ProfessorNiamh M. Brennan

Niamh is Emeritus Full Professor of Corporate Governance at University College Dublin, having previously held the Michael MacCormac Chair of Management. She founded the UCD Centre for Corporate Governance in 2002, pioneering director and governance training in Ireland. A first-class honours, first-in-class UCD Science (Microbiology and Biochemistry) graduate, Niamh qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, holds a PhD from the University of Warwick, is a Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors (London), and has an MSc (Business and Executive Coaching).

Elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy, Ireland’s highest academic honour, the first business school academic to be so recognised, Niamh also received a British Accounting & Finance Association Distinguished Academic Award, was inducted into the Interdisciplinary Accounting Research Hall of Fame and was awarded a Fellowship of the Irish Academy of Management. Niamh was recognised by Stanford University as one of the world’s top 2% of scientists for 2021-2026, and was one of 22 business school faculty honoured by the US Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in the 2024 Class of Influential Leaders 

Former chair of the National College of Art & Design and of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, she holds/has held non-executive directorships with the Children's Hospital Ireland, the Health Service Executive, Ulster Bank, Co-operation Ireland, Coillte (State forestry company), Lifetime Assurance (Bank of Ireland’s life assurance subsidiary) and several private companies, and is/was a member of numerous audit committees. Niamh’s public policy contributions include chairing the Irish Government's Expert Advisory Committee on the Governance and Organisational Culture of the Arts Council, the Irish Government's Expert Advisory Committee on the Governance and Culture of RTÉ, the Commission on Financial Management and Control Systems in the Health Services, and she was Vice-Chair of the Review Group on Auditing. 

Niamh is an Inaugural Honorary Fellow of The Institute of Directors in Ireland and an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland.