Clare Bailey had extensive experience working across the community and voluntary sector before holding elected office as an MLA for South Belfast from 2016 until 2022. She has proven experience working with a wide range of sectors both locally and nationally.
During her time at the Northern Ireland Assembly, she introduced Northern Ireland’s first Climate Change Bill and was the first MLA to have had two concurrent private members bills.
She has served on the Northern Ireland Assembly committees for Justice and Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and was Chair of the NIA Women’s Caucus and several All-Party Groups.
Clare currently sits on the advisory committee for the Dublin based think tank TASC, People’s Transition project and is a trustee with the Environmental Justice Network Ireland. She was one of the first 28 pupils to attend Lagan College when it opened in 1981. She graduated from Queens University Belfast in 2009 with a BA in Politics as a mature student.
Since leaving the Northern Ireland Assembly, Clare was Interim Director with Sustainable NI and is delighted to have been appointed as Chair of the Board of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.
Clare does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Gerry has over 40 years’ experience working in a policy and regulatory environment dealing with food safety and consumer protection. He qualified as an environmental health officer at the University of Ulster in 1978 and went on to attain an MSc in 1991. He has held a number of senior positions in local government, NI Civil Service and UK central government. He was instrumental in setting up the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Northern Ireland, a UK wide Non-Ministerial Government Department.
Following retirement in 2013 as NI Director of the FSA, Gerry worked as a food safety and consumer protection consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Office and the World Bank on projects in Bosnia and Bangladesh. He has considerable experience at Board level focusing on strategic direction; governance; risk management and culture change.
Gerry was also a former member of the Board of the Consumer Council and a member of its Audit and Risk Committee.
He is currently Chief Commissioner for the Charity Commission NI (and a member of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Board and Chair of its Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.
James has significant experience in economic and social development, consumer protection and governance, through his professional and voluntary work over the last 25 years.
He is currently Secretary General of the Irish Chamber of Shipping, which represents ship owners and shipping companies. He previously worked as Deputy Director of the National Youth Council of Ireland and prior to this with the Disability Federation.
James has considerable consumer policy expertise including as a former member of the Financial Regulators’ Consultative Consumer Panel and as the Irish representative on the European Consumer Consultative Group, which advised the EU Commission on consumer issues. He also has significant non-executive experience; he has served as a Board Member of the Residential Tenancies Board since 2018 and was previously a member of the governing authority of Maynooth University.
He is currently a member of the Psychologists Registration Board and sits on the Student Grants Appeals Board. He has served on a number of charity boards, for the last six years he has chaired North Leinster Money Advice and Budgeting Service. He also served as a trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust for 11 years.
James has a LL.M and LL.B in law, a Masters and BA in Applied Social Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Corporate Governance. He is currently completing the Chartered Director programme with the Institute of Directors.
James does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Mark is the Director for Northern Ireland at The Prince’s Trust and brings to the Board over 20 years-experience as a strategic leader in the Northern Ireland voluntary sector.
Prior to joining The Prince’s Trust in 2010, Mark was part of the team at Community Finance Ireland who created the first cross-border business support programme for social enterprises in 2004 and secured membership of the Irish Government’s €100m Social Finance Foundation in 2008.
As a member of the UK senior leadership team at The Prince’s Trust, Mark has extensive experience in financial governance, strategic transformation in a large, complex organisation, and issues impacting marginalised and vulnerable groups of young people.
Mark has previously served on the BBC Northern Ireland Education Advisory Group and advised the Northern Ireland Executive on youth policy, addressing educational underachievement and social finance.
Mark does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Mick is an influential consumer advocate with high level board experience. He focuses on economic and social justice, the just and fair green transition, financial market reform, and the impact of technology and data on consumers.
He is founder and Co-Director of The Financial Inclusion Centre and a director of community interest company, Action for Financial Inclusion (AfFI). He is Chair of non-profit Registry Trust which operates the Register of Judgments for the Ministry of Justice, and a board member of the Irish Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. He is a member of the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) Expert Panel and the Bank of England’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Engagement Forum.
