Our Board

Our Board

Dóchas is governed by its members, through an Annual General Meeting, which elects a Board to manage the network on behalf of the members. The Board is assisted by a Secretariat which is responsible for the day-to-day business of the organisation. Minutes from Board meetings can be found below.

The following are full members of the Dóchas Board:

Chairperson - Rosamond Bennett: Christian Aid Ireland 

Rosamond Bennett is CEO of Christian Aid Ireland, an international aid and development agency focusing on peacebuilding, gender equality & women’s empowerment, human rights and humanitarian response. She is also a Board Member of the Irish Emergency Alliance and a former Chair of the Irish Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. Rosamond is a human rights activist and is very interested in women’s empowerment, particularly in the area of peacebuilding. She has travelled extensively listening to women’s experiences of inequality, poverty, powerlessness and violence against women and girls.

Rosamond gave up shopping for a year as a mark of solidarity for the women who had inspired her during her travels. She donated the money she would have spent to supporting empowerment programmes in Christian Aid. She is also the Chair of DU Dance, a dance development agency, working with young people from disadvantaged areas and ethnic minority backgrounds in Northern Ireland, Palestine and Ethiopia.

Vice Chairperson - John Moffett: Misean Cara

John was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Misean Cara in April 2020. He has worked in international development for over 25 years most recently as CEO of TREE AID, where he developed and led a 5 year strategy delivering organisational growth and deepening impact. John was previously Programme Director with Self Help Africa where he led the implementation of programme strategy targeting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. John brings a strong track record in leading geographically dispersed teams to design and implement impactful programmes and growing institutional funding.

Treasurer - Siobhán Cassidy: Trócaire

Siobhán Cassidy has significant technical experience having worked as an accountant for 14 years within both commercial and non-profit sectors. She is currently Head of Finance in Trócaire, overseeing the financial management of €65-70m income annually across 18 country offices. Trócaire has a diverse donor portfolio so she is skilled in managing competing priorities and multiple stakeholders. She is a strategic, transformative thinker with a proven record of designing and implementing solutions to financial challenges in complex operating environments. A major part of her current role is to present to our Board and Committees and she has
previously been Treasurer and Board Member for a youth mental health charity. The invaluable experience gained on both sides of the table has shown her how Boards and Management need to complement each other in order to be successful.

Bobby McCormack: Development Perspectives

Bobby was one of the two co-founders of Development Perspectives (DP) and has been the CEO since 2009. DP specialises in Development Education / Global Citizenship Education.  Bobby chaired the Dóchas Development Education Group (DEG) for three years and was the DEG representative on the CONCORD Development Awareness Raising and Education (DARE, which later became Hub 4) forum for four years. He also co-chaired the Hub 4 of CONCORD for two years. Bobby was one of five civil society representatives on the EU Development Education multi-stakeholder forum and served on the National Council of IDEA for three years. Bobby worked as a lecturer/senior lecturer in the Dept. of Humanities in Dundalk Institute of Technology for thirteen years introducing Development Studies to two different courses.

Eamon Sharkey: GOAL

Eamon has worked in the International Development sector since 2013 in a number of capacities, with a primary focus on fundraising and communications in Ireland and abroad. Having worked with two of Ireland’s largest INGOs, he has an in-depth knowledge of the humanitarian and development sector here. His key experience is not only within fundraising and communications, but in public engagement, institutional funding, brand building and innovation.

Building on qualifications including a Masters in International Development and a Master’s in Business Administration, he currently leads the GOAL fundraising department as Director of Fundraising and Marketing, ensuring the development and delivery of strategic income generation and brand development initiatives.

Key to his own personal perspective on the importance and role of humanitarian and development programming, is connecting the public to issues of shared importance to our global society, including justice, equality, and the range of SDGs that can unite communities around the world, rather than highlight our differences. He is passionate about making our world a more equitable, fair and just place for every individual and community.

His skillset also includes strong competencies in data analysis, finance and budgeting, strategic management and monitoring and evaluation of operations and activities.

