The Board is responsible for the overall governance, management and strategic direction of the Company and sets the Company’s values and standards ensuring the principles of corporate governance of transparency, accountability, responsibility and independence are adhered to.
Chairperson
Conal Henry was appointed as Chairperson in March 2022. Conal is the founder and Chair of Fibrus. Before co-founding Fibrus, Conal was CEO of Enet taking it from start up to its £200m acquisition by the Irish Infrastructure Fund in 2017. As CEO of Enet, Conal also led what is now known as NBI to become the winning bidder for the €2bn Irish National Broadband Plan. Prior to Enet, Conal was Commercial Director at Ryanair having been Head of Finance for Non-Food and George Clothing at Asda in the UK. Conal graduated in Law from Queens University Belfast in 1991 and is a Chartered Management Accountant.
Chief Executive Officer
Mary is the Chief Executive Officer of The Shannon Airport Group. In her career, Mary has held a number of senior roles, including, Airport Director, Deputy CEO and CFO/Company Secretary of the Group. Mary was instrumental in the establishment of Shannon Group in 2014. She has extensive experience in roles such as aviation, commercial development and finance. Mary leads the Group in maximising the potential of its airport and surrounding lands and property while embedding sustainability across the business, all of which are pivotal in driving economic advancement.
Mary is a Board Member of Ibec and President of the Ibec Midwest Regional Committee. She is a member of the Board of Trustees and the Governing Authority of Mary Immaculate College. She also currently serves on the Board of Limerick Chamber of Commerce, was a past President of Shannon Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce.
Employee Representative
Audrey was appointed to the Board in January 2023 as an employee representative.
Audrey has worked in Shannon Airport for 39 years and currently works in the retail department. She is also a trustee of the company pension scheme and was a member of the team that established the Duty Free is Moscow.
Board Member
Aisling Curtis was appointed to the Board in March 2023. Aisling is an organisational leader with over 20 years’ experience in telecommunications and technology sectors including global, regional and Irish market roles. Aisling previously held roles as Commercial Director, Global Partner Solutions Director and was previously director of Strategy and Sustainability with Microsoft. She currently acts as Market Leader for PwC.
Aisling has held non-executive roles in the UK, Netherlands, South Africa. She sits on the Board of ESB. and previously sat on the Board of The National Maternity Hospital and held an advisory role on the IMI Council. She has a Master’s in Business Economics from University College Cork (UCC), studied at the Insead Data and Artificial Intelligence School and recently graduated from the Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership 2022 programme. Aisling is an active member in the 30% Club Technology Steering Group. She has been an IMI Mentor and a Business Mentor with Enterprise Ireland.
Employee Representative
Alan Donohoe was appointed to the Board in January 2023 as an Employee Representative.
Alan has over 28 years’ experience with the Airport Police and Fire Service, joining Dublin Airport in 1996 and moving to Shannon Airport in 2004, where he now holds the position of Sergeant/Station Officer.
Audit and Risk
Tom Kelly was appointed to the Board in October 2017. He chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. Tom has a substantial aircraft leasing and financial services background. He was the Chief Executive Officer of AerCap Ireland from 2010 to 2021, having previously served as its Chief Financial Officer.
Previously, Tom spent ten years with GECAS with roles as Chief Financial Officer and Director of GECAS Limited, GECAS’s Irish operation. He also served as global controller for GECAS in his role as Senior Vice President & Controller. Prior to joining GECAS, he spent over eight years with KPMG in London, where his last role was Senior Manager in their financial services practice. Tom is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin.
Board Member
Ambrose Loughlin was appointed to the Board in May 2019 for an initial term and reappointed in 2022. Ambrose was a partner with McCann FitzGerald LLP for over 22 years. In addition to client advisory work on financial services, he served in several senior management roles involving finance and risk. He remains a director of the firm’s pension trustee board. Ambrose has particular expertise in the areas of risk management, corporate governance and financial management.
Board Member
Stephen Rae was appointed to the Board in May 2019. Stephen is a leader in the compliance, communications and cyber sectors as Principal at Kobn European Leaders. He is Chair and Co-Founder at AML Intelligence, the global AFC and FCC regulatory intelligence platform. Stephen serves on the Supervisory Board of the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). He has served as a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Online Disinformation and on the Board of the World Editors Forum.
He is ex-Group Editor-in-Chief at Independent News & Media, Ireland's largest media group. Stephen is a qualified barrister and holds the Award in Business and Leadership for Directors at Cranfield University.
Board Member
Emily Ross is Director of Brand Strategy at X, with responsibility for the EMEA region where she leads an international team of strategists and technologists.
Prior to this, she was CEO of a strategic consultancy firm for deep tech startups and scaleups. Also a former director of UNICEF Ireland, she led corporate partnerships with the likes of IKEA, P&G, and Aer Lingus, where she managed the Change for Good (TM) programme.
An advisor and leader for a number of not-for-profit enterprises; she previously co-founded SportsTech Ireland to help drive FDI and regional job creation in Ireland's Midwest. She is co-founder of Resonance Festival. She is an advisory board member of GoGreen routes, an EU funded, pan-European research project on mental health. She has been an advisory board member for SXSW in Austin, Texas, since 2018. She is a startup mentor for Techstars London and the NDRC. She mentors female founders at Awakenhub and is a founding member of KELLA, the women's leadership forum. She writes, lectures and speaks on communications in a digital age.
Board Member
Mary Halton is a Chartered Accountant with senior executive, non-executive, and advisory experience gained in the UK, Canada, and Ireland. She is an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Risk Committee with Vhi Group. Mary is a lay member of the UK Copyright Tribunal and a past member of the Governing Council of Chartered Accountants Ireland. As owner and Board advisor with Align Consulting Ltd, she has worked with Boards and senior teams in the public and private sectors. With a background in banking and insurance, her executive work is in the treasury and investment area. Mary holds a PhD in Public Policy, and an MSc in Executive Leadership, and her research on Board governance has been published internationally.