Board of Directors

The Marie Keating Foundation is a registered charity in Ireland (ROI company number 342695, Charity number CHY 12916 RCN 20038953) with our headquarters in Lucan, Co Dublin.

As a not-for-profit, charitable status company, the Marie Keating Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors. At present, the board is comprised of:

  • Michael O’Reilly (Director and Chairperson)
  • Patricia Lawler (Director and Secretary)
  • Mark Grehan (Director)
  • Marie McGinley (Director)
  • Laura Larkin (Director)
  • Kathy O'Donnell (Director)
  • Mark Culleton (Director)
  • Dermot Nolan (Director)
  • Annette Hickey (Director)
  • Derek Mc Kay (Director)

The Board of Directors meets six times a year to guide the Foundation through strategic decisions and planning, as well as financial and organisational assessments. The Board of Directors also sets pay rates for senior staff.

See below for more information about our board members.

Michael-OReilly

Michael O’Reilly (Chairperson & Director and member of the Audit & Finance Committee)

Appointed June 2014.

Michael has recently retired from his role as the Group Finance Director of DDFH&B, Ireland’s largest advertising group and CFO of GroupM ( WPP’s Media Group in Ireland) . He is an experienced finance professional, having previously held senior finance positions in both the entertainment and financial service sectors.

Michael is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (FCCA) and a past president of the Leinster Society. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, and is currently participating in the Chartered Director Programme at the Irish Management Institute and and has recently completed the IoD Chartered Director Programme at the Irish Management Institute
A founding member and current treasurer of the Rotary Club of Dublin Central, Michael is also a member of St. Georges Brass Band.
Michael is married to Colette and has three teenage children.

 

Patricia Lawler, Managing Director Scope Clinical Research Ltd (Director and Secretary)

Appointed June 2017.

Patricia qualified as a nurse at St Vincent’s Hospital and set up Scope Clinical Research Ltd a Contract Research Organisation in April 1993. Patricia is currently the Managing Director at Scope, an experienced professional with over 25 years’ experience in providing clinical research and training services in Ireland, The UK and Europe.

Patricia is a member of the Institute of Directors obtaining a Certificate in company direction IoD 2016 (Hons) and Diploma in company direction IoD 2016.

Patricia is married with one child. A keen interest in sailing Patricia was the Junior Officer at the Royal Irish Yacht Club 2012 to 2015 and is still actively involved in junior sailing. Patricia is currently the Chairperson of the Gonzaga 2022 parent’s forum.

Patricia is a breast cancer survivor and is delighted and privileged to work with the Marie Keating Foundation

 

Mark Grehan, Marketing Communications Consultant (Director)

Appointed April 2018.

A graduate of the Marketing Institute and DIT, Mark has 25 years experience in the communications industry.  He has worked with multi-national advertising and media agencies in Ireland and the US including J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett and BBDO.

Mark has provided strategic communications advice to brands across numerous categories  including, Telco, Finance, FMCG, Automotive, Politics, Tourism, and Not-for-Profit. Most recently, he was Director of Client Services at JWT Dublin and he was also a board member of the Marketing Industry body, IAPI.

Mark is married to Oonagh and has three sons.

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Marie McGinley, Partner  Head of IP, Technology & DP , Corporate & Commercial, Eversheds Sutherland (Director)

Marie is Partner and Head of Intellectual Property, Technology and Data Protection in Eversheds Sutherland, Ireland’s only full service international law firm. Marie is an experienced IP, technology and data privacy lawyer with 8 years’ experience in that specific area.

Marie is originally from Donegal and is married to Sean.

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Laura Larkin, Director, KPMG (Director)

Appointed February 2019.

Laura is a Director in KPMG’s audit practice and has experience working with listed companies and private Irish family-owned businesses across the Retail, Technology, Agribusiness, Special Gases, Health & Pharma, Renewable Energy, Manufacturing and Logistics sectors.  She also works with a number of not-for-profit organisations.

Like so many people in Ireland, Laura’s family has been hit with many cancer diagnoses and as a result is delighted to work with the Marie Keating Foundation.

Laura is married to Brian and has one son. In her free time, Laura loves to travel, catch up with friends and keep fit.

 

Kathy O'Donnell, EMEA Marketing Director at Gong

Kathy joined Gong in September in 2021 shortly after they established their EMEA Headquarters in Dublin. She is helping to scale up European operations and promote the revenue intelligence platform to enterprises across Europe.

