Board of Directors

Brian Walsh (Chair)

Brian is currently Deputy Head of Acquisitions and an Executive Producer with RTÉ Television. He produces a wide variety of programming and his most recent and best-known series was Great Lighthouses of Ireland. Brian has a long history of involvement in the arts, he was a founder member of the Cork Theatre Company and acted with The Everyman Players in Cork and later trained with Dublin’s Focus Theatre. Brian is a former non-executive director of Monsoon Accessorize Ireland Ltd, a retail enterprise with 13 outlets in the ROI. He oversaw a successful examiner-ship process which ensured the survival and rationalisation of the group in 2011.

He was, prior to his career change, the commercial and institutional property manager with Hamilton Osborne King, Mason Owen and Lyons, and Druker Fanning and partners, managing a broad commercial portfolio.

Qualifications: BA NUI, MA Film and Television Studies DCU, Post Grad Broadcast Management IAB (International Academy of Broadcasting) Switzerland.

Brian has a broad range of interests, theatre, opera, ballet, modern dance and cinema, and music, both choral and classical. His professional career requires a wide engagement with the arts in all forms.

Susan Lannigan

Deputy Company Secretary, Grafton Group plc

A qualified solicitor and experienced governance professional, Susan is responsible for the day-to-day management of the corporate secretarial function of Grafton Group plc, a FTSE-250 listed building materials group. Her role involves ensuring that Grafton, its Board of Directors and subsidiaries in various geographic locations remain compliant with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements, stock exchange listing rules, and corporate governance codes.

Susan qualified as a solicitor in 2009 following which she practiced in a Dublin general practice firm, advising on a wide range of areas including commercial, corporate, employment, property and technology/IP law. She then moved into the specialist field of corporate governance, gaining experience in the regulated financial services and the commercial sector.

Prior to her legal career, Susan undertook an MPhil in Music and Media Technologies (MMT) in TCD, and she plays piano and maintains a keen interest in classical music and contemporary composition.

Alastair Rankin

Alastair began singing as a choir boy in the local church choir. At Trinity College Dublin, he joined the Choral Society then under the direction of Dr Jo Groocock. Returning to Belfast he joined Belfast Philharmonic Society singing in the bass and tenor sections for over 30 years during which time he practiced as a solicitor. Alastair was elected President of the Law Society of Northern Ireland in 1996 and represented the Society for 13 years on the CCBE—the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of Europe. In 1998 he was appointed as a legal member and chairman of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal for Northern Ireland and became Deputy President in 2017. In 2009 he was appointed as a fee paid judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) where he hears tax appeals throughout the United Kingdom. Alastair is currently Chairman of Belfast Philharmonic Society and Hearth Historic Buildings Trust, Honorary Secretary of Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and a member of the board of Clanmil Housing Association.

Triona Ferriter

Triona is a Human Resources Executive with over 20 years’ experience operating at a Senior Management level within both US multinational and indigenous Irish companies, supporting diverse business functions, including manufacturing, shared services and retail, mainly in the Pharmaceutical sector and more recently in the banking and legal sectors. Triona is currently Chief People Officer at Arthur Cox where she is responsible for HR Leadership and Strategy to enable continued business growth through high performing leadership and culture. Triona is an IMI Council Member.

Triona’s key areas of expertise include purpose driven cultural transformation, business partnership with executives on organisation and talent strategies, effective organisation change management and strategic planning. Triona has more recently been involved in broader sustainability strategy as it relates to engagement and alignment with people strategy.
Triona is passionate about coaching and mentoring having supported talent at all levels in that regard over the course of her career, across different industries, leveraging her own professional experience and expertise to pragmatically steer others to enhance their development.

Ian Smith

Ian studied horn and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was appointed as Co-Principal Horn with the RSNO/Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 1971 and also worked with the London Symphony Orchestra. Ian was a founding member and director of Scottish Brass. In 1993 Ian joined the UK Musicians’ Union as Scottish & Northern Ireland Organiser and founded the UK Folk & Roots department. Ian was a member of the Board of Governors at the RSAMD (now RCS/Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and an Executive Board member of the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund (now Help Musicians UK).

