Marian presents The Marian Finucane Show on RTE Radio 1 from 11 to 1 on Saturdays and Sundays. On both radio and television she has worked in Current affairs, Religious affairs, Women’s issues, Light entertainment, Documentaries, Books and Media.
Over the course of her career she has been honoured with many awards, some of which are:
The Prix Italia Press Prize, Jacobs Radio Award, National Media Awards for Radio & Current Affairs, Entertainer of the Year Award, Communicator of the Year Award, Woman of the Year Award, Speech Journalist of the Year Award, Woman Journalist of the Year Award, People of the Year Award.
In November 2002 Marian received an honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from the Dublin Institute of Technology and in June 2005 she received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the National University of Ireland-Galway.
Marian is a Former Director of the Irish Hospice Foundation and Chairperson of the Registered Charity – Friends in Ireland.
Marian has served on a number of Government Committees for: The Dept of An Taoiseach, Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Arts & Culture and Dept of Justice.
William Keyah has experience in community based/rural development initiatives including the Global Management Approach (GMA) to Community Social Economic and Environmental Development (CSEED) and the promotion of sustainable agriculture as a strategy for Sustainable Rural Development.
In Gorta, William has facilitated the development of the Community Social Economic and Environmental Development under the GMA concept with the Keringet community.
William has a primary training in agriculture and extension, and an MRD post-graduate qualification. He has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture in Kenya and is the agricultural and community development co-ordinator and leader of eight technical staff and grassroots community animators in Nakuru, Kenya.
Dr. Alfred Lakwo is the Executive Director of the Agency for Accelerated Regional Development (AFARD) in Uganda.
He is a Fellow at the African Studies Center, Leiden- The Netherlands and is also a Tutor at Virtual University of Uganda. Alfred is also a development practitioner, consultant, and researcher with expertise in rural livelihoods, microfinance, gender, and local governance.
With more than 20 years of experience in parastatals, local government, consultancy, civil society, and academia, Alfred’s current interest is on equitable and market-sensitive Public-Private-Academia-Community Partnership for rural transformation.
Brian Hanratty is the sole Irish Trustee of the European Association for Philanthropy and Giving (EAPG); and serves on the Government’s National Famine Commemoration Committee since 2008.
He previously held senior marketing positions in the financial services sector and acted as a senior banking consultant for the European Union, EBRD and other organisations with programmes in Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Montenegro and Malawi.
He has also served on the Council of the Marketing Institute of Ireland; the Board of the Irish Direct Marketing Association and as a member of the Committee of Industry and Commerce at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS).
Simon Coveney was appointed as Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food on March 9th 2011.
He was first elected to the Dáil (Irish Parliament) in 1998 as one of Fine Gael’s youngest TD’s. Since then, he has held Shadow Ministries in the following areas: Drugs and Youth Affairs; Communications, Marine and Natural Resources; Transport and the Marine.
Mr. Coveney chaired the Fine Gael Policy Development Committee, prior to the 2011 General Election. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2004 and was a member of the EPP-ED group. He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. He was also a substitute member on the Fisheries Committee. Mr. Coveney was the author of the European Parliament's Annual Report on Human Rights in the World for the year 2004 and again for 2006.
Mr. Coveney was a member of Cork County Council and the Southern Health Board from 1999 to 2003. He holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture and Land Management from The Royal Agriculture College, Gloucestershire. He was also educated at Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare; University College Cork and Gurteen Agricultural College, County Tipperary.
Kevin Friel is marketing manager for the Irish Dairy Board, consumer foods division. Responsible for advertising and marketing campaigns in international markets for the Kerrygold brand and working on strategic market entry and new product development projects.
He works extensively on brand development in Africa in key Kerrygold markets including Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Algeria. Prior to joining the Irish Dairy Board, Kevin worked with Unilever where he was responsible for the Dove brand.
Vincent Cleary is the managing director of Glenisk, Ireland’s largest yoghurt maker, and the Cleary family business. Established in 1987, Glenisk celebrates 25 years in business this year. In 1995, Vincent, along with his siblings, transitioned the company to organic production.
