Our Board Members

Paul McKeown

Paul is an Executive Director at Enterprise Ireland leading a Directorate incorporating the Agency’s People and Policy, Corporate Services and Regional Development Divisions. He is also the agency’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Paul is a non-executive Board Member of the Design & Crafts Council Ireland. Paul joined Enterprise Ireland as CFO in 2017 and was promoted to Executive Director in 2019. Prior to joining Enterprise Ireland, Paul was Director of Finance at St. Vincent’s University Hospital. Paul started his career in KPMG and during his five years with the firm he managed a wide portfolio of clients. A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Paul also holds Bachelor of Commerce (B.Comm) and Master of Accounting (M.Acc) qualifications from University College Dublin.

Andrew Bradley

Soon after qualifying as an Industrial Designer at NCAD, Andrew recognised that his interests lay in assisting companies realise the potential of design and set out on a career in design management. His company, Bradley Brand, specialises in working with owner-managed companies to help them to fulfil the commercial potential of a strong brand in delivering a competitive advantage and customer loyalty. He believes that a business’s reputation is built on customer experience – brand defines it, design creates it. Andrew has extensive experience managing multidisciplinary design teams to deliver a wide range of design solutions, from creating new brand identities to retail environments, to online strategies. Clients include Applegreen, Colourtrend Paint, Keelings, MHL Hotel Collection, SuperValu and Weir & Sons. Throughout his career, Andrew has been an active member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI) and was President from 2013 to 2015. He led the team to establish the IDI’s Design Enterprise Skillnet and chairs this training initiative. He is currently a Mentor to LEO DLR.

Eddie Shanahan

Eddie Shanahan specialises in business and product development for the fashion and textiles, craft, homewares and retail sectors. He has developed and executed Business & Product Development programs for varied organisations including DCCI and the network of Local Enterprise Offices as well as providing effective mentoring services to individual craft and design across a range of disciplines. Eddie developed the ‘CREATE’ project with Brown Thomas to identify and develop Irish design talent with the capability to sell in the store side-by-side with the world’s leading luxury labels. He is Chairperson of the Council of Irish Fashion Designers.

Mairéad McCorley

Mairéad McCorley is a founding member of Cork Craft & Design, a multi-disciplinary group of over 100 members. Within the group she has acted as Treasurer, Administrator, and Coordinator of Cork Craft Month. Mairéad set up the first Cork Craft & Design retail space in 2011. Mairéad has been actively involved in many facets of the Irish craft sector over the past 20 years. Developing a handmade jewellery business through inception, boom and recession has given her first-hand experience of the many challenges of running a craft business.

Mary Palmer

Mary is an award winning Textile Artist with more than twenty-five years experience in the craft community in Ireland. She is a founder of Cork Textiles Network as well as the cross-border organisation, The Quilters Guild of Ireland, and has served on numerous committees and Boards, including DCCI and Cork Craft and Design.

Donagh Quigley

Donagh Quigley has a background in traditional music. After finishing a traineeship in thatching in his early 30s, Donagh started out on his own as a thatcher and began growing his own straw. Once the recession hit, Donagh was forced to re-evaluate and come up with something new; it needed to be scalable and of benefit to the end user. Donagh and his wife Gemma began creating handmade soap in their kitchen using only natural ingredients, before launching The Handmade Soap Company at Showcase in 2010. The Handmade Soap Company now employs 21 people in an upcycled mill in Slane, Co. Meath. The product range has expanded over the years and the company now exports widely. Donagh has extensive real-world experience of building and scaling a craft business.

Elaine Riordan

For the past 22 years Elaine has been actively involved with craft and design at a local, national and international level. She is currently National Commissioner for European Ceramic Context 2014. Elaine is also on the Organising Committee for the International Academy of Ceramics 46th General Assembly and has worked as a ceramicist in Ireland and abroad. She has been Chairperson of Ceramics Ireland since 2009 and treasurer of Irish Ceramics in Education. She has taught across the disciplines of Ceramics, Fashion Knitwear & Textiles and Animation & Motion Design in Limerick School of Art & Design. She has also helped develop a Masters in Interdisciplinary Design Practice.