Governance Structure
As a charity, World Vision Ireland has no shareholders. We are governed by our Board members who are supporters of the organisation, believe in its mission and vision and are prepared to get involved on a voluntary basis to support the organisation.
Our senior management team supports the Board in the achievement of its objectives and are accountable to the Board.
The Board of World Vision Ireland is a skills-based Board. The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategy of World Vision Ireland, approving budgets, major policies, monitoring performance, reviewing and ensuring management proposals are actioned.
World Vision Ireland has committees: Finance & Audit and Risk; Ministry Strategy & Resource Development; and Governance and Selection. Each committee meet with respective World Vision Ireland Directors (staff) and CEO in advance of the quarterly Board meetings to review and advise on ongoing activities and thereafter to update and report any pertinent issues to the Board.
Our Board of Directors
Maria Flannery
Maria is a Partner in KPMG’s Financial Services Audit group and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. She has experience providing audit and advisory services to asset managers and investment vehicles in multiple jurisdictions, and also assists clients in risk, governance & regulatory reviews. Prior to joining KPMG, Maria spent a number of months working within the finance team of a humanitarian agency based in Dublin, and she also completed a secondment to the internal audit department of an Irish aid agency in Haiti. She is a member of KPMG Ireland’s Inclusion Diversity & Equity committee.
Maria has a BSc in Applied Computational Linguistics and a Professional Diploma in Accounting, both from Dublin City University. Maria joined the Board of World Vision Ireland in 2022, and also serves as a member of the FARCOM, WVIRE Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.
Barry Dunning
Barry is Head of External Communications at Ernst & Young Ireland and is a strategic communications, advisory, and public affairs professional with over 15 years of experience in the corporate, political and not-for-profit sectors. This includes over two years working as Chief of Operations at a not-for-profit providing palliative care to children in Jakarta, Indonesia.
He holds an MBA from Smurfit Graduate Business School as well as a MA in Politics and International Relations from University College Dublin.
Barry joined the World Vision Ireland Board in March 2023. He serves on the WVIRE Ministry Committee.
David Eastment
David was born in Dublin. He spent 42 years in the public service - 9 years in the health sector and the remainder in a semi-state commercial organisation. Over the course of his career he has worked in the areas of finance, HR, IT, project management, and line management.
He has been involved with the voluntary sector as a volunteer worker and volunteer board director over a period of 35 years. Most of this was with the credit union movement and community groups.
David joined the World Vision Ireland Board in 2023. He serves on the FARCOM, WVIRE Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.
Robert Flood
Robert has over 20 years’ experience in technology, insurance & management consulting and currently works as an Account Director for a global technology organisation, serving clients in Ireland & the UK.
He holds a BBS degree from Trinity College, an MBS from the Michael Smurfit School of Business, UCD and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors. He is a member of the Institute of Directors in Ireland.
Robert Flood joined the Board of World Vision Ireland in 2023. He serves on the WVIRE Governance and Selection Committee.
Robert Saunders
Robert served on the board of World Vision Ireland (WVI) from 2014-2023. During this tenure Robert was chair of the Ministry Strategy and Resource Development Committee and acted as vice chair to the main board.
Robert is the Global Commercial director of Perigord Life Science Solutions and has held this position since 2018. With a varied career spanning over 30 years Robert brings a wealth of international commercial and organisational management experience to WVI. With a passion for helping those others less fortunate and a belief that all people no matter of race religion or gender must be given the opportunity to live life to the fullest, Roberts Modus operandi is ‘Integrity Without Compromise’.
Lye Ogunsanya
Lye Ogunsanya is a dynamic professional with extensive experience in dual-use technology and humanitarian sectors. He is a US State Department IVLP alumnus, a former mobile telecommunications executive, and a UNICEF Champion for Children Awardee. Recognized for his contributions to society and Irish-USA relations, he was honored with the Ireland United States Alumni Association (IUSA) Emerging Leader award in 2022.
Lye holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Climate Entrepreneurship from Trinity College Dublin and a BSc in Marketing, Innovation & Technology from Dublin City University. He has held notable positions including Portfolio Manager EMEA at The One Foundation and CEO of Dídean. At Dídean, he significantly influenced the Irish government’s accommodation policy for refugees and international protection applicants.
Lye has led numerous transformative projects across the EMEA region. His work with UNICEF includes developing innovative programs for families and youth in refugee camps along the Syria/Lebanon and Syria/Jordan borders. These initiatives, focused on health, education, and youth development, earned him UNICEF’s Champion for Children Award in 2018.
In the East of Africa, Malawi, Lye worked collaboratively towards the establishment of Africa’s First Humanitarian Drone and Data Academy in 2019, aimed at preparing graduates for the emerging smart workforce sector and reducing migration at the source. His aerial innovation intervention program in the Mediterranean saved hundreds of lives during the migrant crisis between Libya and Italy. He recently 2024 deployed a fully decarbonised situational awareness single-infrastructure in the West of Africa.
Lye serves on the boards of Temple Bar Galleries + Studios Dublin, World Vision Ireland, Headfort School in Meath, and the Ireland United States Alumni Association. Currently, he is focused on harnessing the power of AI and climate technology to promote circularity, safety, and to democratise decarbonisation efforts.