Glenisk employs more than 50 people directly and works with 50 family farms across Ireland. The company is experiencing record growth despite the recession with a 40% increase in unit sales year on year and a doubling of market share over the past 3 years, making it one of the fastest moving companies in Checkout’s Top 100 brands in Ireland ranking.
Vincent was appointed to Foras Orgánach, the government’s national organic steering committee in 2009 by then Minister of State for Food & Horticulture, Trevor Sargent, TD. He is a former director of Bord Bia; a member of IOFGA (Irish Organic Farmers & Growers Association) and is also a former president of the Irish Goat Producers Association.
In October 2012, Vincent participated in the RTE 1 Series, ‘The Secret Millionaire’ where he worked undercover with, and made donations to, a number of charities in Waterford, including Waterford Hospice, Ballybeg Community Garden and the Dungarvan Men’s Shed.
Kingsley Aikins is a Dublin native and a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (Economics and Politics). He previously represented the Irish Trade Board and IDA Ireland in Australia and founded the Lansdowne Club there. He worked for The Ireland Funds for 21 years during which time a quarter of a billion dollars was raised and distributed to more than 1200 organisations in Ireland, North and South.
The Ireland Funds are now active in 39 cities in 13 countries and over 40,000 people attend more than 100 events annually. He now runs a consultancy company based in Dublin, Diaspora Matters, that focusses on providing advice to governments, companies and organizations on how to develop Diaspora strategies. He is also co-founder of Networking Matters, which assists companies develop networking strategies.
Kingsley writes and speaks extensively in Ireland and internationally on Philanthropy, Diaspora issues and Networking. He co-authored a Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit for the Hillary Clinton Global Diaspora Forum held in Washington in May 2011 which is available on www.diasporamatters.com. He was awarded a CBE in 2008 for his work on British – Irish issues.
Seán Gaule was appointed Chairman of Gorta in 2012. He is a former senior manager in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. He has many years experience in agricultural development, including policy, research, production, processing, marketing and rural development.
Seán has served as an expert with the European Commission, where he had specific responsibility for programme and project evaluation in relation to funding and support of the Agri-food sector. He has been Agricultural Counsellor at the Irish Embassy Rome and Permanent Representative to the Rome based UN agencies, FAO, WFP and IFAD. He was a member of the Committee on World Food Security and EU chairman and negotiator at the World Food Summit in 1996 as well as a representative to FAO Council and various inter governmental committees.
For several years Seán has been an Irish Delegate to various meetings of EU Commission and Council, and an Irish representative to OECD and UN ECE specialist committees and working groups. He has acted as a World Bank consultant in Asia and South America. He is a past President of the Irish Agricultural Science Association, and past Treasurer of the North – South Agrilink initiative, and is currently Chairman of Cedia – the Confederation of European Associations of Agronomists. He has served as a member of the Council of Gorta since 2006 and the Programmes Committee since 2008.
Alan oversees the Strategy & Operations of the ILCU Foundation, which provides financial and technical assistance to local financial co-operatives in six countries. Alan has over 10 year experience in senior management roles in the international microfinance sector in Asia, Africa and Europe.
UCC Emeritus Professor Denis Lucey is former Head of the Department of Food Business and Development; and Director, Centre for Cooperative Studies at UCC. He joined the Board of Gorta in 1998 and served as Chairman from 2002 to 2007.
In 2007, Professor Lucey was appointed to the Government of Ireland’s Hunger Task Force, which was comprised of eminent Irish and international experts. In April 2010, he was appointed Chairman of the Gorta Hunger Secretariat. As a highly experienced Dean and University Vice-President he regularly chairs multidisciplinary meetings and was appointed by the Irish Government to State Boards regulating Higher Education finances and accreditation.
He has represented Ireland on EU University-Industry Programme Committees and on OECD Working Groups on agricultural research, education and extension, frequently being elected Chair or Rapporteur at OECD conferences.
