IEA National Council 2011

IEA President
Mark Fitzgerald, Citibank
Mark Fitzgerald is the Chief Operating Officer of Citibank Europe plc. Mark is a director and board member both of Citibank Europe plc and its immediate parent company Citibank Holdings Ireland Limited (CHIL). Prior to his current role, Mark served as Director and Head of Trustee Services for Citibank Trustees Ireland Limited (CTIL) from 1997 until 2001. Citi group are a major service provider. Mark holds a Barrister-At-Law degree from Kings Inns and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork. Mark started his career with Allied Irish Investments Bank in 1987. Mark was Head of Trustee Services in Ulster Bank Markets form 1994 until 1997.

IEA Vice-President
Colin Lawlor, BIancamed
Colin is currently Commercial Director for BiancaMed Limited, a recent winner of Innovation of the Year award and the company behind the world’s first wire-free sensor for measuring sleep and breathing in the home. Prior to that, Colin was COO for Bio Medical Research Limited based in Galway. BMR operates in both the medical device (Neurotech) and health and fitness (Slendertone) businesses. During his 10 years at BMR, Colin was also responsible for export development in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. Colin also worked in the marketing consultancy business and started his career at Guinness Ireland (now Diageo).
Colin holds a B.Sc.(mgmt) from Trinity College Dublin and is a member of the Marketing Institute of Ireland. He has served as Council member and Vice President of the Irish Exporters Association and led the associations campaign for a yes to Europe vote during the recent referendum.

IEA Vice-President & IEA Chairman West/Midwest Region
John Carr, Flextronics
John is Vice-President of Supply Chain Solutions with Flextronics. He holds a masters degree in Manufacturing Engineering and MBA. John previously worked in senior engineering and materials management positions with Digital Equipment, EMC Corporation and AST Computers. John managed Flextronics Logisitics in the US prior to locating in Europe in 2001. John is a fellow member of the Institute of Logisitics and Transportation. He is Chair of the Irish Exporters Association West/Mid-West Council.

IEA Honorary Treasurer Joe Tynan, PWC
Joe Tynan is a tax partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He works with Irish companies who operate internationally. He assists with the tax issues associated with exporting to or establishing operations outside of Ireland. This includes Irish and foreign corporate tax, sales taxes, withholding taxes and various local taxes.


Peter Cullen, Aran Candy

Brenda Daly, Dublin Port Company
Brenda has worked with Dublin Port Company for almost all of her career. Within the company she has worked in IT, Human Resources and Harbour Operations She currently is Business Development Manager and a Director of the company.

Brendan Farrell, Abbott Ireland
Brendan has spent most of his career with Abbott in the nutritional division starting in Finance in 1975 and moving into Materials in 1981. He has held various positions since then within the Logistics and Supply Chain including Procurement, Planning and Regulatory Compliance. Brendan is currently Warehouse Manager at Abbott Ireland. He is a Past President of the Irish Exporters Association. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Irish Purchasing Materials Management Institute and currently serves as a council member on the Supply Chain Institute of Ireland (I.P.I.C.S.) Brendan is also a member of the Irish Customs Consultative Committee with the IEA. And has represented Ireland at Customs EU summits in Toledo Spain 2002 and Copenhagen , Sweden 2001.
He holds an enviable knowledge of EU export legislation and compliance, which he has generously shared with a lot of exporters. He has served the IEA consistently since the 1980's.
Norman Wilkinson, Curtis and Lees
Norman Wilkinson began his career in the shipping industry in December 1972 with George Bell (Agencies) Ltd., where he spent the next eight years learning the business under the expert tuition of Derek Horner. In 1980 he joined the then Irish Shipping subsidiary Celtic Forwarding Ltd., as forwarding manager. In April 1984 Norman joined Curtis and Lees Ltd., as managing director and has spent the years since then building and developing the company. Curtis and Lees Ltd., is an international freight forwarder that is heavily involved in the export of Irish products to worldwide destinations.In 1996 Norman set up the liner agency company of International Maritime Agencies Ltd (IMA) in partnership with Dave Whelan and Carol Wilkinson. IMA now hold the Irish agency of the Hamburg Sued Group, Atlantic Cargo, Nile Dutch Africa Line and Kursui Line. Norman, originally from Creeslough, Co. Donegal now lives in the Dublin suburb of Raheny. Norman is a member of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

Kevin O'Leary, Qumas

Mike Fitzgerald, Altobridge LImited
Mike Fitzgerald CEO & Co-Founder of Altobridge, a wireless communications network supplier specialising in remote communications solutions. In December 2009 Altobridge acquired a division of ADC Telecommunications (NASDAQ: ADCT) enabling Altobridge to provide a complete end to end wireless network portfolio. Prior to Altobridge Mike led an MBO, brought it to profitability and carried out a successful Trade Sale of that entity to a US publicly traded company in 2000, generating significant returns for shareholders. From 1988 to 1997 Mike was with Ericsson where he was a member of the Senior Management Team for Ericsson China and subsequently Ericsson USA. Mike is a Board Member of Blue Ocean Wireless and Mianach Venture Capital. He is a graduate of UCC (Computers & Mathematics) and recently (2007 – 2008) completed Leadership 4 Growth at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Pat Higgins, Queally Group
Pat has worked in the International Food and Drinks business for over 25yrs. He is Managing Director of Pasta Concepts Ltd, a company within the Queally Group, for whom he is also head of Business Development. Prior to joining Queally he worked in IDA and Coopers and Lybrand.

Dermot Carbery, Internal Solutions
Dermot Carberry has held senior executive positions with a variety of industries both in Ireland and abroad over the last 20 years. He is Managing Director of a successful consultancy company “Internal Solutions” which was established in 2009 offering extensive experience to SME’s and large companies for business development, implementing change and sales & marketing development. He is involved in several start-up projects currently and is the the lead consultant/ IEA Welsh Market director for the Irish Exporters organisation.
He mentors for Enterprise Ireland and has worked with other government bodies such as Invest Northern Ireland and sits on various entrepreneurship panels around Ireland. He has studied with the Irish Management Institute, Marketing Institute of Ireland (MII) and FETAC.

Hugh Kelly, Associated Marketing Ltd.
Hugh Kelly is Managing Director of the Associated Marketing Ltd. group which provides marketing, sales and debtor management services to client manufacturers and suppliers based in Ireland and overseas. The company specialises in identifying the best sales channels to market for their clients’ products and then managing those channels for growth. The company currently operates in markets in the EU, USA, Middle East, India, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Hugh holds a degree in Civil Engineering (BAI) and Mathematics (MA) from Trinity College Dublin, an MBA (1995) from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business and is presently undertaking a PhD in International Business Leadership in DIT. He worked in Canada, France and the UK before returning to Ireland in 1993 to join Associated Marketing Ltd.