Current Board Members
John Cronin (Chair)
John Cronin is former Chair and Managing Partner at law firm McCann FitzGerald. He served for almost three years as a non-executive director of the Dublin Theatre Festival. Separately, he was a non-executive director at Kingspan Group for nine years (2015-2023) and is a former President and board member of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce. He has a consultancy role with Kildare Village/Value Retail and some advisory positions with some overseas entities. (Date of appointment: 01.08.2024 / End of term: 31.07.2028)
Michael Owens (Deputy Chair)
Michael Owens is a HR professional, with extensive HR experience in insurance, manufacturing and retail. He recently retired as HR Director with Vhi Healthcare where he was a member of the executive management team involved in formulating and executing business strategy. Michael led a number of key projects in Vhi Healthcare, including the development of a business centre in Kilkenny employing 600 people and a new award-winning Head Office in Abbey Street.
Michael was a member of the board of Business to Arts for 8 years and served as its chairperson for 5 years. During that time Business to Arts was recognised for a number of impactful Arts initiatives including the Allianz Business to Arts Awards, New Stream and Fund it. Michael has also been a board member with Junior Achievement, Vhi Swiftcare and Coyle Hamilton.
He has a keen interest in HR Best Practice and contributed in this regard as a member of the National Committee of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Ireland) where he was chairperson for 4 years. Michael has a BA in HR and a Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Executive Coaching. (Date of appointment: 24.03.2023 / End of term: 23.03.27)
Nicholas Basden
Nick co-founded and owns Flat Brew Limited, the maker of award-winning coffee spreads. Prior to founding Flat Brew, Nick launched a number of entrepreneurial ventures in the retail and restaurant sectors, having previously worked in sales at JP Morgan; retail strategy at Monitor Company; and, business development at Starbucks Coffee International earlier in his career.
Nick has worked with leading theatre and cultural institutions in the UK on issues related to strategic positioning and audience development, with a particular focus on engaging minority audiences. He serves as a trustee at Kiln Theatre, Sadlers Wells, and is an investor in West End theatrical productions.
Nick is also actively engaged in the education sector where he serves as a trustee for Westside School and Alternative Provision Challenge Trust, both organisations dedicated to meeting the educational needs of excluded students. Nick is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. (Date of appointment: 20.02.2023 / End of term: 19.02.27)
Noelle Brown
Noelle Brown has been an actor since 1987 and became a writer, theatre maker and co-producer in 2013. As an actor, she has worked with all of Ireland’s leading theatre companies, as well as in film, television and radio. Her career began at the Abbey Theatre where her appearances have included: Ghosts, Dancing at Lughnasa, and The Unmanageable Sisters. Recently, she was lead artist, curator and performer in the Abbey Theatre’s Home: Part One.
Drawing on her own personal experiences of being an adoptee, she co-wrote her first play Postscript with Michèle Forbes, and she continues to highlight the legacy of human rights abuses suffered by Mother and Baby Home survivors. Postscript toured all over Ireland, played at the Centre Cultural Irlandais Paris, at the Abbey Theatre (Peacock), and the London Irish Centre.
Foxy, her play about prejudice towards the Travelling Community was presented at Project Arts Centre (Cube) in 2015. Her play Creaking, co-created with Oonagh Murphy, explored societal attitudes towards older people and toured Ireland as part of the Bealtaine Festival in 2017. She also created and co-produced, with Faye O’ Rourke, Konenki (Menopause Unmasked) at the Sugar Club to help lift the silence around Menopause. (Date of appointment: 17.01.2022 / End of term: 16.01.26)
Tara Furlong
Tara Furlong began her career in the arts after studying ceramics at Dún Laoghaire College of Art & Design (now IADT). She then joined the front of house department at Project Arts Centre, where she was first introduced to Stage Management while working on The Gay Detective by Gerard Stembridge. From 1996 to 2006, Tara worked as a freelance Stage Manager with a range of Dublin theatre companies including Fishamble, Corn Exchange and The Gate.
In 2006, Tara joined the Abbey Theatre’s Stage Management department, where she has worked ever since, except for a year in 2007 when she served as company manager at Gúna Nua Theatre Company. Tara has been involved in many significant Abbey productions over the years, including The Wake by Tom Murphy, Alice in Funderland by Philip McMahon and Raymond Scannell, and Girl on an Altar by Marina Carr.
Outside her work in Stage Management, Tara has contributed to the theatre community through serving on the board of the Association of Irish Stage Technicians from 2006 to 2008 and acting as a SIPTU representative from 2019 to 2021.
Tara’s connection to the Abbey Theatre is deeply rooted in family history. Her uncles, Brendan and Brian Behan, both have had their plays produced on Abbey stages, while her great uncle, Peadar Kearney, worked as a scenic artist at the Abbey from 1908 to 1916. (Date of appointment: 05.02.2025 / End of term: 4.02.29)
Múirne Laffan
Múirne Laffan has global experience building teams, products, brands and revenues in News, Sport & Entertainment at RTÉ and McCann Worldgroup. She sits on several boards and works with media start-ups on growth strategy, including Noa – News Over Audio.
