Three new Board Members for the Hospital Group for the West/North West

Three new non-Executive Directors of the Board of the Hospital Group for the West/North West have been approved by the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly. The three new members complete the Board, which now has eight non-executive members, four executive members and a chairman. The three new members (see biographies at the end) are:
 

• Mr Gerry McManus
• Ms Sharon Moohan
• Mr Colam O’Neill

 
Mr Noel Daly, Chair of the Hospital Group commented, “I am delighted to welcome the three new members to our Board. All have extensive experience in areas that are extremely relevant to the successful development of our hospital group including IT, pharmaceuticals/medical devices and commercial law.
 
“In May Minister Reilly announced the composition of the new hospital groups, which he described as the most fundamental reform of the Irish acute hospital system in decades. We have been given three years to develop the future of the Hospital Group for the West / North West and have it ready to achieve Trust status. This huge challenge is the next step in becoming an independent body.  We are very fortunate to have commitment from people with so much experience to be part of our Board in these non-salaried roles.
 
“The remit of the Board is to develop effective corporate and clinical governance structures for the Group along with quality and safety systems of care for patients. Substantial work has been completed and we are now preparing to integrate the new hospitals into a common governance arrangement and put structures in place to bring all the hospitals in the Group to the next level of performance and accountability.
 
“All of this will be done in a manner that is transparent to the people of the region with a number of Board meetings being held in public; the first of these took place in June in Galway and we are planning the second public meeting for October in Castlebar.”
1. Biographies
 
Gerry McManus
Gerry McManus started his working career in Sligo with the Italian multinational Snia in 1970 where at the end of his career he was responsible for procurement and logistics. In 1983 he formed his own IT Company, Compupac with his partner Michael Vickers.
 
Gerry has been very involved on a voluntary basis with many organisations; he is a former President of Sligo Chamber of Commerce, a former Board member of Sligo Leader Company and is currently a Trustee of County Sligo Golf Club. Gerry served for 12 years on the Governing Body of IT Sligo where he was Chairperson of the Internal Audit Committee and Vice Chairman of the Governing Body.
 
In recent years Gerry has voluntarily given his time to Sligo Regional Hospital - he is currently Chairperson of the Friends of Sligo Regional Hospital, Chairperson of the Patients’ Forum and a Board member of the Research and Education Foundation.
 
Gerry is also a member of the Border, Midland and West Region Shadow Economy and Liaison Group. As well as bringing his knowledge in IT and his experience in Internal Audit, Gerry has a strong track record in serving and working with State organisations.  
 
Sharon Moohan
Sharon Moohan from Donegal holds a BCL and a LLM in European Law and a Diploma from the Law Society of Ireland in Commercial Law and Corporate Governance.  She has been practicing as a Solicitor since 1998.
 
Sharon is currently a Solicitor to the Residential Institutions Redress Board, on the legal representative panel for the Mental Health Commission and a Member of the Panel established for the purposes of Regulations 25 and 34 of the Garda Síochána (Discipline) Regulations 2007.
 
Sharon worked in the European Commission for a year and also was a Lecturer in European Law at Letterkenny Institute of Technology for two years. Her legal competencies extend to employment law, judicial review and commercial law.
 
Colam O’Neill
Colam O’Neill has a BSc in Chemistry and Biology and until his retirement was Managing Director of Allergan Ireland and Vice President of European Operations, Allergan Pharmaceuticals Ltd – based in Westport, Co. Mayo.
 
In addition to the Irish operation which grew during Colam’s 28 years continuous service from 5 employees to 1100 employees, he also had responsibility for European operations including plants in Spain and France. He ensured during his tenure that Westport became the location of choice within Allergan’s Global Network for new products in late stage research and development and production.
 
Colam has major competencies in customer care, regulatory compliance and is stringent on cost models and budgetary control. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Allergan Ireland Ltd. Colam has a lot of experience in working with the Irish Medicine Board, the FDA and the European Regulatory Body.
 
 
2. Board of the Hospital Group:
In addition to the Chair, Mr Noel Daly who was appointed by the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly in May 2012, the executive Board members are:

• Bill Maher, CEO of the Group
• Dr Pat Nash, Group Clinical Director
• Colette Cowan, Group Director of Nursing and Midwifery
• Maurice Power, Group Chief Financial Officer

 
In January 2013, five non-Executive Directors of the Board were approved by the Minister for Health:

• Dr Jim Browne
• Dr Brendan Day
• Zubair Javeed
• Dr John Killeen
• Phyllis MacNamara

 
In May 2013, the Minister for Health announced the new hospital groups and in June he approved the appointment of three new non-Executive Directors to the Board of the new Hospital Group for the West / North West:

• Mr Gerry McManus
• Ms Sharon Moohan
• Mr Colam O’Neill