Our Board

NTR Foundation Board

Chairman Jim Barry

Jim was appointed Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock’s renewable power investment platform in February 2011.

Jim served as Chief Executive of NTR plc from June 2000-2011, having served as Assistant Chief Executive and General Manager, Development.

Prior to joining NTR plc in 1998, Jim worked with Bain and Company, a leading global management consulting firm, and in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley International. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork and a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Jim is on the Council of Patrons of Special Olympics Ireland and is a board member of The Ireland Funds. He also sits on a number of Advisory Boards related to activities in University College Cork and the Harvard Business School.

Caroline Bergin

Caroline Bergin acts as Company Secretary to the NTR Foundation.

Caroline joined NTR plc as Group Legal Director & Company Secretary in July 2010. Prior to taking up this position, Caroline held the same position at Greencore Group, an Irish-headquartered and publicly traded convenience foods company.

Caroline began her career practicing law with A&L Goodbody, before joining Greencore in 1991, and was appointed Greencore Group Company Secretary in 2002. A qualified lawyer and highly experienced company secretary, Caroline brings extensive experience, having been Company Secretary to multiple subsidiaries in Ireland, the UK and the US.

David Flood

David Flood is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and in 1981 was a Founding Partner of Chapman Flood & Co. which merged in 1998 with Rawlinson Hunter Mazars to form Chapman Flood Mazars and is part of the international network of Mazars. Since his retirement as partner from the practice in 1998, David has acted as non-executive director for a number of Irish private companies in different industry sectors to assist them in developing and monitoring the overall strategy of their business.

He has also acted as consultant to companies in dealing with specific aspects of their business including buying and selling of companies, equity and bank funding for specific projects and succession planning in family owned businesses. He also assists a number of high net worth individuals in advising them on the management of their net assets.

Brendan Halligan

Brendan Halligan was appointed Chair of SEI on October 1st 2007. As Chair of SEI, he has been involved in many of the key decisions in relation to the promotion and assistance of the development of sustainable energy in Ireland over the last number of years. Brendan is also CEO of CIPA Consulting, Chairperson of the Institute of International and European Affairs and is on the board of Mainstream Renewable Power.

He was formerly Chairman of Bord na Móna, a member of the Seanad and Dáil Éireann, a member of European Parliament and Secretary General of the Labour Party. He acted as Adjunct Professor of European Affairs at the University of Limerick.

Stephen Hegarty

Stephen Hegarty is a partner in the Commercial Department of Arthur Cox. He has a BA from Trinity College and an LLM from London University. He was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 1989 and in England and Wales in 1990.

Stephen has considerable experience in acting for large public companies in stock exchange work. He also advises state owned companies, particularly in regard to ESOP and corporate governance.

Prior to joining Arthur Cox, Stephen spent a number of years working in the Commercial Department of an international firm in London, where his practice was mainly focussed on corporate finance.

Michael McNicholas

Michael McNicholas was appointed CEO of NTR plc in June 2011. Previously, Michael was NTR plc’s Chief Operating Officer and provided broad operational leadership across the Group’s businesses with a particular focus on NTR’s renewable energy portfolio (solar, wind and ethanol), and more recently for its sustainable waste management portfolio. Michael was appointed to the main Board of NTR plc on 9th September 2010.

Prior to joining NTR plc in February 2010, Michael was a Director of ESB International, the international investment arm of the Irish energy company. Michael has over 25 years of experience in the Irish and International energy industry where he has held senior positions with responsibility for general management, delivery of major capital projects, funding, international energy project investment, managing regulatory environments and competing in open energy markets.

Michael has a Degree in Engineering from University College Galway. He is a Chartered Member of Engineers Ireland and a Committee Member of the Energy Institute.

Anna Pringle

Anna is Group HR and Communications Director for NTR plc. She joined NTR plc in June 2008. Prior to that, Anna was Head of People & Organisation Capability for Microsoft International and HR Director for Microsoft Ireland. Anna has also held senior HR and leadership development roles with Bank of America in the U.S., most recently as head of HR for the Consumer Products Division, based in Charlotte, NC.

