Membership Profiles

Eoin O’Shea is a commercial-law barrister and is also a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. Eoin is chairperson of An Síol, a community development charity working in the north inner city of Dublin and is also a director of QuinnBet. He has formerly served as a member of the audit committee of An Garda Síochána and as Ireland’s member of the European Court of Auditors. Eoin is currently a member of the taxation committee of Chartered Accountants Ireland and was a former council member of that Institute..

Mary is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and of the Honourable Society of Kings Inns, Dublin. She practiced at the Irish Bar from 1988 to 1996 and from 1996 to 2020 worked in the Office of the Attorney General as Advisory Counsel and in that role had extensive experience in advising on the range of constitutional and other public law matters, directing on litigation involving the State and advising on draft legislation. Mary was a member of the Office’s management committee from 2009 to 2020 and had a particular role in learning and development. She has been a member of various Government interdepartmental and wider committees concerning areas of public policy. Since 2021 Mary has been engaged as an international legal expert in legal and judicial reform projects with the Council of Europe.

Michael Gately is an International Non-Executive director, company founder and a serial investor. He has worked in well over 100 countries, visiting at least 25 countries every year for over 20 years. These countries included Afghanistan, Haiti, Indonesia, Pakistan & Iran.

Apart from Ireland, he has been a director of companies in Algeria, Turkey, France, South Africa, Vietnam, China & Australia. Areas of investment interest include organic farming, water treatment, adhesives/paints, early-stage digital technology, chemicals and general manufacturing.

He has worked on research projects with The University of North Carolina, the University of Ulster, Montana University, Stanford University and Leeds University.

While Michael was MD of Medentech- Aquatabs, it was named by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 100 companies changing the world.

Today over 18 million African children receive safe water every day from Aquatabs products, while top USA hospitals such as Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic & Johns Hopkins use products he and his team developed for infection control programs. Michael is the inventor of “ WASH year in a box” which brings all infection control products needed for rural hospitals in developing countries in one box for one year for €1 per day.

William Johnston is an economics graduate of Trinity College Dublin, a solicitor and consultant with Byrne Wallace Shields LLP. He was a partner for 30 years in Arthur Cox LLP where he was head of the Financial Services Department and a member of the management team.

William was co-chair of the International Bar Association's Banking Law Division and is currently the external examiner in banking law and lecturer in finance law for the Law Society. He is the author of "Banking and Security Law in Ireland" (2nd edn Bloomsbury Professional, 2020) and editor of international finance law books published by Oxford University Press.

William is a member of the Institute of Directors and a member of the Board and Audit & Risk Committee of Port of Waterford Company. He is a Governor, Board member and Honorary Secretary of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin

The Governing Body of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) has appointed Dr Deirdre Lillis, as TU Dublin President.

Dr. Lillis comes from her role as Assistant Secretary-General at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, overseeing the Research, Innovation, Evidence for Policy and EU/International Division. She has led key national initiatives, including the Impact 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy and the Global Citizens 2030 International Talent and Innovation Strategy. Her extensive experience and expertise encompasses government operations, policy development, international collaborations and the nexus between policy and research.

A proven senior executive in higher education, Dr. Lillis’s prior experience includes university leadership roles in university-enterprise engagement in TU Dublin and as Head of Computer Science in Dublin Institute of Technology. She has a track record of research capacity building, internationalisation and transformation in higher education including being principal investigator for an unprecedented national investment in university-enterprise engagement through the Human Capital Initiative Convene project, as well as the HubLinked Knowledge Alliance and the Marie-Curie funded Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management programme.

She is a Chartered Director and has held roles on the governing authorities of various prominent organisations, including the board of the Higher Education Authority, the Senate of the National University of Ireland and the board of the Irish Writers Centre. Her research interests include national research and innovation systems, higher education policy, university-industry innovations and young talent management. She has won European awards for her sustained commitment to developing the careers of female academic staff and for increasing the participation of females in technological higher education programmes.

Eamon Maher is the Director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies in TU Dublin. Author of four monographs and 27 edited/co-edited books, he is also the General Editor of two critically acclaimed academic book series with Peter Lang Oxford, Reimagining Ireland and Studies in Franco-Irish Relations. Recent publications include (with Brian Lucey and Eugene O’Brien), Reimagining the Celtic Tiger (Peter Lang, 2019); (with Eugene O’Brien), Reimagining Irish Studies for the Twenty-First Century (2021), which is the special 100th volume in the Reimagining Ireland series; and (with Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire), New Beginnings: Perspectives from France and Ireland (2023). Eamon is an internationally renowned scholar of the work of John McGahern (1934-2006), on whom he has published two monographs, John McGahern: From the Local to the Universal (Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2003) and ‘The Church and its Spire’: John McGahern and the Catholic Question (Blackrock: Columba Press, 2011), and one collection (with Derek Hand), Essays on John McGahern: Assessing a Literary Legacy (Cork University Press, 2019). He also published one of only two monographs available on the French writer on whom he did his PhD research, Jean Sulivan (1913-1980): La marginalité dans la vie et l’oeuvre (L’Harmattan, 2008). He is currently writing a book in English on Sulivan.

Eamon is an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, an award bestowed on him by the French Government for his outstanding work in promoting Franco-Irish relations.

Naomi Sebastine is the current President at TU Dublin SU. She has graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Bioanalysis and Bioanalytical Science. She has been involved in representing students over the past five years, progressing from class representative to student officer. During her time at the University, until present, she has also engaged in a student helpline service called NiteLine, promoting a listening space for students, including those at TU Dublin

Liam Sharkey is a Senior Technical Officer in the School of Art and Design at TU Dublin, with almost three decades of invaluable experience working in the university. Beginning his journey as a technician in 1998, he was appointed Senior Technical Officer in 2014. Liam works in the School of Art & Design, in the Faculty of Applied Arts.  Liam has been elected to the Governing Body by his colleagues among the Professional Management and Support Services Staff.

Leslie Shoemaker is a Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (SEEE) formerly in Kevin St., DIT and now in Grangegorman, TU Dublin where she teaches both undergraduates and apprentices. Leslie developed and implemented the award-winning ESTeEM mentoring programme in 2017 for female students, including trans women and nonbinary students, in Engineering, ICT and Computer Science programmes. In 2019 it was the only initiative selected by Athena Swan as the example of best practice when DIT was given the bronze award. Additionally, Leslie has been a member of the TU Dublin Child Protection Committee since its inception, and she is currently the TUI elected representative on the Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA) committee. In 2002 Leslie assisted in developing OCD Ireland to assist individuals who have this disorder as well as their family and friends. For twelve years she served as the volunteer Clinical Manager as well as the national spokesperson for the organisation. Leslie has continued to be a regular contributor on Newstalk and RTE radio as well as on Virgin Media. In 2015, Leslie was the lead professional on the RTE documentary, OCD and Me. Leslie holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology as well as an MSc in Counselling Psychology and is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist.