RTÉ Board Members
| Member | First Appointed | Term-End Date |
| Siún Ní Raghallaigh | 29/11/2022 | 28/11/2027 |
| Ian Kehoe | 9/10/2018 | 8/10/2023 |
| Aideen Howard | 29/11/2022 | 28/11/2027 |
| Kevin Bakhurst | 10/7/2023 | 10/7/2028 |
| Dr PJ Matthews* | 4/11/2014 | 3/11/2024 |
| Anne O’Leary* | 4/11/2014 | 3/11/2024 |
| Robert Shortt * ** | 29/5/2018 | 3/11/2024 |
| Connor Murphy | 19/03/2020 | 18/3/2025 |
| Susan Ahern | 13/07/2021 | 12/07/2026 |
| Daire Hickey | 13/07/2021 | 12/07/2026 |
| David Harvey | 13/07/2021 | 12/07/2026 |
| Jonathan Ruane | 08/03/2022 | 12/07/2026 |
*Serving second term as RTÉ Board Member
**RTÉ Staff representative
Six Board members are appointed on the nomination of the Minister; the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media proposes four members to the Minister; the Director General of RTÉ is an ex officio member; and one member of staff is appointed following election.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh (Chair)
Siún Ní Raghallaigh is a former TG4 Chairperson and Board member. Siún has gained recognition as a leader in the creative sector. She was CEO of Ardmore Studios and Troy Studios until 2021. She worked as Managing Director with Tyrone Productions. She was a founding member of the team who established TG4 and worked there from 1996 to 2001 in the roles of Finance, Strategy and Marketing. She was Head of Finance with Tribune Newspaper Group. She founded her own independent television company Ikandi Productions and produced several documentaries. Siún is also involved in the animation sector and has executive produced several animated feature films.
Kevin Bakhurst, Director-General
(Ex-officio member following appointment as Director-General on 10 July 2023)
Kevin Bakhurst officially commenced the role of Director-General of RTÉ on Mondayh 10th July 2023.
Kevin Bakhurst was previously Managing Director of News & Current Affairs at RTÉ and Deputy Director General from September 2012 – October 2016. He was also a member of the RTÉ Executive throughout this period and served as acting Director General for a six-month period.
Prior to re-joining RTÉ, Kevin Bakhurst was Group Director, Broadcasting and Online at Ofcom where he was a member of Ofcom Board. Kevin’s responsibilities included setting Broadcast Strategy and Policy for UK broadcasting regulation, creating and implementing the framework for regulating the BBC, enforcing and developing editorial standards for UK broadcasters and leading work on the future of UK Public Service Broadcasting which has led directly to new government legislation. He has led Ofcom’s work on the UK’s new Online Safety Policy and built a team of around 350 to deliver it, including a new data and technology team, and in the process shaping the overall transformation of Ofcom to take on the new duties.
Between 2006 and 2012, Kevin Bakhurst held a range of senior editorial positions at the BBC, including Controller, BBC News Channel and Deputy Head, BBC Newsroom from 2005. He was also a member of the BBC’s London 2012 Olympics Steering Committee.
Aideen Howard (Board Member)
Aideen Howard is Director of The Ark Cultural Centre for Children in Temple Bar, Dublin. She has worked in theatre and the arts for over two decades as an artistic director, producer and commissioner of new work. Her leadership of The Ark combines advocacy and art-making for children in the belief that they have a right to art and culture as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Prior to The Ark, Aideen was Literary Director of the Abbey Theatre and is editor of Irish Shorts: New Plays from The Abbey Theatre. She was founding Artistic Director of the multi-disciplinary Mermaid Arts Centre and has worked as literary consultant to Arts Council projects. In 2014 she curated the poetry programme of The Mountains to Sea Festival.
Aideen has been a member of the Advisory Council for Children and the Creative Youth Expert Advisory Group. She is a former member of the National Campaign for the Arts. She holds a BA in English and German from Trinity College, Dublin and an MA in Drama from UCD. In 2019 she returned to education and completed a Certificate in Governance at The Institute of Public Administration. Aideen is currently a PhD candidate at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Connor Murphy
Connor is a Technology Entrepreneur with a background in Venture Capital, Management Consulting and Computer Science. He is currently a member of the Techstars Venture Partner team and was previously MD of the Techstars SAP.iO program in Berlin. He supports Techstars programs in Melbourne, Seoul, Bangalore, Singapore, Oslo, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Munich and Berlin.
He was previously CEO and Founder of Datahug which exited to Nasdaq listed Callidus Cloud (Nasdaq:CALD) and is now part of SAP. Prior to Datahug, Connor worked with PA Consulting Group in London, New York and Washington DC. He holds a first class honours in computer science from University College Cork.
Ian Kehoe
Ian Kehoe is an award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster. In 2014, at the age of 34, he was appointed Editor of The Sunday Business Post newspaper, a position he held for four years. During that time, he was appointed to the board of the newspaper and an associated printing business.