Anna began her career with a New York City HR consulting firm, specialising in organisation development and leadership. She holds a B.A. in Communications from Dublin City University and an M.Sc. in Human Resource Management from the Centre for Labour Market Studies at University of Leicester.

NTR Foundation Advisory Board

Chairman Jim Barry

Jim was appointed Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock’s renewable power investment platform in February 2011.

Jim served as Chief Executive of NTR plc from Jume 2000-2011, having served as Assistant Chief Executive and General Manager, Development.

Prior to joining NTR plc in 1998, Jim worked with Bain and Company, a leading global management consulting firm, and in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley International. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork and a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Jim is on the Council of Patrons of Special Olympics Ireland and is a board member of The Ireland Funds. He also sits on a number of Advisory Boards related to activities in University College Cork and the Harvard Business School.

The Honourable Carole L. Brookins

The Honourable Carole L. Brookins served from 2001 to 2005 as the United States Executive Director to the World Bank in Washington D.C., appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

An international consultant, she is Managing Director of Public Capital Advisors LLC (PCA), and a director on both corporate and non-profit boards. A member of the Rabobank International’s North American Agribusiness Advisory Board and the Center for Financial Stability’s Advisory Board, she is a Trustee of GVEP International (Global Village Energy Partnership) - a U.K based non-profit that accelerates access to sustainable energy in emerging markets. A Counsellor of the International Agribusiness Management Association (IAMA), she was most recently a Board member of Climate Exchange plc and the Chicago Climate Exchange, and Chairman of NTR plc’s North American Advisory Board.

Ms. Brookins was a municipal bond underwriter before moving to commodities at the Chicago Board of Trade and as a Vice President of E.F. Hutton. In 1980 she founded and led the Washington DC consulting firm World Perspectives, Inc for 20 years. Her public appointments have included membership on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy and chairing the State Department’s private sector Advisory Committee on Food, Hunger and Agriculture in Developing Countries, mandated by President Reagan. 

Paula DiPerna

Paula is a strategic environmental and philanthropic policy advisor, and writer. From 2005-2010 she served as Executive Vice President for Recruitment and Public Policy of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and from 2008-2010 also as President of CCX International, with special responsibility for China, India, Korea and other emerging markets. CCX, founded by financial innovator Dr. Richard L. Sandor, began emissions trading in 2003 and is the world’s first and North America’s only integrated greenhouse gas emissions reduction and trading system for all six greenhouse gases, with affiliates worldwide, including the pioneering Tianjin Climate Exchange (TCX) in China, which Ms DiPerna helped establish and where she served on the Board of Directors.

Ms. DiPerna also served formerly as President of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, a major public policy philanthropy based in Chicago Illinois, known for its innovative grantmaking, and Vice-President for International Affairs of the Cousteau Society, whose president was pioneer and ocean explorer, Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

As Vice-President for International Affairs of the Coustea Society, Ms. DiPerna was responsible for all aspects of national and international environmental policy, and interacted extensively wiht the U.S. Congress, Heads of State, and the United Nations. While at the Cousteau Society, from 1979 to 1997, Ms. DiPerna also wrote and co-produced a dozen Cousteau documentary films. She has travelled extensively globally, and lived for one year in the Amazon regions of Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

Ms. DiPerna also has served as a consultant on environmental matters to the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility and LEAD-International, among other organisations. In 2001 Ms.DiPerna also founded the Jobs and Environment Initiative, which quantifies job creation benefits of environmental activities nationally and in various U.S. states.

DiPerna is a widely published author. She has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles on a variety of subjects, a novel and various non-fiction books. “Cluster Mystery: Epidemic and the Children of Waburn, Mass” , published in 1985, has become a touchstone of environmental epidemeology.

Ms.DiPerna was named an Eisenhower Fellow in 1998, an international program for emerging leaders founded by the US Congress and spent time in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic studying emerging environmental policy in Central Europe. DiPerna is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ms. DiPerna is based in New York City.

Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson assumed the role of Secretary General of the Club of Rome on 1st April 2010.  During a distinguished international career of over thirty years focused on economic and social development, Ian has acquired a deep knowledge of the most critical global problems, particularly those confronting developing countries in every region of the world.

