Board of Directors
The Ireland Canada University Foundation is chaired jointly by Professor Seamus Smyth, President Emeritus, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and by Mr. Mark Dobbin.
Mark Dobbin
Joint Chairman (Canada)
Mark Dobbin is the the Consul General for Ireland in Newfoundland & Labrador. Founder and President of Killick Capital Inc., a Newfoundland based private equity company, from 1998 to 2003 Mark was the Chairman and CEO of Vector Aerospace Corporation, a globally-recognized aviation repair and overhaul Company. Prior to Vector he was employed for 17 years at CHC Helicopter Corporation, the world’s largest helicopter company – serving as senior vice president and a member of the Board of Directors.
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Professor Seamus Smyth
Joint Chairman (Ireland)
President Emeritus, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Professor Seamus Smyth recently retired from the position of President of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of The National University of Ireland. Formerly a Professor of Geography, Professor Smyth has specialised in migration and cultural transfer. He has published widely on these subjects and is recognised in particular as an authority on the subject of Irish Settlement in Canada, on which he has published two books (University of Toronto Press, 1980 and 1990, both reprinted 1999), and more than 20 papers and articles. In 1995 he was awarded Honorary LL.D.s by The Queen’s University of Belfast and by the University of Limerick.
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Dr John Kelly
Executive Director
Professor Emeritus, University College Dublin
PhD, is a senior Irish academic, resident in Dublin, with a wide range of largely academic publications. A former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at, and Registrar of, University College Dublin (UCD), he is the Executive Director of the Ireland Canada University Foundation and Chairman of the Scholarship Board of the O’Reilly Foundation and of the Council of the Friends of Bethlehem University in Ireland.
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Desmond J. Green
Chairman of MinChem/Indaver Ltd
Desmond J. Green is Chairman of MinChem/Indaver Ltd, which he founded in 1977 and chairman of Techinvest a technology newsletter and technology fund advisor. He was a founder member of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association and of the Campus Companies Venture Capital Scheme. He was a founder member and is a former chairman of the Dalkey School Project, Ireland’s first multi-denominational primary school. There are more than forty such schools in Ireland now. Desmond is a graduate of University College Dublin in Chemical Engineering and while a student was auditor of the Literary& Historical Society. He did postgraduate work at the University of New Brunswick in Canada where he obtained an MEngSc and was a faculty member. He was awarded an Honorary DSc by UNB in 1995.
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Rupert Hamilton
Investment Advisor with TD Waterhouse
Rupert Hamilton is an Investment Advisor with TD Waterhouse in Toronto. Since moving to Canada from Dublin in 1994, he has worked in the financial services arena – save for a 3-year stint as CEO of a private television network. Rupert graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a B.A. in History, and from UCD’s Smurfit School of Business with an MBS, specializing in International Business. He is Past-President of Special Olympics Ontario, a Board Member of the Sports Celebrities Festival, and an active supporter of Toronto’s Make-A-Wish Foundation.
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Oliver Murray
CEO, Brandes Investment Partners & Co.
Oliver serves as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director of Brandes Investment Partners Canadian operation. He is a Director and current chair of The Ireland Fund of Canada. He is a governor of The Corporation of Roy Thomson Hall & Massey Hall, and a director and past chair of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada. Oliver is a resident of Toronto was born in Dublin and moved to Canada in 1986.
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Michael Phillips
Former Canadian Ambassador to Ireland
Michael Phillips served twice at the Canadian Embassy in Dublin and was Ambassador from 1996 to 1998. He was the first Canadian representative on the International Fund for Ireland from 1986 to 1988.
While Minister for Political and Public Affairs in London he ran the cultural center, Canada House, and worked closely with the Foundation for Canadian Studies in the UK. In 1990-91 he served on the first Board of Directors of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program.
Mr. Phillips has also served as Canadian Ambassador to Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. His last posting was as Consul General in New York. He lives in Ireland with his wife, Oonagh, who is from Buncrana.
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Professor Vera Regan
Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics, UCD.
Vera Regan is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics in University College Dublin (School of Languages and Literatures), and has conducted research on second language acquisition and sociolinguistics. She is particularly interested in language, migration, integration and interculturalism, and is a Chevalier de l’ordre des Palmes Académiques. She has received two Fulbright Research Scholarships to the University of Pennsylvania, and has been President of EUROSLA (the European Association for Second Language Research) and ACSI (the Association of Canadian Studies of Ireland). She was a member of the Governing Authority of University College Dublin, has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa,is an Associate Member, Centre for Research on Language Contact (CRLC), York University, Canada, and has been awarded the Prix du Québec.
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Professor William A. Schabas
Director, Irish Centre for Human Rights
William A. Schabas is director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, where he is professor of human rights law. He holds appointments at University of Warwick School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. He is ‘door tenant’ at 9 Bedford Row, London. Professor Schabas was a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and sits on the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Assistance in Human Rights. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
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Kenneth L. Ozmon, O.C.
President Emeritus Saint Mary’s University.
Professor of Psychology, President Emeritus of Saint Mary’s University, Nova Scotia, after 21 years as President. Currently Chairman of the Board of Optipress, Inc. and the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, and member of the board of the Centre for Financial Services OmbudsNetwork, the Halifax Foundation, the Sobey Foundation for Excellence in Business Studies, Discovery Centre. Former chairman of the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, the Association of Atlantic Universities and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Order of Canada, Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal, Canada 125th Anniversary Medal, honorary degrees from St. Thomas University and the University of International Business and Economics (Beijing).
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Patrick J Hillery
Founding Chairman
Alongside Craig Dobbin , Dr Patrick Hillery was a founding chairman of ICUF, until his passing in 2008. He is warmly remembered and sadly missed by ICUF. Born on 2 May, 1923, in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, he qualified as a medical doctor, and married Mary Beatrice Finnegan in 1955. In 1951 Dr. Hillery was elected to Dáil Éireann for the constituency of Clare and he received his first Government appointment as Minister for Education in 1959.
He subsequently served in a number of ministerial posts (Industry and Commerce, Labour and Foreign Affairs) prior to his appointment in 1973 as Vice President of the then Commission of the European Communities, with special responsibility for Social Affairs. He served as Commissioner until 1976, when he was inaugurated as President of Ireland on 3 December, 1976. He died on 12th April 2008.