University College Cork (UCC) has announced the appointments of Mr Trevor Holmes to the post of Vice President for External Relations and Professor Anita Maguire to the post of Vice President for Research and Innovation.
Mr Holmes joined IDA Ireland as the Head of Corporate Communications at the start of 2008. His responsibilities included international and domestic media relations, brand management, marketing research and the co-ordination between IDA and government on enterprise related communications.
During his time at IDA Ireland he has overseen the creation and implementation of a global marketing campaign using the tag-line “Ireland – Innovation comes naturally”. The campaign has been implemented with leading international media outlets such as Bloomberg, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Barons and The Economist. He has also been instrumental in a complete re-design of the IDA’s on-line presence.
Holmes joined IDA Ireland from Intel Ireland where he had spent over ten years initially as General Manager for their Post Sales Support operations within the EMEA region. Laterally he was the Corporate Affairs Director for Intel in Ireland, responsible for Media Relations, Education, EU & Government Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Relations.
Prior to working with Intel he worked in a variety of management roles in several leading multinational companies both in Ireland and overseas, including over eight years with Apple in Cork.
He holds a primary degree in Physics and Chemistry awarded by Trinity College Dublin, a Masters degree in Business Administration from University College Cork and a higher diploma in Theological Studies. He was the recipient of an IMI / Sir Charles Harvey Award for outstanding achievement in the field of Postgraduate Business Studies.
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Professor Anita Maguire undertook undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Chemistry at UCC (B.Sc. 1985, Ph.D. 1989). Following postdoctoral research first at Namur, Belgium then at the University of Exeter, UK she returned to the Department of Chemistry in UCC in 1991 initially as a College Lecturer, then Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry in 2002, and was appointed to the newly established Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2004, playing a leading role in development of the School of Pharmacy in recent years. Since her appointment at UCC she has played a strategic role in the development of teaching and learning, including the introduction of Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at undergraduate level for the first time.
Over the past twenty years at UCC she has led an active research team focusing on synthetic organic and pharmaceutical chemistry, which interacts extensively with the pharmaceutical sector in Ireland and internationally. She is very committed to postgraduate education, ensuring the research students gain the skills required to underpin their future careers; 25 PhD and 5 MSc students have graduated from her research team since 1997, most of whom have developed careers within the pharmaceutical industry both in Ireland and internationally.
She is Director of the interdisciplinary research centre, the Analytical and Biological Chemistry Research Facility established under PRTLI3, and has served as Head of the Department of Chemistry (2005-7) and Head of the School of Pharmacy (since 2009). She was elected to the Governing Body of University College Cork in December 2003.
She is actively engaged nationally in strategic policy development in relation to research, STI policy, the academic industry interface and strategic development of the pharmaceutical industry, including as a member of the Advisory Science Council and Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET). For example she chaired the Advisory Science Council Task Force on The Role of PhDs in the Smart Economy which reported in December 2009.
Professor Maguire has already taken up the post while Mr Holmes is due to commence on March 7th 2011.