Lye Ogunsanya’s collaborative approach and innovative mindset have positioned him as a leading advocate for integrating technology and humanitarian efforts, making significant strides in sustainable urban development and global humanitarian response.
Ellen Butler
Ellen Butler has been a youth advocate for over 10 years, believing young people should be meaningfully included and consulted in decisions that affect them.
She's also passionate about addressing the climate emergency in an urgent and constructive way. She believes real climate action requires accountability, transparency and community engagement. It also needs the vibrancy, creativity and imagination of young people.
Ellen has been a youth leader with the SAUTI-Youth project - a collaboration between World Vision Ireland and Tanzania and Youth Work Ireland Galway - since its inception in 2020.
Professionally, Ellen's background is in communications and broadcasting. She's a radio news anchor and reporter with Bauer Media Ireland, the parent company of Newstalk and Today FM, among other stations. She sees her work as a public service, making people aware of what's happening in their local, national and global communities, and holding people to account. She brings her insight into the world of communications to her role on the World Vision board.
Ellen grew up on an organic farm in County Roscommon, and is now based in Dublin city.
Tara Doyle
Tara is the Chair of World Vision Ireland, having served on the board since 2008. She is also a member of the World Vision International board and its People Committee.
She is a partner in the Asset Management and Investment Funds Department at Matheson. She became head of Matheson’s Asset Management and Investment Funds Department in 2016. Tara was the first female head of an Irish asset management practice and in 2016 and 2017 was named Europe’s Best in Investment Funds at the Euromoney Women in Business Law Awards, the first Irish woman to receive that award. Tara was included in The Hedge Fund Journal’s 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds in 2017.
Tara is a member of Matheson’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee. She is also a member of the IFSC Funds Group established by the Department of An Taoiseach to consider and advise on legislative and other changes which are necessary or desirable to facilitate the continued growth of the Irish investment funds industry.
Johnny O'Rourke
Johnny O'Rourke joined the World Vision Ireland Board in 2020.
Johnny is passionate about creating value driven organisations focused on harnessing technology to drive innovation in the public, private and charitable sectors. Johnny has expertise in governance structures, and adds value at the Board level on issues related to HR, Organisation Design and Performance and Quality Improvement Planning. Specifically, his area of expertise is risk management. He is Director of Operations for Home Again.
Johnny is Chair of the WVIRE Governance and Selection Committee.
Frank Dunne
For more than 25 years Dana has worked to change the systems that keep some of the world’s most vulnerable children living in degrading, de-humanising conditions. Graduating in the first generation of Romanian social workers after the fall of the communist regime, Dana started her career working with HIV-infected children, and at-risk families to prevent child abuse, neglect and abandonment to institutions.
She led various national coalitions of NGOs working on children’s rights, the protection of people with disabilities and poverty reduction, and had served in several international consultations on improving the national systems for human capital development. In the nine years Dana worked with USAID in Romania, she contributed to de-institutionalisation, the development of community-based services, and mainstreaming education solutions for vulnerable children. As a National Director of World Vision Romania, Dana focused on increasing World Vision's visibility, programme quality and sustainability. In her current role as World Vision International’s Partnership Leader for Advocacy and External Engagement, Dana leads the organisation’s work to advocate for an end to violence against children, for strong child sensitive social protection policies and investments by governments and multilaterals, and towards the fulfilment of the SDGs and the Convention on the Rights of Children.
Dana is a passionate advocate for children’s right to participate, and to help shift the lack of political will or leadership. “It is our duty as adults to keep children high on the political and the public agenda so that no child is left behind in the development race, assuming full responsibility for our legacy to the next generation.”
Dana serves on the WVIRE Governance and Selection Committee.
Daniela (Dana) Buzducea
For more than 25 years Dana has worked to change the systems that keep some of the world’s most vulnerable children living in degrading, de-humanising conditions. Graduating in the first generation of Romanian social workers after the fall of the communist regime, Dana started her career working with HIV-infected children, and at-risk families to prevent child abuse, neglect and abandonment to institutions.
She led various national coalitions of NGOs working on children’s rights, the protection of people with disabilities and poverty reduction, and had served in several international consultations on improving the national systems for human capital development. In the nine years Dana worked with USAID in Romania, she contributed to de-institutionalisation, the development of community-based services, and mainstreaming education solutions for vulnerable children. As a National Director of World Vision Romania, Dana focused on increasing World Vision's visibility, programme quality and sustainability. In her current role as World Vision International’s Partnership Leader for Advocacy and External Engagement, Dana leads the organisation’s work to advocate for an end to violence against children, for strong child sensitive social protection policies and investments by governments and multilaterals, and towards the fulfilment of the SDGs and the Convention on the Rights of Children.
Dana is a passionate advocate for children’s right to participate, and to help shift the lack of political will or leadership. “It is our duty as adults to keep children high on the political and the public agenda so that no child is left behind in the development race, assuming full responsibility for our legacy to the next generation.”
Dana serves on the WVIRE Governance and Selection Committee