The IMMA Board consists of twelve members and a Chairperson, appointed by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for a period of not more than five years. At the discretion of the Minister, individual members may be asked to serve a second or subsequent term.
The members of the Board and the Chairperson are artists and other people with an active interest and/or expertise in modern and contemporary art. They are appointed in their capacity as individuals.
There are no fees payable in respect of Board appointments. Only the Chairperson is eligible to receive a fee, set at €8,978, which is unclaimed at year-end 2018. Expenses are paid to Board members in accordance with the guidelines and rules set down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Only vouched expenses are paid.
Below is a list of IMMA’s current board members and their terms of office.
Ms. Ali Curran is an experienced business and organisational consultant. She is a Director of CHL Consulting Ltd., a member of the Institute of Directors Ireland and a certified Management Consultant with the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisors. She holds a Masters in Organisational Psychology, professional certificate in Organisational Change and is a qualified executive and leadership coach. Ali has a strong history of successful leadership and management of cultural organisations having previously worked as Director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, Director of The Peacock Theatre @ The Abbey, and Director of the Tron Theatre, Glasgow. Date of Appointment 11 September 2023 Term 5 years
Rhoda Lane-O'Kelly has worked for over 30 years at senior executive level in the consumer goods and retail sector, with wide-ranging experience in areas of business such as strategic communications, brand building, corporate relations and sustainable development. Her qualifications include an Executive Master’s in Cultural Leadership and an Executive MBA, through which her passion for the arts has been complemented by firsthand insights into museum development and financing as well as philanthropic motivations. Date of Appointment 6 November 2024 Term 5 years
John McLaughlin is a practicing architect and associate professor in architectural design in University College Cork. He has international experience working on large civic and cultural projects, including the renovation of the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts in Paris, and was principal architect with Dublin Docklands Authority before founding John McLaughlin Architects in 2010. He was awarded a PhD in architectural theory by UCC for a dissertation on the subject of discourse production in architecture exhibitions. Date of Appointment 6 November 2024 Term 5 years
John Cunningham's career has spanned almost 35 years in marketing, management, business development and executive management in organisations such as Irish Permanent, Friends First, Zurich Bank and Alexander Mann Solutions. John is Commercial Director with Morgan McKinley an Irish Head Quartered global recruitment and talent solutions business. He is also a director and shareholder in CheckRisk. He has a long association with the arts in Ireland and with IMMA in particular where he helped to found the initiative IMMA 1000; a fundraising programme that has seen IMMA raise over €250K for Irish artists over the last three years. John is Chair of Gaisce, The Presidents Award, a director of the Irish Youth Foundation and the Immigrant Council of Ireland. He is Chair of the judging panel for the CSR awards for Chambers Ireland. Reappointed 17 July 2023 Term 2 years
Margot Lyons has extensive expertise in Risk Management particularly in the Financial Services Sector holding senior roles with NatWest Markets, Chief Risk Officer with Ulster Bank Ireland DAC and Managing Director for Risk Management at GE Financial Markets. Margot chaired the Audit Committee of Irish charity Trócaire from 2011 to 2017 and is a graduate of Dublin City University and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Reappointed 17 July 2023 Term 2 years
Mike Fitzpatrick, Dean of the Limerick School of Art & Design, TUS. As an artist, curator, academic and cultural producer, his previous experience includes roles as Director/Curator of Limerick City Gallery of Art, Irish Commissioner for the Venice Biennale, Director of Ireland’s first National City of Culture, led Limerick’s bid for European Capital of Culture, and as Visual Art Curator with the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Date of Appointment 2 February 2023 Term 5 years
Ms. Jess Majekodunmi is a managing director at The Dock, Accenture's flagship R&D and Global Innovation Center in Dublin. She is a design historian and an innovation designer and brings great skills and vast experience in relation to community, equality, diversity, and inclusion as well as innovation and sustainability. Date of Appointment 2 February 2023 Term 5 years
Ms. Sinéad O’Sullivan is a multidisciplinary engineer, academic and writer whose work lies at the intersection of innovation, economics, geopolitics, engineering and more. She is also Adjunct Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the famed New Bauhaus institute, teaching a novel and interdisciplinary syllabus of engineering and design. She formerly led Prof. Michael E. Porter’s research at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School. Date of Appointment 2 February 2023 Term 5 years
The work of Gerard Byrne (b.1969) has been shown at international exhibitions including Skulptur Projekte Muenster (2017), Documenta 13 (2012), the Venice Biennale (2011), as well as in major museums in Europe and the US. Museum solo exhibitions include Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2017), ACCA, Melbourne (2016), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2015), FRAC Pays de la Loire (2014), Whitechapel Gallery (2013), IMMA (2011), Renaissance Society, Chicago (2011). His major works feature in the collections of leading international museums in Europe, the US, and Asia. He has been Professor of Time Based Media at the Royal Danish Academy for Fine Art (2007 - 2016), and Interim Professor of Film at Staedelschule, Frankfurt (2018-19). Reappointed 3 February 2021. Term 5 years
Mary Apied is the founding director and former President of the Trinity Foundation; the fund raising arm of Trinity College. She is currently a member of the Board of the Landmark Trust. Mary has over thirty years experience of fundraising for third level and non-profit organisations. Reappointed 2 December 2020 Term 5 years
Dermod Dwyer is the Executive Chairman of the Convention Centre, Dublin. He was the founder of an international management consulting practice and was the lead consultant for large projects and studies in Ireland including the Croke Park Museum and Powerscourt Estate. He was also a former member of the Board of Governors and Guardians, National Gallery of Ireland. Reappointed 2 December 2020 Term 5 years
Eva Kenny is a writer from Dublin. She has published widely on art and culture in publications such as Artforum, Frieze, ArtPapers, Kaleidoscope, Flash Art, the Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, the LA Review of Books, the Dublin Review of Books and Brand-New-Life, and in catalogues and artists' publications. In 2018 she was awarded a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Princeton University for a dissertation on dispossession in Samuel Beckett’s novels of the 1930s–1950s. From 2015-2017 she was a director at Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich. Date of Appointment 2 December 2020 Term 5 years