He frequently assesses/monitors projects for the EU and World Bank. He is Vice-President of NATURA and is NATURA observer at FAO Council. His department at NUI, Cork spans farming, agribusiness and sustainable livelihoods issues.
Dr Carol Djeddah has more than 30 years of experience in nongovernmental and international organizations, of which some 28 years of assignments and work experience in and for African countries. As a medical doctor she first worked in Zimbabwe and in Ethiopia. From 1991 in her capacity of public health officer at the World Health Organization she undertook several assignments. In Geneva she was appointed by the Director General as the focal point for women and children in armed conflict.
From 2001 in the Food and Agricultural Organization she has developed an in-house Plan of action on the impact of HIV on rural poverty, nutrition and food security, making her fully familiar with poverty reduction strategies. She is particularly qualified on issues related to food security and poverty reduction through a multidisciplinary gender sensitive approach.
Carol's latest assignment within FAO is mainly related to the improvement of the governance issues and food security and to the establishment of gender sensitive and equitable institutions.
Seamus O’Donohoe was appointed CEO of ICOS in 2012.
He holds a Master of Agricultural Science degree in Agricultural Economics [UDD] and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from University College Dublin’s Smurfit Business School.
Having served two years in a voluntary capacity working on an agricultural project with the Columban Fathers in South Korea, he then worked as an agricultural adviser with County Galway Committee of Agriculture for five years, joining ICOS as part of its Member Development staff in 1980. Since then he has held the positions of Director of Member Development and Secretary within ICOS.
He is a member of the National Economic and Social Council (NESC).
Albert Boogaard is region manager for Africa and Latin America in Rabobank Foundation. Funded by the Rabobank Group, the Foundation supports rural cooperatives in 25 countries.
Albert Boogaard graduated as a development economist in 1998 from Wageningen University and started his career establishing banks in Bosnia. Afterwards he joined Rabobank and worked in the credit department with farmers and international F&A companies. Five years ago he decided to join Rabobank Foundation to use his banking knowledge to address the challenges in rural finance in developing countries.
His responsibilities include identifying partners where Rabobank can make a difference with its experience in the areas of cooperatives, banking and Food & Agriculture. These include savings and credit cooperatives and producer cooperatives for both food and cash crops. Also Mr. Boogaard is involved in many partnerships between Rabobank Foundation, Food & Agriculture clients and offices of the bank. The aim of these partnerships is to support the target group more effectively based on complementarity in knowledge and local presence.
Tony studied for his Bachelor’s degree in New Zealand before obtaining his Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Cambridge University in the UK. During his PhD research and early career whilst working for Shell Forestry Research Ltd, he focused on breeding of commercial tropical trees.
Tony then worked at Oxford University for 6 years as a Senior Research Fellow investigating Central American tree species and reproductive ecology of Amazonian tree species. For 5 years, he was an adviser to the British Government on UK-supported forestry projects in Africa, Brazil and Sri Lanka.
Tony has worked on forestry projects and food security in more than 40 tropical countries. He has developed innovative Public-Private Partnerships with Unilever, Mars Inc. and Syngenta on tree agribusiness projects in Africa. He was formerly Chair of the Tropical Forestry Working Group of IUFRO, and is a board member of African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA) and Danish Forest Landscape Centre. In June 2009, he was appointed Honorary Professor of Tropical Forestry at University of Copenhagen.
Tony has written over 100 scientific papers and articles. He is an Editor of the International Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, as well as the Forests, Trees and Livelihoods Journal. In April 2011, Tony was appointed CEO of the World Agroforestry Centre.
A native of Co. Wicklow, Barry Brennan has worked in Glanbia and its predecessor Waterford Foods plc for 28 years. In that time he has worked across a number of company business units and has held a number of senior positions within the Glanbia organisation, predominantly in the Commercial and Business Development arena.
He holds a Degree in Agricultural Science from UCD and an MBA.
In his current role as Business Development and Market Intelligence Director in Glanbia Ingredients, Barry spends a significantly amount of time focussed on the marketplaces of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas. He has worked in the African market for the past 15 years and has overseen the significant development of Glanbia's exports in the region during that time.
