Ken Tracey – President
Ken was born and raised in Sligo and moved to Toronto in 1989. He studied Electronics at Sligo RTC and Business at Ryerson. After 10 successful years with the PepsiCo organization he co-founded Marketingisland, a marketing technology and services company. Marketingisland have been ranked in the top 20 fastest growing emerging companies in Canada for the last 2 years. Ken is currently the President of the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce in Toronto, a board member of the Irish Person of the Year and also sits on the board of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto (EUCOCIT) as Executive Vice President and a board member of Ireland Park Foundation. Ken is married to Heather and has three children, Brogyn 4, Ronan 3 and Cormac 8 months.
Cormac Monaghan
Cormac hails from Balbriggan, County Dublin. He graduated from University College Dublin with a B. Comm. in 1988 and subsequently trained as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dublin. He transferred to the firm’s Toronto office in 1994 and apart from an 18 month stint back with PwC Dublin in 1998/99, has been living in Canada ever since. While with PwC Dublin his major client was Eircom plc, the Irish national telecommunications company. He played a significant role in the floatation of that company, Ireland’s largest IPO to date. In addition to his PwC roles he has also held senior financial positions with the Glen Dimplex Group and with Mosaic Group Inc. He is currently Director of Finance with Warner Bros. Canada. In addition to his Irish qualification he is also qualified as a CA in Canada. He is married to Karen. Cormac is also active with the Toronto Gaelic Athletic Association, having served that distinguished body as President for the years 2002 through 2004.
Mark O’Brien – VP Marketing
Mark is a native of Abbeyleix, County Laois. He graduated from The Carlow Institute of Technology with a Diploma in Marketing in 1989 and came to Canada in the summer of 1990. For the last 11 years, he has been working in a business development capacity primarily in the Transportation and Logistics industry. He is currently Director of Sales for Purolator Courier Limited, Canada’s largest courier company. Mark is a past President of the Toronto Gaels GAC, a former Vice–President of the Canadian Gaelic Athletic Association and has captained the Toronto Gaels for 4 years. This is his first year as a committee member of the ICCC. Mark represented his County in Senior Football in 1987 and 1988 and played Minor hurling for his County in 1984. His wife Josie is a Sales Director at Rogers Wireless. They have two children; Carmela aged 4 and Sophia 2.
Dr. Anita M. Sands
Dr. Sands hails from Termonfeckin, Co. Louth and resided in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for three years before moving to Toronto a year ago. Dr. Sands graduated from the Queen’s University of Belfast with a first class honours degree in Physics and Applied Mathematics and a PhD in Atomic and Molecular Physics. Dr. Sands was then awarded prestigious scholarships from the O’Reilly Foundation and the Irish Fulbright Commission and attended the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, where she graduated with a Masters in Public Policy and Management. Dr. Sands served as Director of the Software Industry Center at Carnegie Mellon and as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto before joining CIBC World Markets earlier this year. She is a graduate of the London College of Music and former All-Ireland public speaking champion.
Eamonn O’Loghlin – Executive Director
Eamonn is a native of Ennistymon, County Clare. He graduated from University College Cork with a Batchelor of Commerce in 1975 and came to Canada. After an 18 year marketing career with Hallmark Cards, he now runs his own Marketing & Communications Consulting business and hosts a weekly Irish radio show. He publishes the Toronto Irish News and has been highly involved in Toronto’s Irish community for over 25 years. He is Executive Director of the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce and a long time supporter of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. He is also currently on contract to the Canadian National Exhibition as Director of Corporate Sponsorship. Eamonn is an avid golfer and loves traditional Irish music and a frequent performer at community events. His wife Madeleine is a teacher and a native of west Cork. They have two children, Treasa 21 and Rory 10.
