Minister McConalogue announces appointments to the Board of the Marine Institute

Shoreline Niall MeehanThe Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has announced the appointment of Ms Pauline Cronin, Ms Kate Burns, and Prof. Tim McCarthy to the Board of the Marine Institute.

The Minister said they have each been appointed for a period of five years following a competitive selection process run by the Public Appointments Service (PAS).

Commenting on today’s announcement, Minister McConalogue said: "I am delighted to announce the appointments of Pauline, Kate and Tim to the Board of the Marine Institute and I am confident their backgrounds and individual skill sets will bring a wealth of professional experience to the Board of the Marine Institute.

Dr Rick Officer, CEO of the Marine Institute said, “Last year the Marine Institute launched our new five-year corporate strategy, Ocean Knowledge that Informs and Inspires which sets out a roadmap to enable Ireland to deliver on national and EU policy goals on sustainable seafood production, ocean science and management, environment and biodiversity, maritime transport, offshore renewable energy and climate action. This makes it an exciting time to welcome Pauline, Kate and Tim to the board and their contributions to delivering the Institute’s strategic priorities along with the existing board members.” 

ENDS

For more information, please contact:
Sheila Byrnes e. sheila.byrnes@marine.ie m. +353 (0)87 815 5271
Sinéad Coyne e. sinead.coyne@marine.ie m. +353 (0)87 947 7090

Editor's Notes:
Marine Institute
The Marine Institute is the state agency responsible for marine research, technology development and innovation in Ireland. It provides government, public agencies and the maritime industry with a range of scientific, advisory and economic development services that inform policy-making, regulation and the sustainable management and growth of Ireland's marine resources. www.marine.ie.

BIOS:

Pauline Cronin is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an MSC in Economics and Policy, with a particular focus on corporate governance in the public sector. Since 2020, she has been an external member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Marine Institute. For the past 20 years, she has worked in the Irish Civil Service gaining experience in public sector audit, procurement and risk management. She currently works as Director of Internal Audit and Risk in the University of Galway, providing assurance to the University President and Audit and Risk Committee on the adequacy of the organisation’s overall governance framework including its internal control system.

Prior to this, Pauline worked as Head of Internal Audit in the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications, leading the audit function. She also served in the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General for over 10 years and, later, with the European Commission in the Department of Education and Skills.

Kate Burns is a marine and rural resources expert and Managing Director of Islander Kelp Ltd. She holds an MSc in Rural Development from Queens University, a Diploma in Community Development Practice from University College Galway and a BSc in Economics & Politics from Open University. Kate currently serves as a board member of AFBI (Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute) and is Chair of the Science Strategy Committee, Northern Ireland Fishery Harbour Authority and also is Chair and board member of Causeway Coast Maritime Heritage Group.

Kate has over 14 years’ experience working on marine resource issues and over 30 years in management. Through her work in seafood, kelp cultivation, and inshore fisheries management planning, Kate has an in-depth understanding of the role of marine science and of the fisheries sector. She supported Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) in preparing the EU FLAG strategies for all six FLAG regions in Ireland in 2013 and 2014. Kate’s time as Director of Initiatives with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute included the oversight of a support programme for fishers in their transition to catch share management.

Prof. Tim McCarthy is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science, and Principal Investigator (PI) based in the National Centre for Geocomputation (NCG) at Maynooth University. He has over thirty years R&D experience in Earth Observation, Geographical Information Science and Geocomputation. Over the past fifteen years at Maynooth, he has led 32 externally funded research projects (with associated funding of €28m). He has specific expertise in Marine Data Technologies.

Tim possess core competencies in Digital Data Technologies and Digitalisation with experience gained in senior leadership Research, Technology, Development and Innovation (RTDI) roles, at a National and European level. Active RTDI roles currently held include co-leading a multi-million Euro project, ‘Terrain-AI’, dealing with Climate Change, coordinating a European Space Agency (ESA) multi-stakeholder project ‘Atlantic Maritime Surveillance Pathfinder’, and spin-out of Three Data Technology Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

Tim sits on 4 committees/working-groups including the Copernicus Earth Observation programme in Brussels, having been appointed in 2015, as Irish National delegate. He provides RTDI support to Industry including a number of start-up ventures, focused around Geospatial Science & Technology, Spatial Decision Support Systems and ArtificiaI Intelligence.

Tim holds a BSc in Geology & Maths from University College Cork, an MSc in Remote Sensing from University College of London and a PhD in Geospatial Science University of London (Birkbeck).