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SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND ANNUAL REPORT 2015
Executive Team
Prof Mark Ferguson , Director General , SFI and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland
See full profile on page 37 .
Mr Donal Keane , Chief Operations Officer
Mr Donal Keane was appointed Chief Operations Officer at SFI with effect from 1 November 2005 , with responsibility for Grants , IT , Finance , HR and Facilities . Donal joined SFI from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art , Design and Technology where he held the position of Secretary / Financial Controller from 1997 to 2005 .
Prior to that Keane held senior management positions at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda , GE Capital and Wang Finance in both Dublin and Toronto , Canada . His professional training was undertaken at Coopers & Lybrand from 1978 to 1982 . Donal Keane holds a B . Comm degree from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland .
Dr Abigail Ruth Freeman , Director of Strategy and Communications
Dr Abigail Ruth Freeman was appointed as Director of Strategy and Communications in 2013 . Prior to her current appointment Dr Freeman has held a series of positions at SFI . Most recently she was the Director of Programmes , Enterprise and International Affairs , with responsibility for overseeing all SFI research funding programmes and management of funded awards , as well as the Foundation ’ s activities in conjunction with industry and international partners . Prior to this , Dr Freeman held roles as both Director of Enterprise and International Affairs and Head of Industry-Research Development . Dr Freeman joined SFI as a Scientific Programme Manager in November 2006 .
Prior to joining SFI Dr Freeman was working as a researcher at Trinity College Dublin ( TCD ). She holds PhD and Bachelor degrees in Genetics from TCD . During her time there as a student she was awarded a Trinity College Dublin scholarship , the Eli Lilly Chemistry Prize and the Roberts prize for Biology . Dr Freeman ’ s PhD research , on population genetics in hybrid zones , was funded by a prestigious studentship from the Wellcome Trust and was carried out at TCD and ILRI , Nairobi . She was a founding member of the Trinity Research Staff Association ; the first Irish association representing contract researchers .
Dr Darrin Morrissey Director of Programmes
Dr Darrin Morrissey was appointed SFI Director of Programmes in September 2014 . Darrin joined SFI from Stiefel , a GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK ) -owned company that develops and manufactures dermatology products . At Stiefel , he held the role of Business Improvement Director and was responsible for leading strategy deployment , change management and business transformation .
Darrin originally joined GSK in 2007 as Head of Oncology for Ireland and led the establishment of GSK ’ s oncology business and the launch of its oncology and haematology therapeutics portfolio . During his time with GSK Darrin also held the role of Global Oncology Marketing Director with responsibility for developing launch strategy for melanoma therapy assets .
Prior to his time with GSK , Darrin worked across a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies – including Sanofi-aventis , Eli Lilly & Tibotec-Virco – in a variety of commercial and clinical research roles .
Darrin qualified with a BSc in Microbiology and he holds a PhD from University College Cork . His PhD research focused on the molecular mechanisms that underlie cancer metastasis . He also worked as a postdoctoral researcher in UCC , where he conducted ‘ first-in-human ’ clinical trials of probiotic bacteriacontaining food products .
Darrin also holds a Diploma in Advanced Management Practice awarded by National University of Ireland Galway .