Aaron Atcheson –Board Member
Aaron’s family is from Collon, County Louth and Trillick, County Tyrone. He was born and raised in St. Thomas, Ontario. He graduated from Huron College at the University of Western Ontario in London with an honours BA in economics and political science and from McGill University in Montreal with a bachelor of laws (LLB). He is currently a senior associate in the real estate and environmental group of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto. He also spent 12 months, from July 2002 to July 2003, living and working in Dublin where he was a solicitor in the project finance group of Matheson Ormsby Prentice, European Business Law Firm of the Year 2002. He is a member of the Board of the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce and a former member of the Ireland Canada Business Association in Dublin. Aaron is a runner and amateur triathlete, and is teaching himself to play hurling with minimal success. His wife Tiffany is a teacher with roots in County Tyrone and a great head of red hair. They have one son, Aidan, who is under a year.
Damian Dupuy – Board Member
Dr. Damian Dupuy was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland and moved to Canada in 1989. He is currently a Senior Policy Advisor with the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. An economic geographer by training, he specializes in regional economic development, regional and national systems of innovation, and innovation policy.
Prior to joining the Ontario government, he was a Senior Consultant with GHK International (Canada). There, his work included the creation of economic development strategies at the local and regional levels both in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Dr. Dupuy is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, University of Toronto where he teaches urban economic geography. In the past, he has taught courses on regional economic development, industrial location, and analytical methods. He is an Associate of Canada’s Innovation Systems Research Network, and has acted as an Advisor to the Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (LEED) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
He is married to Maria (an accomplished artist) and they have a daughter, Samantha. In his spare time, he is an avid runner having completed numerous marathons and other races in Canada and abroad.
John O'Dwyer – VP Finance
John's professional career, over the past thirty years, has spanned financial management, human resource management, and operational and strategic management. He has held a variety of management positions including President and CEO, and Business Owner.
John started his career in finance and held a number of differing financial positions, including V. P. Finance, before joining KPMG in their Corporate Finance Department. He left KPMG to set up a corporate finance company and a venture capital corporation for a leading Irish financial services organization.
John came to Canada in 1987 as President and CEO of an international aviation services company. He subsequently returned to academia to do his Ph.D. During this time he lectured and published articles in the areas of strategic management and organizational behaviour. In 1995, he joined an international strategic planning and change management consulting firm with offices in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In his role as Partner/V. P. Finance, he was a trusted advisor to a wide range of clients from Fortune 500 corporations to smaller entrepreneurial and high tech organizations. In 2000, John started the first Toronto office of Action International - a Business Coaching firm, which focuses on owners of small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s). He was selected Canadian Action “Coach of the Year” for 2001 and “Team Contributor/Trainer of the Year” for 2002. Concurrently, John co-founded Strategic Advisory International, which focuses on providing client organizations with the management process tools to enable them to transform winning strategies into genuine results. He helps Leaders bring together the critical elements for managing for results i.e., its strategies, people and operations. John is also a course designer and co-lecturer at the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) for a second year MBA elective course - “Getting It Done” (or how to execute in management).
Over the years, John has been a volunteer with a number of organizations and is currently Honorary Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair with the Ontario Division of the M.S. Society of Canada, and is a contributor to the Peter F. Drucker Award for Effective Non-Profit Management.
John received his Ph.D. from the Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, Canada and his MBA from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He is a Fellow Member (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, and is a member (CMC) of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants. John lives in Toronto. His interests include theatre, motorcycle riding, reading, animals, and having fun.
Ronan Clohissey
Ronan was born and raised in Tallaght, Co. Dublin. As a child, Ronan and family would often visit relatives in Canada. Liking what they saw, the whole family moved to Canada in 1991 (just in time to escape being mauled by the dreaded Celtic Tiger and to catch Canada’s booming economy in the 1990’s…….if only!).
It took Ronan a few years to adjust, moving back to Dublin twice and even to Mexico before he finally settled in Toronto in 1999. Although it took quite some time, Ronan is now proud to call Toronto home. He lives in High Park with Marie (a good Canadian girl) and works with Dundee Security’s Private Client Division as an Investment Advisor licenced to deal in Stocks, Bonds and Options.