Vice President and Chief Research Officer at the University of Maryland in the US. His academic, political and business acumen helped the university to become one of the leading research universities in the world. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Professor O’Shea’s area of expertise is in electromagnetics, and he is best known for his pioneering work on electron-accelerators and free-electron lasers. He has played a leading role in several large research programs, and supervised the work of over two dozen doctoral students.

Mr Michael Hall

Mr Hall has had a long career in the Grain and Feed business in Ireland. He has worked for 40 years in R&H Hall whose nationwide interests included Trading, Shipping, Port Stevedoring, Warehousing, Transport and other Milling and Agri interests.

He was actively involved in the development of Cork Harbour included serving as a Harbour Commissioner, working as a Director of the Cork Cargo Handling company and as a member & Chairperson of the Cork Port Users Association.

Michael has a strong commitment to the provision and development of healthcare in the region. He is a trustee of the Victoria Trust and was a Director of the Victoria Hospital. He was a key influencer in the merger of the Victoria Hospital and South Infirmary in 1988. He is currently Chairperson of the South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital. He has been involved in seeing the hospital change to a primarily elective hospital over the past 7 years. Michael has also served on the Advisory Board for the Reconfiguration of Services in the Southern Region.