Board

Board Meeting Minutes

The NTA is governed by a Board of up to twelve members who are appointed by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. Three positions on the Board are ex officio positions reserved for the Chief Executive, another senior manager of the NTA and the Dublin City Manager.

Board members may be appointed for a period of up to five years and may be re-appointed. However, Board members may serve a maximum of ten years. This restriction does not apply to the ex officio members who stand appointed for as long as they occupy the relevant position.

The Dublin Transport Authority Act requires that the NTA consist of a chairperson and eleven ordinary members, who perform and carry out the functions of the NTA in accordance with the Act.

The chairperson and ordinary members of the NTA are appointed by the Minister as follows:

• The Chief Executive of the NTA, as an ordinary member, for as long they continue to be the Chief Executive.
• The holder of the office of Dublin City Manager, as an ordinary member, for as long as they continue to hold that office.
• The holder of the position of a senior management post in the NTA, as an ordinary member and to be specified by the chairperson with the consent of the Minister, for as long they continue to hold that post.
• The chairperson and 8 ordinary members, from persons who in the opinion of the Minister have wide experience in relation to transport, industrial, commercial, financial, land use planning or environmental matters, the organisation of workers or administration.

Chairperson

Peter Strachan

Peter Strachan has over 40 years’ experience in transport in the UK and Australia. He has run a number of train operating companies, bus, tram and rail operations in Melbourne and was the inaugural CEO of TransLink, the public transport authority in Brisbane and South East Queensland. Peter was also Director-General for major projects and London in the UK Department for Transport and led on transport delivery for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

He currently serves on the Boards of Merseyrail and Caledonian Sleeper for Serco plc, the Board of the UK Rail Delivery Group and is a non-executive Board member for Transport for Wales Rail.

Peter is Chair of the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of UKROEd, the National Driver Offender Retraining scheme.

Peter is a geography graduate from Durham University and a Member of the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators.

Chief Executive (Interim) & Director of Transport Planning & Investment

Hugh Creegan is Director of Transport Planning & Investment at the Authority and is the Chief Executive (Interim).
He previously worked with the National Roads Authority as Section Head, with responsibility for Public-Private Partnerships, Commercial Operations and Strategic Planning.

He is a civil engineer with wide experience on major projects in the public and private sectors, including the Dublin Port Tunnel, and the M50 widening and associated free-flow toll collection.

Other members appointed by the Minister

Frank O’Connor is a former Chief Executive Officer of Airtel ATN Limited, a supplier of data communication solutions for the aviation industry. He co-founded the company in 1998.

Prior to co-founding Airtel, he worked in several software development companies including US multi-nationals Retix and CACI. He started his career in 1976 at Systems Dynamics, where he spent eight years including two in Germany and the Netherlands. He was a non-executive director at Aer Lingus in 2014/15.

Pat Mangan served as an Assistant Secretary in the Department of Transport from 1995 to 2010. His responsibilities included public transport, transport investment and finance.

Prior to that, he was Head of Road Policy in the Department of the Environment and chaired the Dublin Transportation Initiative. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Ireland.

Ann Fitzgerald is an independent Non-Executive Director and is currently Vice Chair of the Irish Takeover Panel and Chair, Beaumont Hospital Board. She chaired the Consumer Strategy Group, which led to the Government’s decision to set up the National Consumer Agency and served as CEO of the Agency for five years until October 2012.

Prior to that, she was the Secretary General of the Irish Association of Investment Managers, having joined the Association from the Department of Industry and Commerce in 1989. Ann has over 20 years experience as a Non-Executive Director, primarily in commercial and non-commercial bodies in the public sector.

Brian McCormick is a senior professional who has broad experience in general and operational management, business development and corporate finance, both in Ireland and internationally. He recently worked as an Executive Director in An Post where he was also Chairman of subsidiary businesses An Post Insurance; and UK magazine distribution and subscription management company, Air Business Limited.

He previously worked as a Director of Merrion Corporate Finance and in senior management roles with CRH plc in the US. Brian is an engineering graduate of University College Dublin, has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors in Ireland.

Iain Docherty is Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies and Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Iain has been a researcher of transport policies and their impacts on economic performance, environmental sustainability, and social inclusion for more than 25 years. He has worked with and advised a range of organisations including governments and public agencies in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, The Netherlands and Sweden, and the OECD. He was Non-Executive Director of Transport Scotland between 2006 and 2010, and of the Scotrail train operating company between 2015 and 2019. Iain holds Fellowships of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Geographical Society and the Institution of Civil Engineers, and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Eleanor O’Neill is a senior IT Consultant with extensive experience in Digital Transformation, Operational Management, Mergers & Acquisitions and Cyber Security. She recently worked as Senior Director Information Technology in Symantec, now NortonLifelock. Prior to this she worked in Technology multinationals, Visio, Microsoft, Marrakech and Digital Equipment Corporation. Eleanor is currently a Non-Executive director of Children’s Health Ireland and Coillte where she is also a member of the audit committee. Eleanor is a graduate of NUI Galway where she studied Engineering and the Institute of Directors (IOD) Ireland where she studied Company Direction.

Joyce Loughnan joined the Board of the NTA in February 2022. Joyce is a non-executive director of St John of God’s Housing Association where she is a member of the Finance, Audit and Risk committee and Development committee. She is also a member of the St Patrick’s Mental Health Services Research Ethics Committee and is the Secretary for the Friends and Family Association of St Joseph’s Intellectual Disability Services, Portrane. Joyce has previously served as a Board director of the Dublin Business Chamber, The Wheel and BoardMatch Ireland and on the Dublin City University Strategic Advisory committee, International Women’s Forum Ireland committee, Dept. of Environment Steering Committee on Housing and Homelessness and IBEC’s Regional Committee for the Eastern Region.

Joyce was Chief Executive of Focus Ireland from 2008 to 2014. Prior to that her 25-year, international career was managing large-scale organisational transformation driven by Information Technology for numerous organisations including AIB, An Garda Síochána, Aer Lingus, Dublin Airport Authority, Hibernian Insurance, Amdahl Europe, Bank of Western Australia, Goldman Sachs (London), Quarryman (RSA) and Volkswagen.  Joyce has a Masters in Business Administration from DCU and is a member of the Institute of Directors Ireland.

Richard Shakespeare is the Chief Executive of Dublin City Council with responsibility for

• The day-to-day operations of the Council.
• The implementation of council decisions.
• The working with the elected representatives (Councillors) and council staff to implement DCC’s vision for a creative and sustainable city.

He is a qualified Landscape Architect and Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in Local Government across a range of different strategic and operational functions.

Before taking up the position of Chief Executive he held the position of Assistant Chief Executive with responsibility for the Planning and Property Development Department and Culture, Recreation and Economic Services in Dublin City Council.

He has also previously worked for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council as Director of Municipal Services.