IRISH GOVERNMENT APPOINTS QUEEN'S GRADUATE CHAIR OF CIÉ
02 May 2018
The Irish Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, has announced the three-year appointment of Queen’s LLM graduate Fiona Ross (2008) as the new Chair of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), the state owned corporation responsible for most public transport in Ireland.
Fiona Ross is a governance expert with a first class Masters of Law in Corporate Governance and Public Policy from Queen’s. She also holds degrees and qualifications from Trinity College, Dublin (BA/MA, English and History, 1987), University College Dublin (MBS, International Marketing, 1992), Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (MSc, CyberPsychology, 2017) and was awarded a Fellowship in Governance by the George Washington University in 2012.
Welcoming her latest role, Ms Ross said: “It’s a significant honour to be appointed Chair of CIÉ at such a pivotal time in its history.
“I have no doubt that in my role as Chair I will need to draw on all my public and private sector experience – and of course my LLM in Corporate Governance and Public Policy from Queen’s – as CIÉ faces the many challenges involved in maintaining and improving public transport in Ireland.
“I spent a number of years in the School of Law at Queen’s completing, what was at the time, a very forward looking degree and it has served me very well in my career since then. I look forward to working with transport authorities – north and south – over the next three years.”
With over 25 years in international financial services and communications in Ireland, the UK, Eastern Europe, Asia and the United States, Ms Ross has worked with leading companies including Goodbody Stockbrokers, Bank of Ireland, Hill & Knowlton and the Industrial Bank of Japan.
In 2010, she was asked by the Minister for Arts to run Ireland’s National Library, the NLI where she served two terms as Director/CEO and developed the institution’s digital services.
She has served on 17 boards in Ireland and the UK over the past six years, focusing on governance, ethics, and digital transformation and has been a member of the Board and the Audit Committee of the Irish National Transport Authority (NTA) – since 2015.
In 2014, she was appointed by the Department of Transport in the UK to serve on the Board of the Driver and Vehicle Safety Agency (DVSA), where she chairs the Health and Safety Committee and sits on the Audit and Risk committee.
In August 2016 she joined the Board of the Seamus Heaney Estate as a non-executive director to help establish the Heaney literary estate.
Currently chair of Mental Health Ireland – a national voluntary organisation – Ms Ross takes over CIÉ chair at a time of industrial unrest and increasing competition from the private sector in its bus and rail divisions.
Media inquiries to the Press Office, Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (DTTAS), telephone: 00 353 (0)1 604 1090. General inquiries to Gerry Power, Communications Officer, Development and Alumni Relations Office, Queen’s University Belfast, telephone: +44 (0)28 9097 5321.
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