Board of Directors of The Irish Times DAC

The Irish Times Group is owned by a Trust and has no shareholders. Shay Garvey is Chair of the Board of Directors and has no actual shares in the company, however for the purposes of this project we are considering him as an ‘owner’, as the position of Chair is associated with a higher level of influence. Details on other members of the Board of Directors are included below.

Shay Garvey is co-founder of Frontline Ventures, adviser to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) venture capital programme and Chair of Genio, the Service Reform Fund. He holds a director position in five other companies:

Linked P2P Ltd (Banking, Insurance & Financial Services), Frontline Ventures (GP) Ltd (Banking, Insurance & Financial Services), FV Fund Principles Ltd (Banking, Insurance & Financial Services), AQ Metrics Ltd (Computer Software), and Educere Investments Ltd (Business Services).

The Board of 10 directors come from a variety of backgrounds with the aim to be representative of all sectors of Irish society. The Board’s main function is to ensure the financial viability of The Irish Times and day to day operations of the business, The Irish Times Trust appoints members to the board. The board includes a non-executive chair, three executives from the news publisher (Editor, Deputy Editor and Group Managing Director) and six non-executive directors, three of whom are members of The Irish Times Trust.

All directors have a single vote in any decisions made. In the event where there is a disagreement, the three directors nominated to the board by the Trust have an effective veto where they have 50% of all votes plus 1. However, this can only be used in exceptional circumstances where a Board of Directors proposal contravenes the objectives, principles and standards set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association for the Trust. In this event lawyers for the Trust and the Board must agree that the proposal constitutes a ‘significant policy’ under the Memorandum and Articles of Association for the Trust.