Our Funds Advisory Board
Funds by IoB - The Funds Advisory Board
The role of the Funds Advisory Board is to provide support to IoB in the development of strategy, policy and the provision of lifelong learning to the funds industry. It provides a forum for executives from the funds industry to share their expertise and insight on what is critical and relevant for the funds industry for current and future needs. The board was established in 2020 on foot of the IOB Strategic plan which identified five strategic priorities including an objective to make a defining contribution to maintaining and developing talent in the investment funds sector. It is a separate group from the Advisory Committee for the Certified Investment Fund Director (CIFD) Institute, a specialist body of the IoB. The Advisory Committee for the CIFD Institute will continue to operate under its Terms of Reference.
The Funds Advisory Board advises us on strategic direction of funds and asset management offerings, including priority areas and topics, and assist us in identifying lecturers and speakers for the IoB fund programmes. To date the board has provided valuable assistance in the contribution to new programmes on Designated Persons, and masterclasses on Distibution , Fund Liquidity and Risk.
We warmly welcome new members to the board Mary Ruane and Terri Dempsey. The full members of the board currently are Eoin FitzGerald, Mark Fitzgerald, Noel Gavin, Paula Kelleher, Pat Lardner, Peter O'Donohoe, Eoin Motherway, and Gary Palmer. Some information on each is set out below. They will be joined by IoB colleagues Margaret D’Arcy (Chair) and Martina Kelly.
Terri Dempsey
Terri Dempsey re-joined State Street in 2005 after a two year period working with Bank of New York in Bermuda. She is Chief Operating Officer, and an Executive Director of State Street Fund Services Ireland Limited, with responsibility for the Traditional Asset business. She has over 20 years’ experience in financial services managing operational teams, with responsibility for the onboarding and successful servicing of a wide range of Fund structures executing a variety of investment strategies. She is the executive sponsor of inclusion, diversity and equity activities for State Street in Ireland . She also currently chairs the Irish Funds Head of Operations working group.
Terri is a graduate of University college Dublin and has recently successfully completed the CIFD, Certified Investment Fund Director programme.
Eoin FitzGerald
Eoin FitzGerald is a Managing Director and Country Head for Brown Brothers Harriman in Ireland. Eoin has over 30 years of financial services experience having previously served as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and as a Director of AIB/BNY Fund Services (Ireland) Limited (now BNY Mellon Fund Services (Ireland) Limited). Eoin is a member of the Consultative Working Group at the Investment Management Steering Committee of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). He is also a member of the Council of Irish Funds and of the IFSC Funds group. Eoin is a director of Brown Brothers Harriman Trustee Services (Ireland) Limited, Brown Brothers Harriman Trustee Services (Hong Kong) Limited and Brown Brothers Harriman Institutional Trust Company of New York, LLC. He also serves on the board of the funds industry charity, Basis Point. He is a graduate of University College Dublin.
Mark Fitzgerald
Mr Fitzgerald was recently appointed chair of the Board of BNY Mellon Fund Services (Ireland) DAC. Mark is the chair of Pricoa Capital Group ( Ireland ) Limited and is an independent non- executive director on the Board of Euronext Dublin. He is an independent non-executive director to several investment funds and has over 25 years of experience in management and senior leadership roles up to in banking, financial services and international fund services. Mark holds a barrister-at-law degree from Kings Inns and a bachelor of commerce degree from University College Cork. He is a certified bank director, a certified investment fund director and a member of IOB.
Noel Gavin
Noel Gavin joined Northern Trust in 2006 and is based in their Limerick office; he is a Senior Vice President and leads Corporate & Institutional Global Learning group, with responsibility for delivering learning and development programs for 10,000+ employees across all the companies’ global footprint. He has over 15+ years industry experience with various role across project management, operations management and leadership. Noel holds a BA in History (2000), a Master’s in Business Administration (2011) and Professional Certificate in Law & Governance for Pension Trustees (2019).
Paula Kelleher
Paula, a Chartered Director and a Certified Bank Director, is Branch Manager of The Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV, Dublin Branch (formerly BNY Mellon Trust Company (Ireland) Limited). In her role, Paula has strategic responsibility for the Dublin Branch’s depositary services function. Paula has also recently been appointed as a NED (non-executive director) to Pershing Securities International Limited (PSIL). Prior to joining BNY Mellon in April 2012 Paula, who is a solicitor, was a founding partner of Dillon Eustace, one of Ireland’s leading law firms. She is a member of a number of professional bodies, including the Law Society of Ireland, the Law Society of England and Wales, Institute of Directors in Ireland (“IoD”), IOB in Ireland and an associate member of the Irish Taxation Institute.
