By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Professor Michael Zaworotko and Professor Gavin Walker
In association with Next Generation, Business & Finance highlights notable professional appointments and promotions.
Professor Michael Zaworotko and Professor Gavin Walker,
Co-directors, Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC)
A global hub of pharmaceutical process innovation and advanced manufacturing has appointed two University of Limerick professors as its co-directors.
Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC), the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded centre based at UL, has appointed Professor Michael Zaworotko and Professor Gavin Walker as co-directors of the organisation.
Professor Zaworotko joined UL in 2013 as the Bernal Chair of Crystal Engineering. He is among the world’s top 20 research chemists and secured the first award under the relaunched Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Professor programme. His research interests focus on designing crystal structures that can be used in the pharmaceutical and energy industries.
Commenting on his appointment Professor Zaworotko said, “Taking up this position and working with the SSPC to make strategic collaboration a top priority will help to potentially push the frontiers of knowledge. We are looking forward to ‘going global’ by delivering results through national and international partnerships with industry to enable innovation throughout all areas of SSPC”.
Professor Gavin Walker is Bernal Chair of Pharmaceutical Powder Engineering and a principal investigator in the SFI Investigators Programme at UL and the SSPC Spokes Project, MOMEnTUM. His expertise is in pharmaceutical process engineering and modelling of particulate systems. Professor Walker’s Process Engineering Lab is the largest process engineering group in Ireland and is based in UL’s Bernal Institute. Recently it was named Academic or Research Laboratory of the Year, Pharmaceutical Laboratory of the Year and Chemical Laboratory of the year at the Irish Laboratory Awards.
Professor Walker said, “It will be a privilege to lead the SSPC, which is now an internationally recognised Centre of Excellence. The SSPC is particularly committed tobreaking down traditional boundaries across academia and promoting new research and I am looking forward to pioneering further partnerships in the future”.
The co-directorship marks a new departure for the world-leading SFI centre as Professor Kieran Hodnett stands down as the first director of SSPC after 10 years. The centre, established as a first large-scale, multi-partner research collaboration, now boasts a critical mass of world-class people and established global presence.
The SSPC transcends company and academic boundaries and is the largest research collaboration in Ireland, and one of the largest globally, within the pharmaceutical area. The role of the SSPC is to link experienced scientists and engineers in academia and the pharmaceutical industry, to address critical research challenges.
Orlagh Moylan, Business Development Executive, Ward Solutions
Orlagh Moylan
Ward Solutions has appointed Orlagh Moylan to the role of Business Development Executive. Orlagh brings over 12 years’ team management and commercial experience in the technology sector and she will play a crucial part in developing Ward Solutions’ sales strategy for information security solutions to protect customers against increasing security threats.
Prior to joining Ward Solutions, Orlagh held the role of New Acquisitions and Channel Manager for Sage for four years. In this role she was responsible for new acquisitions, working with channel partners to help them achieve revenue targets and managing the sales team. Previously Orlagh worked with Xerox Europe for 10 years and her last role with the company was Senior Business Advice Manager where she was responsible for the management of a team of 40 focused on customer services and renewals.
New board, Western Development Commission
The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring, T.D. has appointed a new Board to the Western Development Commission.
The Western Development Commission (WDC) was established in 1999 to promote, foster and encourage economic and social development in the Western Region, defined as the counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, Galway and Clare. Its activities involve policy development and analysis, undertaking key regional initiatives and management of the Western Investment Fund (WIF) which provides loans to SMEs.
Appointments to Board of the WDC follow on from the advertisement for expressions of interest on www.StateBoards.ie and an assessment process operated by the Public Appointments Service.
Making the announcement, Minister Ring said:
“The Western Development Commission has played an important role in promoting economic and social development in the Western region since it was established in 1999.
The new Board is taking up office at a time of unprecedented opportunity for the Western region, as the Government places a renewed focus on regional development. The Northern and Western region was recently named as EU European Entrepreneurial Region for 2018, while good progress is being made on the development of the Atlantic Economic Corridor proposal which seeks to maximise the region’s assets and support job creation in the region. The Government will also be publishing the new National Planning Framework later this year, which will be a blueprint to support longer-term regional development.”
I have asked Dr. Deirdre Garvey to take up the position of Chair of the Board, subject to meeting with the Oireachtas Committee in accordance with standard procedures for such appointments.”
The following members were appointed on 18th August 2017:
Dr. Deirdre Garvey Mayo Campus, GMIT
Mr. Ian Barrett MD, Care About You; former MD Resilience Healthcare
Mr. Noel Brett CEO, Banking & Payments Federation Ireland; ex-CEO Road Safety Authority
Professor Mary P. Corcoran Head of Dept. of Sociology, Maynooth University
Mr. Michael Frain MD, First Class Office, Co. Roscommon
Mr. Gerry Finn Former Director of the Border and Western Regional Assembly
Mr. John Kelleher Head of Department, Computing and Creative Practices, Sligo IT
Mr. Christy Loftus Retired Communications Advisor and journalist
Mr. Henry McGarvey Secretary/Financial Controller, LYIT; former MD, Pramerica Systems Ireland
Ms. Auveen O’Neill MD, AO Business Consultants; former mentor for Enterprise Ireland
Ms. Yvonne Shields CEO, Commissioner of Irish Lights; non-Executive Director, SmartBay Ltd
