Oaklee Housing Board Members

John Buckley

Chairperson

John Buckley is an independent semi-retired management consultant. He is happily married to Jane and has two daughters and a grandchild. John was appointed to the Choice Board in 2016 and since then has joined the Oaklee Housing Board and now also serves the Choice Services Board. Outside of Choice he has a wealth of experience across a number of industries ranging from bio-technology manufacturing to financial and management services for startup companies. John has worked across the globe, spending considerable time in the US and France. Having moved to Donegal from Nice, France, John is keen to offer and apply his skills to organisations - particularly Irish - that could benefit from his expertise and experience in management.

Eddie Breen

Board Member

Eddie held the position of CEO of Wexford County Council up to his retirement in 2013, having previously served as City Manager Waterford.

His duties as CEO included the delivery, management and maintenance of the Councils stock of social housing and the implementation of spatial planning policies for the county.

He has acted as board member of the National Roads Authority, National Building Agency and Local Government Management Services Board.

He is currently chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of Wexford/Waterford Education and Training Committee.

Ronan Headon

Board Member

Ronan worked for 36 years with Bank of Ireland in a variety of roles including; lending to SMEs, marketing, finance and general management. From 2011, he managed the Government’s microfinance initiative and acted as Interim CEO of Microfinance Ireland until April 2013. Currently he is Head of Finance at Social Finance Foundation, a lender to the community and voluntary sector and parent company of Microfinance Ireland.

In 2016, he was appointed Chair of the Audit Committee in the Department of Health. He is a director of Philanthropy Ireland and National Traveller MABs where he chairs their respective Audit Committees. He holds an Honours degree in Commerce from UCD and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and a Fellow of the Institute of Banking.

Evelyn Hempenstall

Board Member

Evelyn Hempenstall is a Chartered Accountant with senior professional experiences in the Public Health Sector and Commercial organisations both multinational and Irish owned. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

She has had wide raging and challenging roles in her professional life dealing with financial management and planning a variety of commercial environments which included manufacturing, distribution, service delivery, business growth and contraction. Her professional experience in the Public Service included high level planning, funding negotiation, and senior executive participation in management teams as well as responsibility for financial management and control.

She has experience as a Board member / Trustee of charitable organisations both in Ireland and overseas. She is pleased to have the opportunity to use her professional training and experience in her role as a Board Member in the hope of contributing to the mission of Oaklee Housing

Tom Mackey

Board Member

Tom has worked at a senior level for many years in local government. He was City Engineer in Waterford City where his duties included social housing construction and maintenance. He more recently was City Manager in Limerick City where his responsibilities included the provision, management and maintenance of the City’s social housing areas.

In his earlier career he worked as a civil engineer in the private sector, working for consultants and contractors both in Ireland and abroad. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.

Ciaran McAreavey

Board Member

Ciaran McAreavey is currently Managing Director Ireland for Close Brothers Commercial Finance, a division of Close Brothers Group Plc. which is a provider of finance to SMEs in NI and ROI. Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand specialising in the area of Corporate Finance, he then moved into the banking sector and has held a number of senior leadership roles in the banking and financial services sector based in the UK and Ireland.

Ciaran has a degree in Law and Accounting and a postgraduate Diploma in Accounting from QUB, is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and a member of the Institute of Bankers. He joined the Choice Group Board as a Non-Executive Board Director in April 2016 and became Chair in September 2020. He also Chair’s the Development & Growth Committee and Maple and May Board.

Brian McCormick

Board Member

Brian McCormick is a Chartered Director who has broad experience in general and operational management, business development and corporate finance both in Ireland and internationally. He is a Board Member at the National Transport Authority and previously 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.

