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 lead 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 QUB in 1991 and is a Chartered Management Accountant.
Chief Executive Officer
Mary is the Chief Executive Officer of Shannon Group. Mary was formerly Deputy CEO and CFO/Company Secretary. In her previous role as Airport Director she led the successful separation of Shannon Airport from daa leading to Shannon Airport becoming independent in 2012 and the formation of Shannon Group in late 2014. Mary is a qualified accountant and she has extensive experience in the areas of aviation, commercial and finance having previously held a number of senior roles within the Company.
Mary is President of the Ibec Midwest Regional Committee and sits on IBEC’s national council. Mary currently is on the Fáilte Ireland Wild Atlantic Way Tourism Co-ordination steering group and is a member of the Governing Authority of Mary Immaculate College. Mary is a former director and past President of Shannon Chamber of Commerce.
Employee Representative
Audrey Costelloe was appointed to the Board of Shannon Group plc in January 2023 as an Employee Representative.
Audrey has worked in Shannon Airport for 37 years and currently works in the retail department and is also a trustee of the company pension scheme. She was a member of the team that established the Duty Free in Moscow.
Board Member
Aisling is an organisational leader with over 20 years’ experience in telecommunications and technology sectors including Global, Regional, and Irish market roles. Aisling was previously Commercial Director; Global Partner Solutions Director and her current role is Director of Strategy and Sustainability with Microsoft.
Aisling has held non-executive roles in UK, Netherlands, South Africa and more recently sat on the National Maternity Hospital Board and held an advisory role on the IMI Council. She recently completed the Insead Data and AI School and Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership in 2021-2022 along with both the Microsoft and Vodafone Leadership Development programmes. Aisling is an active member in the 30% Club Technology Steering group. She has been an IMI Mentor and a Business Mentor (Start-up/scale up) programme with Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise 2018/9.
Employee Representative
Alan Donohoe was appointed to the Board of Shannon Group plc in January 2023 as an Employee Representative.
Alan has over 26 years’ experience in the Airport Police and Fire service, joining Dublin Airport in 1996 and moving to Shannon Airport in 2004 where he now hold 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. Ambrose was a partner for 22 years with McCann FitzGerald, one of Ireland’s leading law firms where in addition to client advisory work on financial services, he served in several senior management roles involving finance and risk.
He is a Board member of the National Museum of Ireland since 2016 and chairs its Audit and Risk Committee. He is a member of the Finance HR and Asset Management Committee of the University of Limerick. From 2013 to 2019, he chaired the Audit Committee of the Department of Finance. He has particular expertise in the areas of risk management and corporate governance.
Board Member
Stephen Rae was appointed to the Board in May 2019. Stephen is the founder of KOBN Cybersecurity, Climate and Compliance Advisory. He is chair of AML Intelligence, the global Anti-Financial Crime and Compliance publication. He is a co-founder of Callaway Climate Insights, the climate and ESG business intelligence site. 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 was the first Group Editor-in-Chief at Independent News & Media, Ireland's largest media group, where he oversaw the group’s online operations and four national newspapers. Previously, he was the editor of two national newspapers and Independent.ie. Stephen is a qualified barrister and holds the Award in Business & Leadership from the Directors Course at Cranfield University.