Grace Milton: External Member

With over 15 years’ experience in communications and Government affairs, Grace is Head of Corporate Affairs at Danone Ireland.  Having held roles in the food industry, communications consultancy and within Government, Grace’s areas of expertise include communications strategy, stakeholder management, policy development, crisis and issues management, organisational purpose and corporate governance. She has advised some the largest Irish and international organisations in sectors such as retail, agrifood, energy, pharmaceuticals, technology, telecoms and the arts. Qualified with a Bachelor of Law and European Studies with French, Grace holds an Executive MBA from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, for which she received the IMAGE Magazine Women in Leadership bursary. She has a keen interest in corporate purpose and civic participation.

Lucia Ennis: Concern Worldwide

Lucia Ennis is the Asia Regional Director at Concern Worldwide and is a senior member of the International Programmes Directorate (IPD).  Lucia has three decades of experience, initially in the private sector, and then made the transition to the Humanitarian sector in the mid-90’s, and since then has worked and lived overseas in countries such as Vietnam, Mongolia and West Africa.  Lucia joined Concern Worldwide as a desk officer in 2005 and moved into the regional management role in 2008, as Regional Director to South East Asia and then to the Central Africa region covering DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic and Malawi.

Lucia is currently responsible for Concern Worldwide’s operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and DRPK, and manages a portfolio of €20 million, with an international and national team of around 540 people.  She leads on operations including livelihoods, nutrition, and education programmes both in urban and rural contexts, and supports the country management teams to achieve impact, scale and quality programming, and funding.  Lucia is passionate about poverty alleviation and holds a firm belief that we as a sector can have a significant global impact through strong programming linked with evidence-based advocacy and collaboration.

Martina Fitzgerald: External Member

Martina Fitzgerald is CEO of Scale Ireland, the not-for-profit organisation representing Irish tech start-up and scale-up companies. Martina is actively involved in the global and European networks of start-up representative bodies. A graduate of University College Dublin, Martina completed a leadership programme at Harvard Business School in 2022 and was previously a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University in New York. Prior to 2019, Martina was a leading national journalist including Political Correspondent with Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, She is also the author of a critically acclaimed book, Madam Politician, on Irish female government ministers.

Karol Balfe: ActionAid Ireland

Karol Balfe is CEO with ActionAid Ireland, responsible for overseeing the organisation’s strategy on women’s rights, programming, policy work, fundraising and governance. ActionAid works with women and children, as they take the lead in claiming their human rights, in order to build a more just and caring world. Karol is a senior leader with 20 years’ experience in international human rights, development and peacebuilding. Prior to working with ActionAid, Karol was the Global Head of Peacebuilding for Christian Aid, Head of Programmes and Governance, Human Rights and Peacebuilding adviser, working with a range of institutional donors, trusts and foundations and civil society partners in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Karol has considerable experience in designing and implementing strategic change organisationally and programmatically. Karol also worked with Amnesty International Ireland for six years, overseeing major programmes of work and campaigns on a range of Irish and international issues. Karol is passionate about feminism, human rights, solidarity with those experiencing violations, and supporting human rights based movements for change around the world.

Paul Donnelly

Paul is Professor of Management and Organisation Studies at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin).  He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA), is a graduate of the Institute of Directors’ Chartered Director Programme, and is both a Fulbright Fellow and a Taiwan Fellow.  He serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange (Fulbright Commission), as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Vice Chair of Transparency International Ireland, and as a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Social Sciences Committee.  Previously, he served as an Independent Expert on the National Economic and Social Council, and as Chair of the Critical Management Studies Division and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the US Academy of Management. Over the course of a 30+ year career spanning the public sector, academia and the not-for-profit sector, he has gained expertise and experience in the areas of strategy, governance, and organisation.  He also brings a commitment to such values as integrity, honesty, professionalism, diligence, transparency, open-mindedness, and ethical conduct.

Board Minutes

Click below to download minutes from recent Dóchas Board meetings. Minutes not listed here can be obtained by contacting the Dóchas secretariat.

Dóchas Board Minutes