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We are delighted to announce the virtual launch of a new Chapter for UCC Alumni in Dublin. The Chapter will build the UCC alumni network in Ireland's capital, strengthening links between the University and its Dublin-based alumni.
A committee of fourteen alumni, together with UCC Alumni and Development, invite you to attend a special online event to mark the occasion of the official launch.
Join us on 3 March to find out more about plans for the UCC alumni community in Dublin.
Featuring:
Meet and Greet (Now Fully Subscribed):
Please note that the post-launch networking option from 6.35pm to 7.00pm is now fully subscribed. Please register for the launch event from 5.30pm to 6.30pm via the link above. (If you would like to be added to a waiting list for the post-launch networking event, please email alumni@ucc.ie. We will be sure to notify you if a space becomes available.)
Dee Forbes
Prior to taking up her role as Director General of RTÉ in July 2016, Dee was based in London for more than 27 years, working for broadcasters and advertising agency Young and Rubicam. Most recently she was President and Managing Director of Discovery Networks Northern Europe. Before joining Discovery, Dee led Turner Broadcasting’s business in the UK and Ireland. She spent several years working at Turner in a variety of commercial roles, including General Manager for the Nordic/Central and Eastern Europe and EMEA regions, and Head of Advertising Sales for Europe. Dee is a former non-executive director of the board of The Irish Times, she currently sits on the board of Munster Rugby and was a founding director of Ireland's first rural digital hub, the Ludgate Hub. A native of Drimoleague in West Cork, Dee is a graduate of UCD where she studied history and politics. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from UCC in 2016.
Dyane Connor
Dyane joined RTE News in 2013 as a multi-media journalist across both television and radio. Over the past eight years she has covered a wide range of stories, among them dedicated reporting on both the Referendum on the 8th Amendment and the campaigns of smaller political parties in the most recent General Election. Prior to RTE, Dyane worked at TV3 (now Virgin Media News) initially as a news reporter before her appointment as Courts Correspondent, a role she held for six years covering the country’s most important criminal trials. She received the Law Society Justice Media Award in 2010 and 2012. Her varied career has included producing and presenting TV3’s highly successful real crime show “24 Hours to Kill” which has been broadcast internationally, and she has trained as part of a select journalistic programme at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Dyane was both a news anchor and reporter at the fledgling Newstalk station in 2002, and before that at CKR FM in Carlow. She began her broadcasting career in Cork Campus Radio while completing a BA in Sociology and Geography in University College Cork. She earned an MA in Journalism at Dublin City University.
John FitzGerald
An internationally recognised specialist in the field of Library and Information Science, John FitzGerald is currently the Irish Universities Association representative on the European Universities Association Expert Group on Open Science.
John represents University College Cork on a range of local, national, and international committees and regularly acts as a reviewer, evaluator, and observer of EU-funded R&D projects on behalf of the European Commission in the areas of Digital Culture and Cultural Heritage.
He has overseen the successful completion of many large capital IT and buildings projects at UCC. He is active in institutional strategic planning, in the enhancement of the University’s Library buildings and collections and the development of Cork University Press.
Catherine Day
Catherine Day is a former Secretary General of the European Commission, a post she held from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to hold this post. Prior to her appointment as Secretary General, she was Director General for Environment. She worked in the external relations department of the European Commission as deputy Director General, reporting to Chris Patten. She worked on the future enlargement of the EU in the 1990s and was one of the architects of the pre-accession process for the countries of central and eastern Europe. Catherine worked in the Cabinets of Commissioners Richard Burke, Peter Sutherland and Leon Brittan and joined the European Commission in 1979. She has a B.A in economics and politics and an M.A. in international trade from UCD. She holds honorary doctorates from UCD and University of Limerick.
Catherine now chairs the Governing Body of University College Cork and the Board of Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library. She is on the board of European Movement Ireland, the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin and the Irish Times Trust. She was elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy in 2016. She is currently chairing the Citizen’s Assembly on gender equality. She recently chaired an advisory group on improving support to people in direct provision in Ireland which reported to the Irish Government in September 2020.
Professor John O’Halloran
Professor John O’Halloran is Interim President at University College Cork since September 2020. Prior to this he was the Deputy President & Registrar and led UCC’s first Academic Strategy to reimagine the curriculum, transform assessment and nurture graduate attributes to position UCC students for their future world of work. Having formerly served as Vice-President for Teaching & Learning, and as Vice-Head of the College of Science, Engineering & Food Science, he is an academic leader with an ambitious vision for the future of Higher Education.
Professor O’Halloran has delivered transformation through collaboration on a range of Higher Education priorities including the advancement of research; enhancement of learning; digital education; lifelong learning; and professional development. He is committed to developing an inclusive culture at UCC - one where equality is upheld, and diversity is respected. He is also dedicated to putting sustainability at centre stage in UCC, in the community and beyond. Under his leadership UCC’s Green Campus Programme became the first third level institution worldwide to receive the Green Campus award in 2010. Now ranked as one of the most ‘sustainable universities’ in the world, UCC has achieved significant impacts including the development of a Sustainability Strategy, influencing national policy and winning many international accolades.
An ornithologist, he holds the Chair in Zoology at UCC and previously held academic posts at Colby College in the USA and at the University of Wales. He has published 250 research papers and several book chapters aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the ecological impacts of land-use change and climate change on a range of systems and processes.
Noelle O Connell
Noelle O Connell was appointed CEO of European Movement Ireland in 2011, Ireland’s longest established Not-for-Profit membership organisation connecting Ireland and Europe. She was also elected a Vice President of European Movement International (encompassing European Movement councils in 34 countries and 38 international associations).
Prior to this, Noelle worked in business development, public affairs, member relations in a variety of sectors and for different bodies including CIF, ICOS, IITD. She has also worked in the third level sector and has managed significant national and international funding projects (e.g. Interreg, Skillnets, Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens etc.). A former Director on the Board of Skillnets, Noelle is a voluntary Director of the board of Alliance Française Irlande, and in 2017 was named a Knight of the National Order of Merit awarded by the French President. In 2019, she was appointed an International Leadership Fellow of the Society of Leadership Fellows, St. George’s House, Windsor Castle. A member of the Institute of Directors and an Associate Specialist with the IPA, she was shortlisted for the Newstalk WMB Social Entrepreneur of the Year and is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Training and Development.
She holds a BA Hons from University College Cork, a DEUF Diploma from Université de Jean Moulin, Lyon II France, and a MSc in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh, and speaks Irish, French and Spanish.