Camphill Communities of Ireland is overseen by a dedicated voluntary Board of Directors, providing strategic guidance, governance, and accountability. The Board ensures that our work aligns with legal and regulatory requirements while upholding the highest standards of care and operational excellence.
Each director brings a wealth of valuable experience and insights, helping to shape policies, approve budgets, and guide long-term strategic planning for the organization. Their oversight ensures that our communities remain safe, inclusive, and effective in supporting the individuals we serve.
Ambrose was elected as Chairperson of Camphill Communities of Ireland in September 2023.
He was born on a family farm in Grangecon (West Wicklow) in 1954. He qualified as an accountant in 1979. He has worked in a number of organisations (O’Neill Foley & Co Chartered Accountants; Department of Social Welfare; Cantrell & Cochrane (C&C); Asahi; Johnson & Johnson (J&J); Fruehauf; Voluntary Health Insurance (Vhi)) in a career spanning 44 years.
He retired from full time employment with VHI, after 34 years service, at the end of December 2016. In that time, he held a number of senior finance positions in the company. In addition to his accountancy qualification he is a qualified Compliance practitioner.
He is a Director of Brainwave – The Irish Epilepsy Association and sits on the Benevolent Committees (Ireland and Worldwide) of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
Bernard has been involved with Camphill since 1993 when his daughter Sarah moved to the Camphill Community at Dunshane. He has served on Dunshane’s Local Committee since 2002, and is now the Chair of that Committee.
Bernard lives in Malahide, Co. Dublin and is married to Mairin, a speech and language therapist, and has 4 children. He is a physics and maths graduate from UCD (1974) and has extensive international and senior management experience. He worked as a management consultant with Accenture, was a founding director of one of the first trading companies in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), was the Chief Information Officer – Europe for General Electric’s Global Consumer Finance business.
Bernard held board directorships on both Irish plcs and overseas multinational company boards for several years. Bernard retired from full time work commitments this year and was elected to the Council in September 2017.
Ian is connected to Camphill through his brother John who joined the Community in 2002. Ian is an experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history of working in the civil engineering and software development industries. Skilled in Marketing Management, Business Planning, Analytical Skills, and Coaching. Ian was previously the Deputy of Mullingar Chamber of Commerce and is currently a non-executive Director of ITS Ireland.
Ian co-founded Idaso Ltd. in 2013 a software company specialising in transport data collection, he is a strong business development professional with a Degree in Business and a Masters focused in International Entrepreneurship Management from University of Limerick, Ireland.
Marie Keane was the former Deputy Chief Executive of Beaumont Hospital Dublin and retired from the HSE in March 2017 and was Chairperson of Camphill Communities of Ireland from April 2017 until September 2023.
Marie is the former Beaumont Hospital Director of Nursing and was heavily involved in overseas recruitment of nursing staff during this period. She was co-opted to the Board in early 2016 and has been influential in the current review of Camphill structures in the south of Ireland.
Pádraig Fleming joined the Board as an independent director. He has experience in various industries in the private and public sector, with a strong national presence and recognised brands.
Pádraig has contributed to high profile strategic projects, such as the restructuring of a national utility, with expertise in negotiation, due diligence, regulation, stakeholder engagement. He has also acted as an advisor to executive management team overseas.
Paul O’Donoghue has spent almost his entire career in the Irish utilities sector. Outside of short periods with the IDA (1984) and Aer Lingus (1987) Paul has been employed in a variety of roles within Irelands national gas and water utilities including periods in internal audit, customer service (national & international waard-winning), new business development and operations management.
Paul was a member of the Bord Gais Networks executive management team 2010-2012 as Head of Workflow and the first Irish Water executive management team 2013-2015 as Head of Customer Operations. Paul subsequently filled the role of Ervia Group Head of Strategy & Innovation 2015-2021and Gas Networks Ireland Head of Strategy & Business Planning 2022-2024 the position from which he took early retirement.
Paul has a Bachelor of Business Studies degree from NIHE Dublin(1985) with a specialism in HR & industrial relations, is APICS qualified in Production & Inventory Control (1989), has an IMI diploma in Strategy & Innovation Management (2016).
Tony is an experienced business operations and transformation leader. He has successfully delivered many large, diverse and complex organisation change programmes and initiatives in major Irish gas, water and electricity utilities over the past 20 years. Some of these initiatives have shaped the utilities industry in Ireland enabling them to become multi-product and service providers.
Tony has a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) and is a qualified Project Manager, Coach and Mediator. Tony is a keen golfer and is heavily involved in junior soccer administration.
Our Board of Directors helps shape the future of Camphill Communities of Ireland through strategic leadership, shared values, and a deep commitment to empowering the lives of the people we support.