Ian is a former presenter and reporter with RTÉ’s Prime Time, and has made a number of major television documentaries including Who’s Buying Ireland and The Great Irish Sell-Off. Ian has twice been named as Ireland’s Business and Economics Journalist of the Year, and has also won a Miriam Hederman O’Brien Award for his contribution to Irish fiscal policy. He is the co-author of Citizen Quinn, a bestselling book about the rise and fall of industrialist Seán Quinn.
Dr P.J. Mathews
Dr P.J. Mathews is an associate professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD and specialises in Irish literature and culture. He is the author of Revival (published by Field Day/Cork UP in 2003), a study of the Irish cultural revival period; editor of the Cambridge Companion to J.M. Synge (2009); and co-editor of A Handbook of the Irish Revival (published by the Abbey Theatre in 2015). Dr Mathews is the founder and director of academic podcasting for UCD scholarcast (www.ucd.ie/ scholarcast). He was director of the Parnell Summer School from 2002 to 2005 and was appointed Naughton Fellow and Visiting Associate Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame for 2007–8. He is an external member of the Irish studies group at Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3 and co-convenor of the Irish Studies Doctoral Research Network.
Anne O’Leary
Anne O’Leary is an experienced business executive with a proven track record in helping companies develop new routes to market and exploit technology to optimise potential. Anne has a very good understanding of corporate governance and compliance. As a member of the Institute of Directors, she has an updated understanding of the requirements of both private and State boards. She is a successful entrepreneur, building and selling a world-class technology business, with a strong concentration on strategic partnerships, sales management, marketing, product development and internal/lexternal relationship management. Anne has a broad range of experience across a number of different business sectors. She has a demonstrated ability in diagnostics, strategic planning, facilitation of teams and individuals, and sustainable revenue growth.
Robert Shortt
Robert Shortt joined RTÉ as a journalist on the News at One in 1998 and has since worked across many of the programmes in the News & Current Affairs division. He has served as Business Correspondent and was part of the team which set up The Business on Radio One. He spent four years as Washington Correspondent before moving to Prime Time in 2009.
He has twice won a Smurfit Business Journalist Award for his reporting. Before joining RTÉ, he worked for the Japanese financial newspaper the Nikkei and for the BBC. He was elected as the first chair of the NUJ’s RTÉ Sub Branch and served as Vice Chair of the RTÉ Trade Union Group (TUG) for three years. He holds a BA in English & Economics from UCD and an MSc Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Susan Ahern
Susan is a practising barrister, accredited mediator and international arbitrator. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, an arbitrator of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and was appointed to the CAS Anti-Doping Division for the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020.
Susan has over 25 years’ experience in commercial and sports law practice, sports administration and corporate governance as both an executive and as a non-executive director on numerous boards including Sport Ireland, Cricket Ireland and 2023 Cycling World Championships. Until 2016, Susan was the Head of Legal & Legislative Affairs at World Rugby, where she was central to the delivery of four Rugby World Cups and established the World Rugby Integrity Unit.
Today, Susan represents clients before the courts and tribunals, conducts inquiries, sits as an arbitrator and mediator, and has a number of regulatory roles sitting as an independent decision maker in professional disciplinary, conduct and commercial matters. Susan is an advisor to international bodies in particular in the areas of corporate governance and dispute resolution.
Daire Hickey
Daire Hickey is a founder and Managing Partner at 150Bond. He provides strategic advice to c-level executives helping them to amplify their message and grow their network. The firm has 30 executives based between New York and Dublin, it works with high growth companies, venture capitalists and Fortune 500 companies
Daire co-founded Web Summit. He is also an investor in a number of startups and venture firms and was previously a journalist.
David Harvey
David Harvey is a former television and radio presenter and award winning television producer who has interests in a number of media related and internationally focused companies. He has held a number of key managerial, production and board positions and has been chosen to bring these skills as a non-executive chairman and director to a range of other broadcast and non-broadcast related institutions and companies.
He was formerly chairman of the National Library of Ireland, IADT Dun Laoghaire and the St Patrick’s Festival. He served for many years as chairman of the People in Need Trust (which engaged with RTÉ in the promotion of the RTÉ/People in Need Telethon). He is also a former director of An Bord Bia and is currently chairman of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
He holds a BBS and MA from Trinity College, Dublin.
Jonathan Ruane
Jonathan Ruane is a Lecturer and Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is a faculty member within the Global Economics and Management group at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a research lead at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE). He is a former Fulbright recipient and an Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin. His research interests are at the intersection of digital economics, advanced computing, strategy, and international markets.
Jonathan teaches courses across MIT’s School of Management and MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). He co-led the development of a number of pioneering graduate courses at MIT in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing.
Jonathan is an experienced mountaineer including summits of Mount Everest and the Eiger. He competed in the US and internationally with MIT Rowing Club and was formerly an ultra-distance marathon runner.
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