Council members

Juan Valverde

President

Juan Valverde is General Manager for Hortifrut Genetics, a company specialised on Plant Breeding and Intellectual Property commercialisation. Juan has more than 15 years’ experience working at the interface between industry and academia across different countries (Spain, France, UK, Germany and Canada) and has worked in the past for Trinity College Dublin, Monaghan Mushrooms and Teagasc.

Daire Coffey

Council Member

Daire Coffey is a highly experienced executive coach, mentor and non-executive director. Daire has more than 25 years of experience running her own business, leading teams, and developing brans both in Ireland and Internationally. Her experience expands over a number of areas such as Marketing, Strategy and Leadership crossing over a number of different sectors (i.e. Life Sciences, Healthcare, Export and Trade and Professional Services).

María Rodríguez

Council Member

María Rodriguez de la Rúa is currently the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Spanish Embassy to Ireland. María has been dealing with trade and economic issues for more than 20 years representing Spain at different times of her career. Within her current tasks, is helping Spanish companies into the Irish market as well as promoting Irish investments in Spain.

Pablo Vallejo

Director

Pablo is a non-executive director of BBVA Re Inhouse SE and the former managing director of BBVA Ireland plc, with over 20 years of experience in corporate banking and reinsurance. Pablo joined the ISEA Council in 2002 and was President of the Association from 2004 to 2006 and again between 2009 and 2011.

Mark Lyons

Council Member

Mark is the Chief Strategy Officer at Carisma Motor & Mobility, having previously held various roles at CNP Santander Insurance. He is a qualified accountant with 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector specialising in insurance.

Niamh McGovern

Council Member

Niamh is a Partner at Arthur Cox, one of Ireland’s leading law firms. She advises a broad range of clients across the energy, construction and infrastructure sectors.

Yolanda Lopez Bueno

Council Member

Yolanda Lopez Bueno, has more than 16 years of experience as a Marketing Manager in the Automotive Sector in Spain and in the IT Sector in Ireland. Since 2019, she started to run her own Tourism business based in Ireland (Aroundireland.ie). Yolanda is a member of ISEA since 2019 where she has been very active promoting and growing the relationships between Ireland and Spain.

chris keely

Chris Keely

Council Member

Dr. Chris Keely is located in Trinity College’s Innovation & Enterprise unit. His office links with industry and the business community to develop partnerships which enable industry to benefit from the world leading research and innovation at Trinity College. Chris holds a PhD in Experimental Physics and brings over 25 years of experience working in the university sector, in technology-focused multinational and indigenous Irish companies. Trinity College Dublin is Ireland’s No.1 University – QS World University Ranking 2024; Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 and ranked 81 in the World by the QS World University Ranking 2024