Des Lamont has been elected as President of the Institute of Directors in Ireland (IoD) and will serve a two-year term. He replaces Liam Daniel, director of Horizon Pharma plc, who has held the position since May 2013. Des Lamont, who holds a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors, originally joined the board in June 2009.
Des Lamont is a director of Medisec Ireland Ltd, having retired from the position of Chairman in 2014. He is a director of Mater Campus Hospital Development Ltd and a director of Mater Misericordiae & Children’s University Hospitals, having also served as the first Chairman of the Board of Governors from 2000 to 2009.
In 2012, he retired as Executive Chairman of the L&P Group, a company he co-founded in 1987. Prior to the establishment of L&P Financial Trustees, he was a director of the Smurfit Financial Services Division and of Beech Hill Pension Trustees Ltd.
Des Lamont was appointed as Chairman of the Leinster Professional Rugby Board in September 2008 and was elected President of the Leinster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) for season 2009 - 2010.
He was elected a member of the IRFU Committee in 2011 - 2015. In February 2015, he was appointed a member of the newly-established National Professional Game Board of the IRFU.
A Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute of Ireland, he also previously served on the National Pensions Board and is a previous Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Irish Association of Pension Funds. Des has acted as lay member of the Review Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland since 1995.
Commenting on his appointment as President, Des Lamont, said:
“I am honoured to be elected as President of the Institute of Directors in Ireland. The effectiveness of directors and boards is central to good governance, which in turn, is a key driver of business performance in Ireland and the IoD has a critical role to play in this regard.
“I look forward to underlining the business case for good governance throughout my term as President and I wish to acknowledge and thank outgoing President, Liam Daniel, and to welcome both Gabriel D’Arcy and Elaine Coughlan to the IoD board.”
Elaine Coughlan and Gabriel D’Arcy appointed to IoD board
The Institute of Directors in Ireland has also appointed Elaine Coughlan and Gabriel D’Arcy to its board, having been formally elected at the Institute’s Annual General Meeting on 28th May 2015.
Elaine Coughlan
Elaine is co-founder and general partner of Atlantic Bridge Capital, a global growth equity technology fund. She is also co-founder of Summit Bridge Capital, a China Ireland focused fund aimed at helping Irish companies scale in China.
Elaine has over 20 years’ experience in scaling technology companies with extensive operational and M&A experience. She was co-founder and non-executive director of GloNav Inc, a GPS software and hardware business successfully sold to NXP. Prior to Atlantic Bridge, Elaine took three high growth technology companies public on NASDAQ and LSE.
Elaine is a Chartered Director and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and was named one of Europe’s Inspiring 50 Women in Technology. She was appointed to the board of Enterprise Ireland in 2014 and is also on the board of FieldAware.
Gabriel D’Arcy
Gabriel D'Arcy was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Town of Monaghan Co-Op in November 2014. Prior to that he was CEO of Bord na Móna from 2008 to 2014. He previously held a number of management positions in the Kerry Group, including Commercial Director of Kerry Ingredients Europe, and served as a Captain in the Irish Defence Forces.
He holds a BSc Biochemistry (Hons) from University College Galway, an MSc in Food Science from University College Dublin, an MBA from Kingston University Business School and an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice from University of Ulster. He is also a graduate of the prestigious 'Leadership for Growth' programme, Stanford University. He is a member of the board of the Institute of Public Administration. He is a Chartered Director and was awarded the accolade of ‘Outstanding Chartered Director’ in 2013.