She has over 20 years’ experience of B2B marketing in the tech industry at Dropbox, Progress Software and IONA Technologies.

Kathy grew up in Donegal, studied International Business and languages at University of Ulster and has worked in 7 countries.  Kathy lives in Dublin with her husband, Stephen.

 

Mark Culleton - Head of Asset Finance, Area North & West, AIB:

Mark is Head of Asset Finance with AIB for the North & West of Ireland, He has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry including Wealth Management, Business & Sales Management and Channel Adoption.

He holds an Advanced Management Programme with the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and is a Fellow of the Life Insurance Association (FLIA).

Mark is originally from Sutton in Dublin and is now living in Raheny with his wife Linda. He has a keen interest in GAA, cycling, golfing and walking.

He is delighted to be a member of the board for the Marie Keating Foundation.

 

Dermot Nolan -Founder Moondance Business Consultants (Director) 

Dermot founded Moondance Business Consultants in 2011, specializing in strategy, marketing and project management. Previously, he was an Executive at Bank of Ireland, spending 20 years across a variety of roles, including marketing, digital marketing and online channels.

Dermot has served as a Non-Executive Director for the Irish Payment Services Organisation (now part of BPFI), the UK Payment Council, the Irish Internet Association and Vita, an Irish charity working in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

His qualifications include an MBA from UCD, a Marketing Degree, a Post-Graduate certificate in Digital Marketing & Social Media from Harvard University and a Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership from UCD.

Dermot is the proud Dad of Ben (15) and Tom (12); he is also an avid Leinster supporter and occasionally plays golf (badly). With his wife Ann, they has visited over 50 countries and dream of visiting 50 more.

 

Annette Hickey -Vice President of Global Operations for EMEA & English Speaking Markets, PayPal (Director) 

Annette Hickey is PayPal’s Vice President of Global Operations for EMEA & English Speaking Markets. She leads a large and diverse team of passionate customer champions, as well as PayPal’s Global Partners who serve customers around the world.

Her teams strive to deliver effortless customer experiences and are trailblazers when it comes to developing and enhancing PayPal’s customer support solutions. A firm believer in the importance of reward and recognition, Annette has devised a number of reward programmes to help increase employee engagement and encourage innovation.

Annette is a huge advocate for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and was instrumental in launching PayPal’s LGBTQ+ network, PayPal Pride, and ‘D&I Week’ as an initiative within the organisation. She chairs PayPal’s EMEA Total Inclusion Roundtable, helping to promote diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging throughout the region. She also sits on the boards of PayPal Europe and the PayPal Charity Board ‘PayPal Gives’

Throughout her career, Annette has been a creative and influential leader, and a driving force behind many successful initiatives, transformations, and growth initiatives at PayPal. In recent years, she has received recognition for her individual and leadership contributions, including ‘Industry Professional of the Year’ and ‘Contact Centre of the Year’ from the Contact Centre Management Association of Ireland.

Prior to PayPal, Annette worked at Vodafone and Eir where she established a reputation for delivering value by placing both the customer and the employee at the centre of decision-making and business strategy.

Outside of work, Annette enjoys tennis and Pilates. She is a mum to two boys and an avid Dublin GAA fan.

 

Derek McKay, Founder and Director (Executive)

Derek McKay, BBS, Chartered MCIPD, is an experienced Human Resource and Employment Law practitioner who has worked extensively in the private, not-for-profit and public sectors.

Since founding Adare Human Resource Management in 2003, Derek has overseen the growth of the business to become one of Ireland’s leading HR, Employment Law and Industrial Relations Consultancies. In 2022, Derek changed roles from Managing Director to joining the Board of Directors. Derek regularly speaks at seminars for companies and associations throughout the country on HR and Employment related topics and contributes to numerous publications in this area also. Prior to setting up Adare Human Resource Management, Derek worked in the Human Resource Departments in a number of multinational organisations.

Derek is currently a member of the CIPD National Committee and a member of Workplace and Skills Taskforce with Chambers Ireland.

Derek is married to Evelyn and has three children.

 

 

Ronan Keating (Patron)

Appointed May 2001.

Ronan Keating is the youngest of Marie Keating’s five children. He is a recording artist, singer-songwriter, and musician, who toured the world alongside his four band mates as the lead singer of Boyzone starting in 1994. He has also had a successful solo career and released 9 albums.

Ronan has worked tirelessly for cancer awareness since founding the Marie Keating Foundation in his mother’s name alongside his siblings and father in 1998, and launching the Foundation’s mobile units in 2001.