Ian was appointed as Head of Music at the Scottish Arts Council/Creative Scotland in 2005, where he was privileged to co-found the Youth Music Initiative, which has now seen more than £175M in additional government investment targeted at instrumental and singing teaching. Ian earned an international reputation for successfully promoting Scottish music and musicians. In 2013, Ian was elected to the executive board of the European Music Council, based in Bonn, Germany and in 2015 was elected President/Chair. Ian also served on the executive board of the International Music Council, based at Unesco in Paris. In January 2016 Ian was elected to the board of the International Society for the Performing Arts based in New York and in January 2017 was appointed Treasurer and a member of the ISPA Executive Board. In 2017, Ian joined the board of multi-media arts organisation; Cryptic, based in Glasgow who also programme and direct Sonica. In 2018, Ian joined the board of the Red Note Ensemble (Edinburgh), thus serving two of Scotland’s most significant arts organisations.

In September 2020. Ian and his wife relocated to Ireland to be closer to their daughter and family in Co Laois.. Ian retains his membership of both Cryptic and Red Note boards and was recently elected as Vice-Chair of the Red Note Ensemble. In January 2022, Ian was delighted to be invited to join the board of Chamber Choir Ireland and is looking forward to working with such a prestigious ensemble.

Scott Hayes

Scott’s interest in music began with his time as a boy chorister at St Stephen’s Church (The Pepper Canister) before moving to St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. At that time there were 13 sung services per week (only one service on a Saturday) and he became immersed in Cathedral life.

Whilst studying for his degree in Natural Science he maintained a balanced approach to student life combining dark room physics experiments and geology field trips with his duties as Choral Scholar in the Trinity College Chapel Choir and as an active member of the Choral Society.

A move to London, working in the hospitality industry, made it difficult to pursue regular musical activity for a time. However, on his return to Dublin and the completion of an MBA he joined the Mornington Singers where he sang briefly. His appointment as Administrator (CEO) of St Patrick’s Cathedral reignited his close association with choral music.

Today, as Head of Relationship Management for a specialist insurer owned by a charity, Scott spends much of his time working with customers from the Faith, Education, Heritage (including Arts and Culture) and Charity sectors. For many years he has been a supporter of Chamber Choir Ireland and was delighted to be asked to join the Board in 2023.

Clodagh Logue

Clodagh is a multi-disciplinary HR professional, with a 25 year career gained within leading global software and consumer technology companies. Her domains of experience include recruiting, HR strategy, talent planning and succession, M&A and change management and she has worked across European, US and Asia-Pacific geographies. Clodagh is currently a global HR Director at Eaton plc, working with engineering leaders and their teams around the world to support the future growth and transformation of their central engineering organisation.

Clodagh has had the opportunity to work with teams and leaders from widely diverse backgrounds over the course of her career and has actively participated in formal and informal mentoring programs to support emerging and female talent in particular.

Clodagh holds a BA (Hons) from Trinity College Dublin, a Masters in Human Resources Management from UCD Graduate School of Business and recently completed a foundational Board Directors program at INSEAD in Paris.

Her love of music and choral music in particular began in her school years, and she considers her membership of the Dublin Secondary School Girls’ Choir in particular, including performances at the NCH to have cemented her love for choral performance. She was delighted to be invited to contribute to the Board in 2024.

Pawel Krzysiek

Pawel is a Management and Communication Executive with over 15 years of experience in the technology and aid sector. Currently, Pawel leads a global intelligence team at Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly known as Facebook) where he is responsible for risk management and mitigation strategies to improve the performance of Meta’s trust and safety ecosystem. Prior to that, Pawel worked as Policy, Communication and PR Executive at the International Red Cross and United Nations in some of the world’s largest humanitarian crises around the world. His passion for choral music began in his hometown of Szczecin, Poland at the Academic Choir of the West Pomeranian University of Technology.

Executive