Our Board

Our Board

Dóchas is governed by its members, through an Annual General Meeting, which elects a Board to manage the network on behalf of the members. The Board is assisted by a Secretariat which is responsible for the day-to-day business of the organisation. Minutes from Board meetings can be found below.

The following are full members of the Dóchas Board:

Chairperson - Rosamond Bennett: Christian Aid Ireland 

Rosamond Bennett is CEO of Christian Aid Ireland, an international aid and development agency focusing on peacebuilding, gender equality & women’s empowerment, human rights and humanitarian response. She is also a Board Member of the Irish Emergency Alliance and a former Chair of the Irish Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. Rosamond is a human rights activist and is very interested in women’s empowerment, particularly in the area of peacebuilding. She has travelled extensively listening to women’s experiences of inequality, poverty, powerlessness and violence against women and girls.

Rosamond gave up shopping for a year as a mark of solidarity for the women who had inspired her during her travels. She donated the money she would have spent to supporting empowerment programmes in Christian Aid. She is also the Chair of DU Dance, a dance development agency, working with young people from disadvantaged areas and ethnic minority backgrounds in Northern Ireland, Palestine and Ethiopia.

Vice Chairperson - John Moffett: Misean Cara

John was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Misean Cara in April 2020. He has worked in international development for over 25 years most recently as CEO of TREE AID, where he developed and led a 5 year strategy delivering organisational growth and deepening impact. John was previously Programme Director with Self Help Africa where he led the implementation of programme strategy targeting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. John brings a strong track record in leading geographically dispersed teams to design and implement impactful programmes and growing institutional funding.

Treasurer - Siobhán Cassidy: Trócaire

Siobhán Cassidy has significant technical experience having worked as an accountant for 14 years within both commercial and non-profit sectors. She is currently Head of Finance in Trócaire, overseeing the financial management of €65-70m income annually across 18 country offices. Trócaire has a diverse donor portfolio so she is skilled in managing competing priorities and multiple stakeholders. She is a strategic, transformative thinker with a proven record of designing and implementing solutions to financial challenges in complex operating environments. A major part of her current role is to present to our Board and Committees and she has previously been Treasurer and Board Member for a youth mental health charity. The invaluable experience gained on both sides of the table has shown her how Boards and Management need to complement each other in order to be successful.

Karol Balfe: ActionAid Ireland

Karol Balfe is CEO with ActionAid Ireland, responsible for overseeing the organisation’s strategy on women’s rights, programming, policy work, fundraising and governance. ActionAid works with women and children, as they take the lead in claiming their human rights, in order to build a more just and caring world. Karol is a senior leader with 20 years’ experience in international human rights, development and peacebuilding. Prior to working with ActionAid, Karol was the Global Head of Peacebuilding for Christian Aid, Head of Programmes and Governance, Human Rights and Peacebuilding adviser, working with a range of institutional donors, trusts and foundations and civil society partners in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Karol has considerable experience in designing and implementing strategic change organisationally and programmatically. Karol also worked with Amnesty International Ireland for six years, overseeing major programmes of work and campaigns on a range of Irish and international issues. Karol is passionate about feminism, human rights, solidarity with those experiencing violations, and supporting human rights based movements for change around the world.

Frank Long: Oxfam 

Frank is a Chartered Accountant by profession. He trained with PWC, worked in finance and operations roles in industry, and was a board member of the Meath Women’s Refuge for ten years. Frank joined Oxfam in 2016 as Chief Operations Officer. In this role he has responsibility for all the support functions to the organisation including Finance, HR, Health & Safety, IT and Corporate Services. He is also responsible for all aspects of Governance and Risk within the organisation, ensuring that Oxfam Ireland is compliant with all regulatory and governance requirements. Frank brings a blend of financial, operational, technical and governance skills, combined with experience within the humanitarian, development, and human rights sector to the Board of Dóchas.

Olive Moore: Front Line Defenders 

Olive Moore took up the role of Interim Director of Front Line Defenders in January 2023, after serving as Deputy Director since September 2020. Olive's passion for human rights and social justice began when she became a member Amnesty International at the age of sixteen. Her activism and interest in global politics and international relations led her to undertaking a Degree in Politics and Social Policy in UCD, and then a European Masters in
Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice, Italy. Olive’s experience at the beginning of her career with Trocaire, of living in Kenya and working in South Sudan and Somalia, and the Human Rights Defenders she met during this time, formed her lasting appreciation of, and deep respect for, the work of HRDs.
Olive has held a number of roles in Trocaire, including Human Rights Officer, Policy Officer, Governance and Human Rights Coordinator, and Head of Programmes for the last four and a half years. Previously, she also interned in the Human Rights Unit of the European Commission, worked for the Irish Government at the UN Commission on Human Rights, and spent two years working at the World Bank as Head of Knowledge and Learning at the GPSA (Global Partnership for Social Accountability) in Washington DC.

Martina Fitzgerald: External Member

Martina Fitzgerald is CEO of Scale Ireland, the not-for-profit organisation representing Irish tech start-up and scale-up companies. Martina is actively involved in the global and European networks of start-up representative bodies. A graduate of University College Dublin, Martina completed a leadership programme at Harvard Business School in 2022 and was previously a Visiting Fellow at Columbia University in New York. Prior to 2019, Martina was a leading national journalist including Political Correspondent with Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, She is also the author of a critically acclaimed book, Madam Politician, on Irish female government ministers.

Paul Donnelly: External Director

Paul is Professor of Management and Organisation Studies at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin).  He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA), is a graduate of the Institute of Directors’ Chartered Director Programme, and is both a Fulbright Fellow and a Taiwan Fellow.  He serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Ireland-United States Commission for Educational Exchange (Fulbright Commission), as an Independent Non-Executive Director and Vice Chair of Transparency International Ireland, and as a member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Social Sciences Committee.  Previously, he served as an Independent Expert on the National Economic and Social Council, and as Chair of the Critical Management Studies Division and the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the US Academy of Management. Over the course of a 30+ year career spanning the public sector, academia and the not-for-profit sector, he has gained expertise and experience in the areas of strategy, governance, and organisation.  He also brings a commitment to such values as integrity, honesty, professionalism, diligence, transparency, open-mindedness, and ethical conduct.

Board Minutes

Click below to download minutes from recent Dóchas Board meetings. Minutes not listed here can be obtained by contacting the Dóchas secretariat.

Dóchas Board Minutes