IFBE Board Of Directors

Noel O'Meara B.A. (Econ.), M.B.A.

Noel was born in Dublin in 1962. In 1984 he obtained a B.A. (Econ.) from University College Dublin. He joined the Irish Dairy Board directly from College initially working in the Logistics Division. Thereafter he moved into Export Sales and worked for several years in the European region. For a brief period he was responsible for the South American markets but very soon moved into the management of Asia Pacific. There he enjoyed considerable success, in particular, entering the more difficult Chinese and Vietnamese markets.

During this time Noel developed a wide range of international contacts throughout Europe, South America, Asia Pacific and the Indian sub-continent and gained substantial knowledge of working in international business.

Despite a demanding and time consuming workload Noel furthered his studies and in 1994 obtained an M.B.A. from the Michael Smurfit School of Business. This was undertaken with the intention of one day establishing and managing his own business.

In 2008 Noel was appointed Managing Director of Green Net Supplies Ltd., which has gone from strength to strength. Recently he was instrumental in winning a Government Tender for a contract valued at €3.5m. He has broad experience in all aspects of business management including Sales, General Management, Financial Management and Logistics.

Noel's first love and passion is for the challenge and excitement of the export business. He has a keen desire to use his experience to work with Irish companies to develop and increase Irish export sales. With this in mind and to fulfill this ambition he established I.F.B.E. in 2009.

Contact Noel at nomeara@ifbe.ie

Anthony Mackey BA (Econ), MMII

Tony Mackey spent his early, formative years living in England, India and Hong Kong. His secondary education was at Blackrock College in Dublin from where he attended and graduated from University College Dublin with an Honours degree in Economics

After a number of years working in the construction industry, publishing and real estate, he joined The Irish Dairy Board in 1973 at a time when Ireland was joining the European Union. This was an exciting and challenging time for all those at the coal face of Irish exporting and a wonderful learning curve, the benefit of which has been carried through into Tony's future with the Board.

In 1979, Tony was appointed as the first resident Manager for Kerrygold in Germany. His tenure oversaw the rise of Kerrygold butter to that of national brand leader, a position it has continued to hold in the marketplace.

After 10 years in Germany, Tony returned to Dublin and accepted responsibility for the Asia Pacific region until 1996 when he was asked to take over the Middle East and also open up and develop the Kerrygold brand into Africa.

Tony has vast experience in entering new markets, seeking out appropriate distributors and managing the sales and marketing of a wide range of product lines.

Tony was appointed a Director of the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce in 1993 and served as Chairman from 1997 through 2001 and as President in 2005, the Chambers Silver Jubilee year. He is also a past Captain of Roundwood Golf Club.

Tony took early retirement in early 2008 with the aim of furthering his other business interests.

Contact Tony at tmackey@ifbe.ie

John T. McQueirns A.I.C.S.

Born in Dublin in 1947, John commenced his career with Irish Shipping Ltd., progressing through the Legal and Technical Divisions over 8 years. During this time he achieved distinction in qualifying as a Chartered Shipbroker.

He joined The Irish Dairy Board in 1970 as Assistant Shipping Manager, but very quickly moved into product management, becoming Departmental Manager in 1975.

Never one to stand still, John took over the Logistics function within IDB in 1982. This covered transport, storage, shipping and chartering and also included the management of Dairy Intervention on behalf of the Dept. of Agriculture. The latter role called for innovative and lateral thinking in terms of handling and storage of enormous volumes of product throughout the 80's and 90's.

In 1990, John took on the additional role of General Manager for Butter & Butteroil. This covered the purchase, distribution and sale of over 100K tonnes of product throughout the world. In 1999, Powder was added to his ever increasing responsibilities.

After 30 years with IDB, John moved to The Clarke Group of companies in Wicklow as Managing Director. A diverse group, they dealt in oil & solid fuel products, Agri business requirements and traded in wheat, barley and oats. John sold the business in 2005 and retired.

In recent years, John's logistics expertise has led him to numerous consultancy roles in such companies as Nissan Ireland, National Hardware and The Traditional Cheese Company.

Contact John at jmcqueirns@ifbe.ie