Current and Past Presidents

Current and Past Presidents


Seamus McKeague
2023-2024 President of the Academy. Seamus McKeague. Seamus studied Engineering in QUB and graduated with a BSc (Civil) Engineering in 1979 Following graduation, he worked for 4 years with the road service of the NI Department of the Environment on road work schemes & projects. In 1983 he joined his family business as General Manager and Managing Director Creagh Concrete Products Ltd (1986- date) headquartered in Toomebridge, NI and with manufacturing facilities in Edinburgh and Nottingham. Under Seamus’ leadership Creagh have been a pioneer of precast for over 43 years and are one of the largest producers of concrete products throughout the UK and Ireland. Creagh employs 600 people and 200 sub-contractors with an annual turnover in the range £120m stg and employs 100 engineers, ranging from Site engineers, Structural engineers and Contract Engineers. In 2012, Seamus was one of the founding members of the Timoney Business Leadership School. In 2015 Seamus joined the International Advisory Board in San Telmo and applies the learning to Creagh. He is Chairman of IPHA (International Prestressed Hollowcore Association), a Board member of the British Precast Association, a member of MNI (Manufacturing Northern Ireland). and a founding member of the NI Quarry Products Association(QPA)  and the Timoney Leadership Institute, Dublin. In the last decade, Creagh have designed, manufactured and installed numerous residential apartment blocks, office blocks and also prisons, multistorey carparks and educational facilities.  Creagh built Manchester Metropolitan University, St Pancreas Campus and Brighton College. Seamus was elected as a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering (IAE) in 2015, a member of the Council of IAE (2017 – 2022) and President Elect in 2022/23 and is an active member of the Academy fundraising committee and Northern Committee.
Tom Leahy
2021-2023 - President of the Academy Tom Leahy B.Eng. C. Eng, FIEI, FIAE. Tom was educated in Belvedere College and is an honours graduate in Civil Engineering from UCD with postgraduate Diplomas in Computers and in Management from TCD. He is also an alumnus of the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard. He has worked in public service for over 47 years and was awarded one of the first Taoiseachs awards for enterprise. Since 1997, he served as Deputy City Engineer and Executive Manager (Engineering) in Dublin City, where he lead teams in Engineering Services, major Capital projects, Water services, Traffic Management and business planning for 2,500 staff. Throughout his career he had a close association with the European Union and served as EU Presidency co-ordinator for Dublin City on two occasions when Ireland hosted the EU Presidency. He successfully secured and delivered EU funded international projects in future transport planning, Flood risk Management and lead the Dublin smarter cities engineering team. Among his various accomplishments he was Company Director of Dublin Tall ships 2012 and responsible for all logistics for this major five- day public festival hosted in Dublin, which attracted over 1.5 million visitors. He was recruited by the newly created National water utility Irish Water in 2013 as Regional Operations Manager to deliver daily water services to 50% of the National population and currently is in charge of their National special projects office. He was elected from 2019/2021 to chair the EurEau international drinking water committee with members from 28 Countries. Since joining the Academy, he has chaired their communications group and has actively contributed to the development of the Academy particularly through leading the successful membership of the International Council of Engineering Academies (CAETS) in 2020.
Dr. Jim Browne
2019/2021 President of the Academy Dr. Jim Browne, B.E., M.Eng.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc., MRIA, C.Eng. Dr. Browne is an experienced academic with over 30 years of academic leadership and service in the University of Manchester and the National University of Ireland Galway, where he served  as President, Registrar, Dean of Engineering and a research leader. He has served on and led numerous Boards focusing on strategic direction, excellence in governance and the management of risk.  He is currently Chairman of the Board of Children’s Health Ireland, and serves as an advisor on the NMBP programme within the EU H2020 programme. He has published eleven books, one of which was translated into Chinese and another into French, over 250 academic papers in international journals, and supervised over 40 PhD students. He has particular experience in working in the hi-tech sector, including the technology and med tech sectors and extensive experience in setting up and working with multi partner industry – university research and development projects, in Europe, the United States and China.