Pat Lardner
Pat Lardner joined Irish Funds as Chief Executive in April 2012. He has over twenty-five years’ experience in the global asset management industry and has held executive/leadership positions in Ireland and overseas with firms managing a broad range of both traditional and alternative investment strategies. Pat is an active participant on all significant Government sponsored groups relating to funds in Ireland, is a member of the Board of the European Fund and Asset Management Association and is an Advisor to the Asset Management Association of China’s International Partners Committee. He is a past Council Member of the Irish Association of Pension Funds and a former Director of both the Irish Association of Investment Managers and the International Investment Funds Association. He attained honours undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from University College Dublin.
Eoin Motherway
Eoin Motherway is Ireland Country Head of The Asset Management Exchange. The Asset Management Exchange (Ireland) Limited is a SuperManCo and so authorised as an AIFM and UCITS ManCo, providing services to group and third party funds. In addition to serving on the board, he is the AMX public engagement lead on regulatory affairs and sustainable finance. His team has functional and regulatory responsibility for Delegate Oversight and the on-boarding of Investment Managers & Investors to the Digital Platform. Compliance, Technology, Platform, Legal & Risk are also based in the Cork Site. His previous roles include Head of UK & Ireland Fund Accounting at BNY Mellon, Head of Private Equity at State Street and Senior Accounting Officer of Goldman Sachs International. He is the current chair for the Irish Funds Management Company Working Group and sits on the Brexit Steering Group.
Outside of funds he is Chairman of Cork Financial Services Forum, run under the aegis of Cork Chamber of Commerce and is Chair of Shine Ireland – a charity in the autism sector, where their FREE educational Apps have been downloaded over 200k times.
Peter O’Donohoe
Peter O’Donohoe is Executive Director & Head of Client Operations for the Traditional Asset business at MUFG Investor Services. He also has responsibility as Project Director for leading the change in transforming how MUFG service Single Manager funds globally. Peter has almost 15 years’ experience in the industry and prior to joining MUFG in 2014 he worked for Citi and BNY Mellon. Peter is a graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology. Peter won the Early Career Fund Services Professional of the Year Award in 2019, an award that is sponsored by the IoB. The awards celebrate excellence and recognise the achievements of young professionals in Ireland, and ultimately, rewards innovation, best practice and outstanding achievement across a range of professional sectors.
Gary Palmer
Gary has spent over 25 years in the international investment funds, asset management and structured finance industry sectors in Ireland. He is currently serving as an independent non-executive director for a small number of investment funds, management and industry companies. A holder of the CIFD, Certified Investment Fund Director, Gary has recently been elected as Chair of the Irish Fund Directors Association (IFDA). He also acts Chief Executive of the Irish Debt Securities Association (IDSA), fulfilled on a part-time basis since May 2012. Gary enjoyed a 13-year tenure as Chief Executive of the Irish Funds Industry Association, now known as Irish Funds. In this role, he played an instrumental role in the development and global promotion of Ireland’s investment funds industry, building an active and cohesive industry network including engagement with national, European and worldwide authorities and agencies.
Mary Ruane
Mary Ruane is an audit partner in PwC Dublin and specialises in the Asset & Wealth Management industry. Mary has over 20 years of experience working in the Assurance practice in PwC. Mary has extensive experience auditing Asset Managers and their products under Irish and US generally accepted accounting principles and International financial reporting standards. She is an elected member of Irish Funds Council (Ireland's representative body for Asset Management) and also a member of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (“EFAMA”) ETF task force. She has also previously chaired the Irish Funds ETF working group. Mary is a graduate of DCU and has a BA in Accounting and Finance. Mary is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland.
Ann Stock
Ann was the Managing Director of Vanguard Group (Ireland) Limited until end 2022 when she retired from executive roles. Ann joined Vanguard in 2012 with responsibility for building the International Audit function and overseeing audits of Investment Management activities. She moved to the European business in 2020 as Head of European Governance. Ann has worked at State Street Global Advisors, where she was responsible for Operational Risk for the Europe, Middle East, and Asia regions. Prior to that she was Head of Global Oversight at Fidelity Worldwide Investments, where she built a consolidated function to include all audit, risk, compliance, investigations, and business continuity planning activities for their worldwide businesses in 26 countries. She also ran the global HR function between 2007 and 2009 whilst retaining responsibility for the Oversight functions. During her time at Fidelity, she spent two years in Tokyo while building the Asia audit team. Ann holds a B.A. Honours in Economics and an MBA from The Open University. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
Fearghal Woods
Fearghal is responsible for the operational strategy and capability to support JPMorgan client’s service needs across EMEA. He is also currently CEO of the JPMorgan fund administration business in Ireland (JPMAS). Fearghal holds a MBA in Business Administration and has over 25 years’ experience in the Investment Funds sector in both Ireland and Luxembourg. Fearghal has previously worked in State Street as Director of Operations and Client Services and Bank of Ireland as Director of Business & Product Development. Most recently Fearghal worked for Northern Trust where he was EMEA Head of Product Management supporting the Global Fund Services business.