She started her career in advertising in London, joined RTÉ as General Manager, RTÉ Commercial Enterprises Limited, in 2001. She subsequently worked as MD of RTÉ Publishing, MD of RTÉ Digital and was a member of the executive board, becoming Chief Digital Officer in 2015 and Chair of the EBU Digital Steering Committee.
Prior to RTÉ, Múirne was Senior Vice President, Director of Worldwide Clients at McCann-Erickson in New York, set up McCann Interactive and was a founding executive board member of UM, one of the world’s largest media agencies.
Múirne is fascinated by the creative implications of evolving audience behaviour and new media technologies. She is a Board member of the Irish Television & Film Academy and Chair of the TV Committee, Board member of the Digital Repository of Ireland and of Drinkaware. Múirne is a graduate of TU Dublin’s College of Marketing & Design and Trinity College Dublin.
Múirne serves as Chair of the Fundraising & Engagement Committee at the Abbey Theatre. (Date of appointment: 17.01.2022 / End of term: 16.01.26)
Máire O’Higgins
Máire is an Assistant Principal and Chaplain in Larkin Community College in Dublin’s North Inner City. She has worked in education, arts and community development for over thirty years.
As an educator Máire developed the first partnership arts in education Junior Cycle programme in secondary schools in Ireland. She has led myriad artist residencies and theatre making partnerships in schools.
As a theatre practitioner Máire worked as a Director with Passion Machine Theatre Company. She was a founding member of Pigsback Theatre Company, and has worked as an actor and director in theatre.
In her community development work, Máire has led intergenerational and intercultural initiatives for civic community engagement, with the National Museum of Ireland, the National College of Art and Design, the Abbey Theatre and Localise Volunteering. She served as a Board member of Localise for ten years and on the Steering Committee for the National Citizenship Education Network.
Máire is on the North-East-Inner-City Programme Implementation Board Community Arts Steering Committee tasked with bringing diverse communities together to celebrate sustained civic and cultural engagement.
Máire is a member of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland. She hosts weekly meditation practices with educators, artists, young people and frontline workers in Dublin’s North and South Inner City. (Date of appointment: 24.03.2023 / End of term: 23.03.27)
Risteard Sheridan
Risteard was appointed Company Secretary of AerCap in May 2020 and Chief Compliance Officer in 2019. He joined AerCap in April 2017 as Head of Internal Audit. Risteard is also currently senior independent director and chair of the audit committee of daa plc.
Prior to joining AerCap, he gained extensive experience advising companies on governance, financial reporting and control/process matters while working with the professional services firms KPMG and EY.
Risteard holds a degree in Business and Legal Studies and a Masters in Accounting from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. (Date of appointment: 20.02.2023 / End of term: 19.02.27)
Owen Travers
Owen Travers is an experienced Finance executive and is currently the Institutional & Lender Lead at Interpath Advisory Ireland, a global financial and restructuring advisory business.
Owen was previously Finance Director of D|RES Properties, one of the largest housing developers in the country. D|RES is a GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainable Benchmark) member and a leader in innovation and sustainability practices in construction.
Prior to that, Owen was the Chief Executive of AIB Corporate Finance where he advised on a number of large fundraising and capital projects together with a number of significant M&A transactions. Owen also was a Director in the Capital Markets division of AIB where he oversaw a number of key sectors including European Real Estate, Hospitality, Project Finance, Renewable Power and Social Housing. This saw Owen provide significant support for a number of key sectors and employers in the Irish economy.
Owen holds a degree in Business Studies (Finance) from Trinity College Dublin and is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). He has also completed the Inter Alpha executive management programme at INSEAD and more recent qualifications in ESG. Owen has served on the Finance Committee of Junior Achievement Ireland and assisted a number of other charity and not for profit entities. Owen has supported the Abbey Theatre over recent years as a patron, corporate patron and supporter of the Business in Theatre programme.
Owen serves as Chair of the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee of the Abbey Theatre. (Date of appointment: 17.01.2022 / End of term: 16.01.26)
Michael West
Michael West is a playwright, adaptor and translator. In collaboration with Annie Ryan and The Corn Exchange, his work includes The Fall of the Second Republic, Dublin by Lamplight; the world premiere adaptation of James Joyce’s Dubliners; Man of Valour; Freefall; Everyday; Foley; and adaptations of The Seagull and Lolita.
Translations include The Marriage of Figaro; Death and the Ploughman by the Bohemian 14th century writer Johannes Von Saaz; and work by Molière, Marivaux and Calderón, including Forever Yours, Mary-Lou, by Michel Tremblay. Most recently, his adaptation of Mike McCormack’s Solar Bones premiered at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and was presented at the Abbey Theatre.
Other original work includes Conservatory, and FRNKNSTN, a mutation of Mary Shelley’s classic, written for Theatre Lovett, both of which premiered at the Peacock. And he also wrote The Chinese Room, which played at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the USA in a production directed by James Macdonald.
He was dramaturg on Webster’s The White Devil at the Globe, and Dead Centre’s Hamnet, which premiered at the Abbey Theatre. He has written plays for children, for radio and adapted an Oscar Wilde story for the English National Ballet. He teaches scriptwriting at Queen’s University Belfast and is published by Methuen. (Date of appointment: 24.03.2023 / End of term: 23.03.27)
The members of the Abbey Theatre board are members of the Company.
