The Alfred Beit Foundation is a company with charitable status (Registered Charity No. CHY 5940), governed by a board of directors, who act as "trustees". The board delegates its authority to seven sub-committees, which include directors, senior management staff and co-opted advisors, to advise it on specific areas of Russborough’s operations. These include the Curatorial & Education, Development, Parklands, Business & Finance, and Nominations committees.
The board of the Alfred Beit Foundation comprises twelve members: six are appointed by An Taisce, Irish Georgian Society, National Gallery of Ireland, the Royal Dublin Society, Trinity College Dublin, and University College Dublin, together with six independent appointees.
Board
Professor Joe Carthy (Chair)
Prof. Carthy has been an academic for over 30 years. He was appointed College Principal and Dean of Science in 2011, having previously served as Head of the School of Computer Science and Informatics. He is the founding Director of the UCD Centre for Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation and is a former director and chair of NGO Camara. Prof. Carthy is a board member of CyberSafeIreland.
Peter O'Grady Walshe
Peter is a graduate of University College Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. He has worked with KPMG in Dublin, London and Philadelphia and was previously an executive director of NCB Corporate Finance (now Investec). He has been involved in the acquisition of a number of businesses over the last 20 years and has in the past served as an executive director of Paddy Power plc and Xtra-vision Limited. Peter took over as chairman of John Paul Construction in 2016.
Dr. Christine Casey
Christine Casey is a Professor of Architectural History at Trinity College Dublin with a particular interest in the relationship of architecture and decoration and the role of craftsmanship in architectural production. Her research has developed from an initial focus on Irish eighteenth-century architecture to a broader interest in European early modern architecture. In 2019 she received an Irish Research Council Advanced Laureate Award for a four-year project entitled ‘Craft value: the agency and impact of craftsmanship in the architecture of Britain and Ireland, 1680-1780’.
Karen Erwin
Karen Erwin is a workplace and commercial Mediator and a former partner in A&L Goodbody, solicitors. She was an Executive Director of The Irish Times, Chairperson of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority and of The Equality Authority. Karen runs Erwin Mediation Services Ltd and was President of The Mediators' Institute of Ireland for seven years. She is also a Director of Dublinia and of the Dublin Skin and Cancer Hospital.
Ian Lumley
Ian Lumley is Head of Advocacy with An Taisce, one of the 70 members of the International National Trusts Organisation. His work embraces most of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2015, including global equity, health and well-being, sustainable resource use and consumption, climate action, reversal of biodiversity loss and cultural heritage.
Flor Madden
Flor Madden is the RDS Nominee to ABF. He is an RDS Trustee, Council Member & Chair of Equestrian Committee. DHS Chief Steward of Safety since 2005, Flor is Assistant Principal & Director of Pastoral Department, Blackrock College CSSp, KHS. Director of Corporate Hospitality and Executive Chairman of Weddings at Home. He is Former Chair, Maynooth University Advisory Board.
Fionnuala Croke
Fionnuala Croke is an art historian and has been Director/Chief Executive of the Chester Beatty museum since 2011. Prior to this, she was Keeper & Head of Collections at the National Gallery of Ireland. Fionnuala has published on a wide range of art-related subjects and has organised and curated numerous exhibitions. She holds an Honours BA (History of Art and Archaeology) from University College Dublin (UCD), a research MA (UCD) and an International Executive MBA (UCD Smurfit Business School). She is a graduate of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute in Los Angeles; and of the Smurfit Senior Leadership Programme in collaboration with the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. She also holds a Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance with the Smurfit Business School. She sits on the Council of National Cultural Institutions, and on the Board of Trinity College’s Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation.
Yvonne Shields O'Connor
Yvonne Shields O'Connor is Chief Executive of the Commissioners of Irish Lights. Yvonne has broad and extensive experience of corporate governance requirements (private, not for profit and public), department-agency relationships and Audit and Risk Committees. She is a Chartered Director and a member of the Institute of Directors (Dublin and London). Yvonne has a Masters in Environmental Science from Trinity College and an MBA from DCU. She is currently a Board member of the Western Development Commission which focuses on the economic and social development in the west of Ireland and places a high value on creative industries. She has served on the Board of the National Research Council for Science, Technology and Engineering, BMW Operational Programme Monitoring Committee, Tourism Industry Confederation and has held numerous international appointments.
Professor Alexander C.O. Evans BSc, PhD, DSc
Alex Evans is Full Professor and former Dean of Agriculture, and former Head of the School of Agriculture & Food Science in University College Dublin. He has degrees from Nottingham University (UK), the University of Saskatchewan (Canada) and the National University of Ireland. He has attracted considerable research funding, supervised 40 graduate students and published over 160 peer reviewed scientific papers. He is a member of the UCD Governing Authority, is the Academic Lead for UCD Lyons Farm, has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Animal Reproduction Science, and is a former Vice-President of the Association for European Life Science Universities (ICA). He has conducted research on a wide range of topics focusing on reproduction and fertility in cattle and sheep. In recent years he has become more interested in the challenges of sustainable agriculture and food production and given the challenges of food production and food consumption these days he is now teaching in the area of Global Food Systems.
Robin Mandal
Born in India and educated in the Far East, Robin Mandal finished schooling in Ireland. He joined the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 1979, the year he founded RMA Architecture. An architect and a former President of the RIAI, he retired as a director of RMA in 2019.
His lifelong advocacy for conservation and the management of change resulted in many initiatives such as the RIAI Conservation Accreditation system, the Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance and his work with Irish Architects Declare Climate and Bio-diversity Emergency. He is a director of the Irish Architects Benevolent Society, a board member of the CIF Register of Heritage Contractors, vice-president of the International Scientific Committee on Aerospace Heritage and a Council member of An Taisce.