Prior to An Post he worked as a Director of Merrion Corporate Finance and in senior management roles with CRH plc in the US and also served as a Board member of UNICEF Ireland. Brian in engineering graduate of University College Dublin and has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Deirdre Owens

Board Member

Deirdre graduated from UCD Arts in Economics and Archaeology in 1981. She has a post graduate diploma in Montessori Early Childhood Education from Sion Hill College, Blackrock, Co. Dublin 1982; and a Diploma in Legal Studies from Dublin Institute of Technology 1987. She qualified as solicitor from Law Society of Ireland 1994, and practised as a solicitor in a sole practice for 21 years up to November 2018 specialising in family law, conveyance and probate.

Prior to studying law, Deirdre spent five years working in inner city Dublin as a Montessori teacher in the Mercy Family Resource Centre, Cork Street, Dublin 8 where she set up a home visiting programme and gave parenting seminars to young mothers in St. Theresa’s Gardens and St. Michael’s house where I saw first-hand the daily struggles of young families living in cramped unsuitable accommodation.

Patricia Ward

Board Member

Patricia Ward has been working in the Dublin commercial property market since the early 1990’s.    As a Director specialising in investment and office occupier markets, she has been working for many years’ as a respected Chartered Surveyor with expertise in negotiation; and has experience in leading teams and in mentoring graduates.  

She is an Expert in relationship management and in implementing tenant/landlord strategy for private professional landlords. Patricia joined TWM in 2017 from her previous role as Director within the investment team in Cushman & Wakefield and more recently within the office agency team.   Whilst at Cushman & Wakefield Patricia was responsible for the extremely successful sale of the Elmpark Office Investment for €200 million to Starwood on behalf of NAMA and Receiver Duff & Phelps.

As a Senior Investment Manager at Treasury Holdings, Patricia was responsible for the successful play and implementation of asset management strategies for prestigious developments such as Central Park and Spencer Dock.  Patricia also co-ordinated property valuations for annual and bi-annual reports across the substantial Treasury Holdings portfolio.  Patricia has extensive experience managing client accounts from the global occupier perspective both from her time at CBRE and Cushman Wakefield.”

Alan Whelan

Board Member

Alan Whelan is a Chartered Town Planner and heads up O’Connor Whelan Limited, Town Planning Consultants. Alan has a BA (Hons) in History and Geography, and a Masters in Regional and Urban Planning. He is member of the Irish Planning Institute and the Royal Town Planning Institute.

Alan has more than 20 years’ experience covering a wide range of professional areas, including preparation of planning applications, planning appeals and observations in relation to a number of high profile commercial developments, the preparation and co-ordination of Environmental Impact Assessments, and the co-ordination of Oral Hearings. He is experienced in the programming and monitoring of environmental improvement projects requiring the briefing and co-ordination of multi-disciplinary project teams.

Alan was previously a director with two other town planning consultancies and worked directly for both Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council, as Executive and Senior Executive Planning Officer.

Mary Birmingham

Board Member - Acorn Housing

Mary Birmingham is a chartered surveyor and a member of the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

She acts as a full-time Consultant to Savills Ireland. Her experience spans over 30 years across all real estate sectors with exposure to investment, project management, formulating and implementing development and investment strategies. Mary has operated in both private and public sectors and in recent years has played a leading role in many of Ireland’s most high profile development projects and major property transactions.

In her previous role of Head of Asset Management in NAMA up to 2018 Mary was a Director of National Asset Residential Property Services DAC which was established by NAMA to expedite social housing delivery within its loan portfolio.

Aidan Devlin

Board Member - Acorn Housing

Aidan Devlin is a chartered accountant with more than 30 years banking and project finance experience gained both in Ireland as Head of Corporate Banking with a major international bank and in the Middle East.

More recently Aidan has been working with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) on its remit to support the delivery of new residential stock on commercially viable sites owned or controlled by NAMA debtors or receivers through direct funding, joint venture and licence arrangements with major residential developers and contractors

Aidan is also a board member of the National Maternity Hospital where he is chair of the board’s Quality Risk & Patient Safety Committee and member of the Audit Committee and was a founding board member of NMH Foundation. Aidan holds a B.Com from UCC, is a certified mediator (Mediator Institute of Ireland) and certified member of Institute of Directors.