Meet Our Board

Family Carers Ireland is governed by a voluntary board of directors reflecting a mix of family carers, specialist expertise and general management background. All directors give their time free of charge to support the mission of Family Carers Ireland.

The board of directors is responsible for oversight and governance of the charity and comprises individuals with expertise in the areas of caring, management and relevant professional skills. To support the board in the performance of its function, a number of board sub-committees have been established as follows:

Finance & Organisation Committee
Audit & Risk Committee
Member Services & Engagement Committee
Quality & Safety Committee
Research & Policy Committee
Marketing & Fundraising Committee

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Our Board of Directors

Robert Anderson (Chairperson)

Robert Anderson is recently retired Head of the Social Policies unit at Eurofound, where he has worked as research manager since 1988 on a range of topics relating to living conditions and quality of life, including several international research projects exploring aspects of family care across Europe. Prior to joining Eurofound, Rob worked as Programme Manager at the WHO European Office in Copenhagen, with responsibility for the European Regional Programme in Health Promotion. He studied human sciences at Oxford University and sociology as applied to medicine at Bedford College, London. Rob served as President of Eurocarers from 2009 to 2012. Rob has been appointed chairperson of the new Research & Policy committee.

Angela Briggs

Angela is a mum to five wonderful children. Her 17 year old daughter was born with physical disabilities and apart from being her mum, she is also her full-time carer. Over the years, her daughter has struggled in accessing services of health care, education, transportation, mental health, operations, financial issues and much more. Angela has been and continues to be her voice and her advocate in fighting for her rights.

Barbara Carroll

Barbara brings more than 25 years’ experience of business partnering, human resources and executive coaching both at consultancy and at senior leadership level across industries including professional services, digital technology, legal, construction and tourism. Currently the Director of Human Resources at the Law Society of Ireland, she has a wealth of experience in human resources and organisation development, diversity, equity and inclusion, transformation and change management. She has a particular interest in workplace culture and has spoken on the topic both nationally and at European level.

Barbara holds a Certificate in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors, a Master in Business Practice from UCC, Post-Graduate Diplomas in both Leadership and Management from the Irish Management Institute and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Employment Law from the Law Society of Ireland. Her primary degree is a BA (Hons) in Industrial Relations and Human Resources Management with the National College of Ireland. She is an accredited assessor of the European Foundation for Quality Management and a qualified Executive Coach. Barbara is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a member the Institute of Directors, the Learning & Development Institute and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

Barbara is a member of the Finance & Organisation committee. She has personal experience as a family carer with the support of home care workers and respite care. In her time outside work, Barbara enjoys spending time with her friends and family, horse riding, current affairs, yoga, GAA, theatre and the arts.

Wendy Hamilton

Wendy is based in the Garden County and has been around family carers for the past five years through her association with Netwatch and now as a board director. Wendy has held both CEO and COO roles and has qualifications in business, lean practice and company direction. Wendy takes a practical approach to most things in life from shovels to spreadsheets.

Richard Hammond (Vice Chairperson)

Richard Hammond S.C. is a Senior Counsel (being in the first coterie of solicitors ever to be elevated to that status by the Government of Ireland on 1st September, 2020). He practises as a solicitor with his spouse Joyce A. Good Hammond at Hammond Good LLP, Solicitors & Notaries Public, in Mallow, Co. Cork where he is a partner. He is a self-described "succession law enthusiast" who also specialises in professional regulation, having served in roles with a number of regulatory bodies for different professions. Richard teaches regularly at the Law School of the Law Society of Ireland. Both he and his spouse have experience of family care. Outside of professional activities and academia, Richard's interests include country walks with his spouse and children, reading, current affairs, supporting Cork's GAA teams and Liverpool Football Club.

Dr John Healy

Dr John Healy is Deputy Executive Director of Genio, a non-profit organisation that specialises in supporting reforms in complex, challenging systems. John oversees the programmes in Ireland in disability, mental health, homelessness, drug addiction and action research and led the organisation’s work in the Service Reform Fund, a €45m collaboration with the Irish Government and philanthropy. He also supports Genio’s work on scaling innovations and collaborating with public sectors in Europe. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Business at Trinity College Dublin, where he lectures and researches in organisation theory and innovation in complex, social service systems.

