The Ark Board
The Ark is delighted to welcome two new members to our board and wish longstanding Directors Anne Looney and Tomm Moore a fond farewell.
There have recently been some changes to The Ark Board. Longstanding Directors Anne Looney and Tomm Moore have just stepped down, and we wish to thank them sincerely for their time, energy and expertise over the past six years.
In their place we welcome two new Directors. Pádraic Whyte is an associate professor of English and a director of the Children's Literature MPhil programme at Trinity College Dublin. Liam Ryan has worked in and led a number of tech start-ups and is currently Country Manager for SilverCloud Health. They have both also contributed to The Ark programme in the past!
Pádraic Whyte
Appointed June 2022
Pádraic is associate professor of English and a director of the Children's Literature MPhil programme at the School of English. Pádraic co-established Ireland’s first full-time master’s programme in children’s literature. He lectures on a range of topics at undergraduate and postgraduate level including empowerment in literature for children.
Pádraic is the current Chair of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards and was curator of the exhibition Upon the Wild Waves: A Journey through Myth in Children’s Books which ran in the Long Room, Trinity College Library. He is a former Chair of the CBI Children's Book of the Year Awards 2013, served on the executive committee of the Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature for a number of years, and worked as curator of the Telling Tall and Tiny Tales literature programme at The Ark.
Liam Ryan
Appointed October 2022
Liam is the Country Manager at an Irish-founded company called SilverCloud; a world-leading digital mental healthcare platform. Liam has also completed a Diploma in International Business & Selling at TU Dublin and has a proud past in entrepreneurship having cofounded two tech startups in the digital health industry.
During his academic years, Liam studied the French Horn at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and conducted the 90-member symphony orchestra at Trinity College Dublin. Liam has since played with various bands with notable performances at leading festivals. Liam currently plays trumpet with Attention Bébé, and Stomptown Brass who premiered A Show for Curious Eyes & Ears at the first edition of BIG BANG! Dublin.
We look forward to working closely with them both alongside all our board members to advance The Ark's work into the future. You can view the full list of The Ark board members here.