President: Neil Sands
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Native of Drogheda, Ireland, Neil Sands is VP of Innovation at Framehawk.com; a mobile development start-up based in San Francisco, CA.
Having graduated with double honors from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth Neil was awarded the President Garvey Scholarship; conducted Masters studies in the US and most recently received honors MBA from the Smurfit School, at University College Dublin. Neil worked for several years in Canadian banking, holding management positions in operations and digital marketing strategy in Toronto.
In 2010 Neil co-authored report on Next Generation Diaspora Engagement for the Ireland Funds, the book Next Generation Ireland (Blackhall Press) and is a regular contributor on mobile, social and cloud technology. With Accenture Global Management Consulting, Neil worked on digital outreach strategies for US State Department. In January 2012, Neil made his first start-up exit from the Facebook development firm, Syncapse Corp; having received $25 million in funding from BDC and ABS Capital Partners.
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Vice-President: Barry O' Brien
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Barry assumed duty as Vice Consul of Ireland to the Western United States, based in San Francisco, on 2 September, 2008.
Born in Dublin, Ireland and educated at Belvedere College S.J and University College Dublin. Barry holds a bachelors degree of Economics and a masters degree of Business Studies. Prior to this appointment as Vice Consul he served as Programme Officer of the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) in the Anglo-Irish Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin. The IFI was set up by the Irish and British Governments in 1986.
Through international donor government monies, the IFI aims to promote social and economic advance while encouraging dialogue and reconciliation in Northern Ireland between the Nationalist and Unionist communities. Before joining the Irish Foreign Service; Barry worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney, Australia and BearingPoint Consulting in Dublin.
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Kim Murphy
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Having worked in Public Relations and Event Planning for some of Ireland’s most prestigious venues, including Slane Castle and the Mansion House, Kim decided to make the move to San Francisco in 2006. Working within the realm of rock and roll, Kim managed all private events for the Great American Music Hall and Slim’s. Kim also worked as part of the management team that produces the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival held annually in Golden Gate Park.
More recently, Kim joined the ranks at UCSF Medical Center and is much less of a night owl than she was in her former life! Kim organizes events for some of UCSF’s largest fundraising campaigns including the UCSF Brain Tumor Initiative (with a goal of raising $25 million dollars – at their inaugural event this year Kim’s team helped them raise $1.3 million in one night) and the building of the new UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital at Mission Bay.
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Edel Coen
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Edel spent three years in Boston before making the move to San Francisco in 2011. Having studied European & International Business at Dublin City University and Northeastern University in Boston, she truly had the best of both worlds when it came to the college experience.
Edel currently works in the area of international trade and development at Enterprise Ireland, working with indigenous Irish companies focused in the areas of telecommunications and travel technology.
A Dublin native, Edel is a Gaelic Football superfan and current player with Clan na Gael LGFC in San Francisco.
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Treasurer: Nick Ginger
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Currently the team lead for OCC at PWC, Nick mandates Independent Foreclosure Review of a leading nationwide mortgage servicer. Nick assists in cross service foreclosure review of a national bank mortgage servicer to ensure servicer complied with federal and state laws during the foreclosure process. Responsible for a team of associates ensuring that foreclosure related fees fell within established guidelines.
At Ernst and Young Nick provided support for specialty tax service groups including International Tax, Transaction Advisory, State and Local Tax, and Business Compliance. Assisted in R&D credit analysis and computation and researched tax law issues relating to mergers and acquisitions of corporations, S corporations, LLCs, and partnerships. Coordinated with other specialty tax groups to draft due diligence tax reports. Advised numerous life science clients on their applications for the Qualified Therapeutic Discovery Credit; 100% of clients received the credit award.
Nick also worked in HP and KPMG and holds both a JD and LLM from University of San Diego.
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Joe Kiernan
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Ivan Harrow
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Joe is a native of Co Leitrim who moved to San Francisco in 2002. A serial entrepreneur, he graduated Trinity College Dublin with a degree in Computer Science and served his time as a software engineer on both sides of the Atlantic before cofounding a technology consulting and professional services firm in 2004. His most recent venture Frontdesk Anywhere is a Web based Hotel Management Platform that enables small to mid-sized hotels and hotel groups to better manage the sales, distribution and guest interaction processes. In just over three years Frontdesk Anywhere has amassed customers in over 50 countries with more than 1,800 logging in daily conducting over 1,000,000 transactions each month. In 2011 Joe was honored in the ‘Irish Small Business 50’ by the Irish Echo for his entrepreneurial activities.
Joe is a founding board member and past president of the Irish Network Bay Area and has been actively involved in the organization since its inception. Most recently he has become involved with the American Ireland Fund’s Young Leaders. In addition to Irish-American affairs, Joe is also heavily involved with Team in Training, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's endurance sports training program which in its 21 year history has raised over $1 billion to support blood cancer research and patient services.
Ivan Harrow is Director of Business Analytics at Intel with responsibility for defining the strategy and roadmap for business intelligence and analytic capabilities in support of business group requirements. A native of Limerick, Ireland, he is currently based in Santa Clara, CA and during his 15 years at Intel has worked at a variety of locations across the US, Europe and Middle-East. Prior to joining Intel’s IT group, he led a global team of post-sales Technical Marketing Engineers within the Digital Health division.
Ivan has extensive experience in product and solution development in the areas of Healthcare IT, integration, and enterprise architecture. Previous roles include Product Marketing Manager, Healthcare IT Manager for EMEA and Healthcare Solutions Architect lead, where he worked with a variety of public and private organizations in the design of workflow optimizations and transformational business solutions.
Ivan holds a B.Sc. in Applied Physics and an M.Sc. in Technology Management, both from the University of Limerick, Ireland. He holds multiple US, European and International Patents in the area of networking technologies. Outside of work, he enjoys international travel, rugby, sailing and exploring the San Francisco Bay Area.
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Board Secretary: Ian Casey
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Ian is a Founder of CVPartners a national Executive search firm headquartered in San Francisco. Ian focuses on the placement of Executive Finance professionals in Silicon Valley. CVPartners also has recruiting divisions covering Life Sciences, IT and HR. Originally from Cork, Ian is a former Accountant turned Entrepreneur who has been in California since the mid 1990’s.
In addition to serving on the Irish Network Board, Ian is a member of the Young Leaders group with Ireland Funds, the largest philanthropic network of friends of Ireland dedicated to supporting programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development throughout the island of Ireland. Ian also sits on the Development Advisory Board of Think College Now, an East Oakland based, college focused, elementary school.
An avid networker, Ian is also an experienced traveler often traversing the globe on adventure races. In 2011 he drove a VERY small 1.3L car from London to Mongolia as part of the Mongol Rally and in 2012 he will race a Rickshaw (a 145cc glorified lawnmower) 4000km across the Indian sub-continent.
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