Cora Long

Cora Long has been a carer from an early age, caring for her father who had emphysema and her mother who had a stroke. In her early married years she also cared for her mother in law who had many health issues. She also looked after her husband for 9 years and now looks after her 85 year old sister in law who has multiple health issues. Cora served on the board of Caring for Carers before and during the merger years. Presently she is chairperson of the East Clare support group and a member of the Member Services and Engagement Committee.

Kara Madden

Kara Madden is from Co. Cork and is carer to her son who has had mental health issues for 20 years. She is also a former carer for her mother who had dementia. She has been involved with mental health issues and has been working with mental health professionals for years. Kara is a volunteer on the National Panel and in recent years has been involved with Patients for Patient Safety Ireland which works with the WHO. She is currently involved in their campaign around medication without harm.

Hugh McGeown

Hugh is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2004 following completion of an accounting degree at the University of Ulster. He became a partner in 2008. Hugh has developed considerable experience in advising a broad range of clients including both indigenous and multi-national businesses across many industries. An experienced audit professional, je has over 20 years' worth of knowledge earned through working on audit and assurance assignments for a broad range of clients from owner managed SMEs to large multi-jurisdictional businesses with turnovers in excess €1bn.

Hugh has a particular interest in the design and implementation of compliance solutions for the investment management community. This has yielded significant experience in advising clients in that space with regards to their compliance needs as well as acting for fast paced start-ups throughout their growth journey. He is experienced in advising clients that are establishing a presence in Ireland, from their initial setup to dealing with all aspects of corporate compliance and on-going reporting requirements.

Hugh has a keen interest in sport and participates as an age group competitor in running and cycling events. He lives in Dalkey, South Dublin with his wife Joanna and their four children, where he can be found at the side of a GAA or rugby pitch most weekends.

Patricia O'Regan

Patricia joined Family Carers Ireland approximately five years ago. She became a full-time carer in 2012 when her son, then 14, became very ill following an infection, which has left him with a myriad of mental health and physical symptoms which has altered the course of his life completely. It is believed this condition is PANS/PANDAS.

Like so many other carers, Patricia spends her life not only taking care of him and the rest of the family but also dealing with the myriad of doctors, therapists and hospitals while battling to help him achieve some quality of life now and into the future.

As a young person, she helped care for her grandmother who had dementia, helped care for her father until he passed away in 2008 and also her mother whose needs escalated to 24/7 care following a stroke, until she entered an assisted living facility last June.

Patricia has a background in business with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, NUIG 1981, and a Postgrad Diploma in Marketing, NUIG 1982, and has worked in industry, customer services and purchasing for American multinationals. She also lived in Denver, Colorado and Seattle, Washington from 1987 to 1991 working in various hospitality industry jobs and was also self-employed with an import knitwear business.

Patricia returned to Ireland in 1991, working initially in the insurance industry and then running her own B&B business. Having married in 1993, she chose to become a full-time at home parent, becoming very involved in school parents’ associations, community associations and charity fundraising which she continues to be involved in.

Johanne Powell

"I am Johanne Powell. I live in south west Wexford with my husband Alan. For 36 and a half years, I was a full time carer for our daughter Siobhan. Siobhan had very severe problems, she was severely intellectually and physically disabled, she was non-verbal, non-ambulatory and we loved her dearly! In August 2020, she died from kidney failure, and our life changed.

I have been involved in Family Carers Ireland since forever, when they were the Carers Association. In the last 10 years, I’ve been on the board of management. Last year, I had to step down for a year, since I had been a board member in FCI for six years. I have been a member of the Carer Support and Engagement Committee for more than six years and have been a member of the Research and Policy Committee since it was established."

Marta Soltys

Marta is originally from Poland, living in Ireland for 19 years. Due to her family's needs, she is a full-time family carer. She is a mother of two fantastic boys, one of whom is autistic and requires more attention and assistance than most of his peers, and the other is currently awaiting an assessment of needs.

Before her children arrived, Marta gained a master’s degree in Social Rehabilitation/Pedagogy of Social Maladjustment from Jagiellonian University. Marta has undertaken home care skills FETAC Level 5 modules and has some experience in professional care (four years as a childcare assistant in pre-school, over 1,000 hours as a home help assistant and a year-long Tús work placement helping people with intellectual disabilities).

Marta has also worked for over a year as a community interpreter (Polish/English) all over Ireland.