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SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND ANNUAL REPORT 2015
Governance and Oversight
Corporate Governance Statement
Science Foundation Ireland was established as a body corporate by the Industrial Development( Science Foundation Ireland) Act 2013, as amended.
The members of the Board of Science Foundation Ireland constitute the members of the agency. With the Board having carried out an in-depth review of its policies and procedures during 2014 as well as of the activities of its committees, in 2015 the Board continued its adherence to the highest principles of Corporate Governance. In this, the Board obtained an external evaluation of its Corporate Governance regime during 2015 under the stewardship of the Corporate Governance Committee. The Board achieved Swift3000 certification through NSAI, achieving a score of 3.875 out of 4 in the assessment.
SFI Board
Ann Riordan, Chairman of Science Foundation Ireland
An experienced board member, Ann Riordan has held a number of senior positions in the ICT sector. Notably she established Microsoft Ireland in 1990 and was instrumental in establishing the Fastrack to IT( FIT) initiative which has to date trained over 12,000 long-term unemployed people. She has served on the Information Society Steering Committee and the Irish Council for Science, Technology & Innovation. Since her retirement from Microsoft she has served as: President of the Institute of Directors in Ireland; Chairman of the National Standards Authority of Ireland; Chairman of Tourism Ireland; Chairman of the Dublin Regional Tourism Authority and as a public interest director of the EBS Building Society.
Professor Mark W. J. Ferguson Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland
Prof Ferguson commenced as Director General of Science Foundation Ireland in January 2012 and as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland in October 2012. Previously, Mark Ferguson was appointed Professor in Life Sciences at the University of Manchester in 1984, aged 28, when he was the youngest Professor in Britain. Mark has wide ranging research interests and has received numerous international awards, prizes, medals and honours. Mark founded the Manchester Biosciences Incubator, which has successfully mentored a number of start-up companies and Mark co-founded( with Dr Sharon O’ Kane) and was CEO of Renovo, a biotech company developing novel pharmaceutical therapies. Mark has served on many international Committees, Panels and on the Board or Scientific Advisory Board of several international biotech companies. Mark has degrees in Anatomy, Dentistry, Embryology and Medical Sciences, is currently Honorary Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester, a member / Fellow of a number of learned Societies, and was awarded a CBE in 1999.