Ian has been engaged in a number of activities focused on climate change, energy, agriculture and development, including Senior Adviser to the UNFCCC; Member of the Swedish Commission on Climate Change and Development; Senior Adviser to the President of IFAD and Adviser to several governments, including the UK, Chile and the Netherlands.  In addition to his role with the Club of Rome Ian is also currently Chair of the GLOBE International Commission on Land Use Change and Ecosystems and Chairman of a carbon market research and ratings company, Idea Carbon in London.

He brings a wealth of insight and public and private sector experience to lead the activities of the Club of Rome.  Ian spent over twenty five years with the World Bank. He held the post of Vice President for Sustainable Development for eight years, responsible for policy, strategy, and oversight of the World Bank’s programmes in environment, social policy and agriculture and rural development. During this period he was for five years Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR).  He also helped to establish the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and was senior manager of its operations for six years.

Michael McNicholas

Michael McNicholas was appointed CEO of NTR plc in June 2011. Previously, Michael was NTR plc’s Chief Operating Officer and provided broad operational leadership across the Group’s businesses with a particular focus on NTR’s renewable energy portfolio (solar, wind and ethanol), and more recently for its sustainable waste management portfolio. Michael was appointed to the main Board of NTR plc on 9th September 2010.

Prior to joining NTR plc in February 2010, Michael was a Director of ESB International, the international investment arm of the Irish energy company. Michael has over 25 years of experience in the Irish and International energy industry where he has held senior positions with responsibility for general management, delivery of major capital projects, funding, international energy project investment, managing regulatory environments and competing in open energy markets.

Michael has a Degree in Engineering from University College Galway. He is a Chartered Member of Engineers Ireland and a Committee Member of the Energy Institute.

Michael Naylor

Michael was elected to the advisory board of the NTR Foundation on the 1st January 2010.

Michael holds three board directorships where he is also an active investor including: London FTSE listed Jupiter Green Investment Trust plc where he is Chairman of the Audit Committee; Canopy Capital Limited, and the Canadian water technology private equity fund XPV Capital LLP.

Michael’s interests in the not for profit sector include advisory board appointments at ACORE, a Washington DC based (501.3c) organisation where he is Co-Chair of the Leadership Council. Additional appointments include membership of the International Advisory Board of SOAS at the University of London. In 2008 Michael was appointed as Chairman of the Advisory Council of HRH Prince of Wales Rainforest Project.

Mr Naylor is an advisor to some of the world’s leading Chief Executives specifically in the energy and sustainability sectors, and consults widely in Europe, North America and Sub Sahara Africa.

Anna Pringle

Anna is Group HR and Communications Director for NTR plc. She joined NTR plc in June 2008. Prior to that, Anna was Head of People & Organisation Capability for Microsoft International and HR Director for Microsoft Ireland. Anna has also held senior HR and leadership development roles with Bank of America in the U.S., most recently as head of HR for the Consumer Products Division, based in Charlotte, NC.

Anna began her career with a New York City HR consulting firm, specialising in organisation development and leadership. She holds a B.A. in Communications from Dublin City University and an M.Sc. in Human Resource Management from the Centre for Labour Market Studies at University of Leicester.

Joanne Roche

Joanne has held positions with European banks specialising in corporate and investment property, and also holds a number of other directorships. She graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce and holds a MSc in Finance from Cass University in London.

NTR Foundation Director

Tanya Harrington - Foundation Director

Tanya Harrington is the Director of the NTR Foundation, the philanthropic organisation of NTR plc. The NTR Foundation’s mission is to address the challenges of climate change, resource sustainability and security of energy supply, through the provision of targeted financial and expert support to entrepreneurial projects, research and non-governmental organisations. Before joining NTR in August 2009, Tanya was a Ministerial Adviser to the Minister for Transport (2007-2009) and the Minister for Energy, Communications & Natural Resources (2005-2007), specifically in the areas of energy policy and climate change. Prior to that, she was Head of Energy for Ireland’s employers’ representative body, IBEC. Previously, she worked at the Institute of International and European Affairs and at the European Commission. Tanya holds an MSSc and a BA.