Four new members were formally elected to the Board of Directors of Gorta-Self Help Africa (GSHA), at the organisation’s annual general meeting in Dublin, this week.

The appointment of new directors brings to 12 the membership of the GSHA board. The new board consists of six men and six women.

The new directors, who were voted to the board by membership are: Claire Fourel, a senior associate and international pro bono manager at law firm Ashurst LLP; Marion Byrne, a qualified social worker who works with ADM/Pobal, an organisation that manages Irish Government and EU development programmes in Ireland; Eimear Kenny, an executive vice-president of Human Resources at UDG Healthcare (formerly United Drug); and Mairead Carey, a former journalist and agriculture correspondent who is a practicing barrister.

Carmel Fox, a rural development executive and outgoing Director was also re-elected. Two directors who had been co-opted to the Board of Gorta-Self Help Africa in the past year were elected at the AGM, Rowena Dwyer, who is the chief economist at the Irish Farmers Association, and David Governey, a chartered accountant and former Chief Operations Officer at the Institutional Food Policy Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, DC.

Five of the charity’s directors who were not up for re-election at the 2016 AGM were: Messrs. Tom Kitt, Tom Kirley, Michael Hoevel, Pat Murphy and Paul Adams.

Chairman Tom Kitt paid tribute to two outgoing board members who did not wish to seek re-election at the AGM, Messrs. Jeremy Woolwich and Sean Gaule for the contributions that they had made to Gorta-Self Help Africa during their service as directors. A full biography of all of the new board of directors can be found by CLICKING HERE