Tony Smyth
2018/2019 President of the Academy. B.Eng., M.Eng.Sc., M.Sc.; C.Eng. FIEI; FIAE. Tony Smyth qualified with a BEng in 1975 from NUI, Galway (formerly UCG) and holds an M. Eng. Sc. in Engineering Hydrology also from NUI, Galway, and a M.Sc. in Strategic Management from University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD). He is former Director of Engineering Services (Asst. Sec. General) and Chief Engineer, Office of Public Works (OPW), an executive office within the Dept. of Public Expenditure and Reform/Finance, where he was responsible for Flood Risk Management and for the Mechanical & Electrical service and for the Civil & Structural engineering services in OPW. He is currently Chair of the Infrastructure Committee Academy.
Brendan Tuohy
2017/2018 President of the Academy.  B.E, C.Eng,  MSc, FIAE, FIEI. Brendan Tuohy is Chairman of the Governance Committee of Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MAREI) , The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA) , National Maritime College of Ireland Advisory Board and the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative. He is a non-executive director of a number of companies and non-commercial boards. He previously served as Secretary General in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and as Assistant Secretary in the Department of Public Enterprise. He also served as Fire Adviser in the Department of Environment and Local Government and he commenced his career as Fire Prevention Officer in Cork City Council. 
Eoin O’Driscoll
2017 Eoin O'Driscoll, BE MSc CEng FIEI FIAE Chairman of the Tyndall National Institute. Eoin is a Governor of the Irish Times Trust, a member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Times Ltd, the Cork University Foundation. Eoin was previously a Senior Vice President with Lucent Technologies Inc. He served as Chairman of Forfas, the SWS Group, e|net and Shenick Network Systems and as a member of the Board of Science Foundation Ireland, Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland. In 2004 Eoin chaired the government Enterprise Strategy Group.
John McGowan
2015 -2016 John McGowan, BE MSc CEng FIEI FIAE Graduated from UCG, in 1970 and completed a Master degree in vibration analysis at TCD. Worked initially with Tipperary SR Council and then as a design engineer with Nicholas O’Dwyer Consulting Engineer and Jacobs Engineering on EPCM projects. The latter included the design and construction of a large potash plant in the Dead Sea valley and increasingly complex pharma and micro-electronic projects in Ireland and the UK. He project managed the EPCM of Fab 10 at the Intel development at Leixlip, after which he joined Intel. They sent him to their semi-conductor manufacturing plants at Oregon and New Mexico, leading to his appointment as GM at their Leixlip plant. He was later appointed Vice-President of the TM Group, followed by leading Corporate Services group in Phoenix AZ.After 13 years with Intel he left to join the firm of McNamara Construction as MD, responsible for multiple major commercial developments in Ireland, until 2009. Following this he took directorships in various engineering consultancies and pro-bono bodies such as Sligo IT Governing Body and CITA. He is a former President of Engineers Ireland and currently advisor to companies who are expanding outside Ireland.
Don Moore
2014 Don Moore BE, CEng, FIEI, FIAE Don Moore is a graduate of University College Cork in Civil Engineering. He is a former Managing Director of ESB International. He has worked on energy sector projects in more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, North American and Africa. He is a Past-President of the Irish Exporters' Association.
Jonathan Hegan
2013 Jonathan Hegan MBE, MSc, DIC, CEng FIEI, FIAE, FICE Jonathan is a Chartered Civil Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.He is a graduate of the Queen' s University of Belfast and Imperial College London.He has enjoyed a varied career, working in London, for a period of 9 years, with Binnie and Partners(now part of Black and Veach), Sir Robert McAlpine and Costain International and in 1979 he moved to the Middle East.There he worked with the Government of Oman for three years and then with Turner Wright and Partners(Consultants), before returning to Ireland in 1986 to work with Arups in Dublin.He joined Kirk McClure Morton(KMM) Consulting Engineers, Belfast, in 1988 where he worked with both the Private and Public Sectors. Jonathan became a Partner of KMM in 1992 and was appointed Senior Partner in 2000.He supervised the merger of the Firm with RPS in 2004 and was Chairman of RPS (Northern Ireland) until he retired in 2008.Jonathan is a former Chairman of the Institution of Civil Engineers(Northern Ireland) and Engineers Ireland(NI).He is the immediate past Chairman of the Titanic Foundation, the owners of the Titanic Belfast Building.
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