Previously, Mick was Chair of the anti-poverty charity Z2K, and Deputy Chair of the Consumer Council of Northern Ireland. He was a board member of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)/ Financial Services Authority (FSA) and chaired the FCA’s External Risk and Strategy Committee. He led the Which? financial services policy team.
At EU level, he was Chair of the European Commission’s Financial Services User Group (FSUG) which advises the European Commission and other EU policymakers on matters relating to financial markets and affecting financial users.
Mick does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Gráinne is Director of Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering and Life Sciences, at Invest NI, Northern Ireland’s economic development agency, responsible for promoting and developing companies in these sectors to compete internationally and encouraging new investment.
In her career at Invest NI, Gráinne held the position of Head of International Sales and Marketing and before joining Invest Northern Ireland, Gráinne worked for SkillSoft Corporation, an online learning company where she managed global accounts.
Gráinne has a degree in French from Lancaster University and an MBA in International Business from University of Ulster. Gráinne also holds a Diploma in Marketing, a Diploma in Personnel Management and a Diploma in Company Direction, from the Institute of Directors and is a Chartered Director.
Gráinne sits on the Boards of NI Alternatives and Governors Gate Management Committee.
Heather has an MSc in Environmental Health and started her career in Local Government as an Environmental Health Officer.
She has previously held the Chair of the Chief Environmental Health Officers Group and been instrumental in working with other enforcement agencies to develop and implement joint working and enforcement protocols.
Heather has extensive and proven experience across local government for over 34 years, having held a range of senior positions in local councils. She has been involved in the strategic planning and delivery of front-line services and is very focused on customer centric services with a particular interest in Waste Management, Emergency Planning and civil contingency arrangements. She also supports the Local Government Staff Commission with the Boost Mentoring programme which aims to help with the resilience and development of other senior officers across the sector.
Heather does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Andrew is an experienced business leader with a record of developing and delivering transformational business strategies in public, private and regulated sectors. With a background in Economics, Finance and Statistics, Andrew has experience building and developing multi-functional, global teams delivering projects in the food and beverage, manufacturing, legal, finance and utility industries.
Since 2019, he has led a Data and Analytics function for a Northern Irish Dairy Cooperative. Prior to that he led the global Business Transformation function at the world leader in alternative legal services. He is skilled in leading change management initiatives, implementing corporate governance, building effective teams and developing trusted stakeholder relationships.
Andrew is certified in Project Management and holds a post-graduate Diploma in Finance, a BSc in Economics and Business Economics and a mini-MBA with a focus on operational excellence and change management.
Andrew does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Niamh is a Customer Experience and Operations strategist with 15 years of experience working across the public and private sectors, helping organisations listen to and understand their customers and service users in order to deliver services more efficiently and measure their impact more effectively.
She is currently Chief Operating Officer for the Adobe Alliance at Deloitte Digital, where she works on digital transformation and process improvement with numerous large international private sector firms. She was previously a Civil Servant in both Whitehall and Guernsey, working on Housing and Youth policy.
She is also actively engaged in the local voluntary sector, serving as the Chair of Women’s Aid Armagh-Down and Director of Women’s Aid Federation Northern Ireland, as well as working with Concern Ireland as an adjudicator for their schools public speaking programme.
Niamh has an LLB (Hons) in Law from the University of Edinburgh and a PGCert in Business Administration from The Open University, alongside postgraduate qualifications in Public Policy from King’s College London and Popular Science from Umeȧ University, Sweden.
Niamh does not currently hold any other public appointments in Northern Ireland.
Orla is a solicitor qualified to practice in the jurisdictions of both Northern Ireland and England and Wales. Her legal career has involved her working in private practice and the public sector, across the Tribunal Service and public inquiries.
She is passionate about consumer affairs, safeguarding the interests of consumers in Northern Ireland and has practical experience of successfully resolving consumer issues. She has had responsibility for managing high profile, high value and complex cases before the courts in both jurisdictions and brings over 20 years’ experience advising clients in a number of areas of law to the role.
Orla provides strategic direction and guidance regarding good governance to clients and currently serves as a paid Board member of the Labour Relations Agency and an Audit and Risk Assurance Committee member.