The Irish Sailing AGM will take place on the 27 March in Clontarf Yacht Club, Dublin 3.
The Irish Sailing Board intends to make the following nominations for Board appointments:
Irish Sailing President John Twomey’s term will come to an end and the Board wishes to nominate Sue Concannon (Killaloe Sailing Club) as the next President. Sue is a former Treasurer and currently Secretary of Irish Sailing.
David Love and Deirdre Tingle, both of Royal Cork Yacht Club, were co-opted to the Board in November and will be nominated by the Board for re-election. Deirdre chairs Irish Sailing’s Finance & Audit Committee and sits on the Governance & Risk Committee. David chairs the Racing & Classes Policy Group, of which he is a serving member, this group also incorporates the Team & Match Racing Working Group.
The Board wishes to nominate Nigel Moss (Galway Bay Sailing Club) as Director and Chair of the Cruising & Recreation Policy Group. Nigel has served on the Cruising & Recreation Policy Group and is also on the ICRA Committee.
The Board also wishes to nominate Valda Boardman (Royal Irish Yacht Club) as Director and Chair of the Communications Policy Group, of which she has served as a member for several years.
These nominations are subject to member approval at the AGM. Further information can be found in the nominees’ profiles below.
The Board wishes to thank the outgoing President John Twomey and Board members Andrew Bradley and Vera Quinlan for their valuable contributions throughout their terms and wish them the best in future endeavours.
Profiles:
Sue Concannon
Club: Killaloe Sailing Club
Sailing Experience: Sue lives near Killaloe with her husband Kieron, having made a long held dream a reality when they moved to Ireland from the UK in 2014. They started sailing rather later in life on sailing cruisers and transitioned to dinghies when they joined Killaloe Sailing Club in 2014. Sue has been active member of the club’s committee for a number of years, is a past Commodore and Chairs the clubs Development Committee.
Professional Experience: Sue has spent over 30 years stock broking/securities market infrastructure. She has held a number of non-executive roles and was an independent Non Executive Director of Euroclear UK & Ireland from 2011 to 2021 where she chaired the nominations, remuneration and governance committee and was a member of the audit committee. Prior to this, Sue was CEO of a retail stockbroking subsidiary of the UK Bank HBOS subsequently Lloyds Banking Group, a role she held for 13 years. Previous roles were as Business Development Director of ShareLink and a number of years in operations management for a computer company.
Deirdre Tingle
Club: Royal Cork Yacht Club
Professional/Business Experience: Deirdre qualified with a BComm degree from University College Cork in 1984 and joined the family food services business. Deirdre was appointed Managing Director in 1997 (after the untimely death of her father). Deirdre ran and developed the business for over 35 years. The family business was sold in 2023 and Deirdre has a part time role with the new owners.
Sailing Experience: Deirdre is sailing since the early 1970’s. While initially ‘Cruiser Racing’ with her father and family, Deirdre also raced dinghies and followed the ‘IYA’ training and instructor programme of that time. Today she helms/skippers the Tingle family Cruiser Racer ‘Alpaca’ and has competed in many national and international sailing events over the years. Deirdre has been involved with various committees in the Royal Cork over many years. She was elected as Rear Admiral of the Royal Cork Yacht Club in 2008 (the first female flag officer).
Dave Love
Club: Royal Cork Yacht Club
Professional/ Business Experience: Chartered Surveyor with 20 years experience in both Ireland and Australia and is currently Director with property advisors CBRE.
Sailing Experience: David started his sailing career in Optimists before moving into Mirrors, Lasers and National 18a and is a former Sailing Instructor having come through Irish Sailing's instructor training. He has raced extensively on keelboats for the last 20 years completing in 1720s and IRC yacht, active in both club racing and major regattas across the country. He has also completed in two Commodores Cup campaigns with success in the 2010 edition in Cowes. He also spent 4 years racing Etchells in Perth, Australia completing in the 2012 Words and most recently serves as 1720 Class Captain from 2020-2023. David is chair of the Irish Sailing's Racing & Class Group which hopes to promote Affiliated Class's racing around Ireland and demonstrate the strength of both club and event racing. David is passionate about inclusivity in sailing and hope to add value in making sailing in Ireland a sport for everyone.
Valda Boardman
Clubs - Royal Irish Yacht Club
Sailing Experience: Valda is keen sailor in Dublin Bay White Sails, co-owner of Bavaria 35, Just Jasmin and an active member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire. Some personal achievements. Placed second in the inaugural Women at the Helm 2019 on Just Jasmin. In 2022 Valda initiated the concept of "Sail Darkness into Light". With Irish Sailing’s national backing of this initiative, as well as the partnership formed with Pieta, this successful event is becoming a fixture on the sailing calendar.
Professional Experience: A PR professional, Valda has over 30 years of communications experience specialising in strategic communications, media relations, digital PR and event management. Valda Boardman PR is the PR expertise of full service marketing and creative agency, Marketing Network Group.
Her professional expertise has played a significant role in Irish Sailing in recent years, as the PR counsel for the Communications Policy Group since 2019, offering strategic advice to the CEO and marketing team on communications and media relations, internal mentoring and assisting the CEO in the recent recruitment process.
Nigel Moss
Club – Galway Bay Sailing Club
Professional & Business Experience: Nigel is an experienced senior business leader and IT professional specializing in IT Outsourcing & Transformation projects with a strong focus on client success. Having started his own business in the 90's and moving to a successful career with Hewlett Packard, DXC and recently providing consulting services with ISV's such as Amdocs, Microsoft and Oracle. Nigel is currently on the Board of ITAG and enjoys mentoring fellow business professionals starting out on their career.
Sailing Experience: Having started sailing yachts in his mid 20's Nigel spent his early sailing career delivering yachts whilst building up his sailing knowledge and working in the mediterranean supporting charter companies. It was during his time in the med he discovered his passion for racing, since then he has clocked up over 20,000 racing miles and countless miles cruising & delivering yachts up and down the Western Atlantic seaboard. Nigel has competed in the Round Ireland, D2D, Fastnet Race, Cork Week, Sovereigns Cup, WIORA, Round Island Race and Many GBSC club races and regattas. Nigel is also a Cruising Instructor and currently RC Cruisers at GBSC.