Michael Brophy, Chairman

Michael Brophy is Chief Executive of Independent News and Media (Northern Ireland), publishers of the Belfast Telegraph, Sunday Life and Community Telegraph.  Prior to that he served as Managing Director of the Sunday World.  He was also Editor of the Star Newspaper and the Evening Herald and served as Night Editor of the Irish Independent.  He has wide experience of Newspaper Awards and served for many years on the judging panel of the National Press Awards. He is also Chairman of Hume Brophy, a pan-European Public Relations and Public Affairs Company.

PJ Cunningham

PJ Cunningham is a former deputy Editor of  the Sunday Tribune and Evening Herald and former Sports Editor of those papers and the Irish Independent.
He is also a former political reporter for the Irish Independent and served as Agriculture Correspondent for the Independent Group in the mid-eighties.
A  BA graduate in journalism from DIT, he began his career with the Westmeath/Offaly Independent in Athlone before working as a freelance with the Irish Press Group and RTE in Dublin.

Aine Hegarty

Aine Hegarty studied journalism at Dublin City University. She began her career as a news reporter with the Irish Daily Mirror covering crime, courts and general news. In 2004, she joined Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 working as a news reporter covering national and international news events for the early morning show. During this time, she also worked as a news-reader for 2fm and as a reporter on Newsbeat -the nightly evening news bulletin on 2fm. She has also worked for Sky News Ireland as a producer on their nightly news bulletins. In 2007, she became Political Editor for the Irish Daily Mirror, based in Leinster House -in charge of all political coverage for the newspaper. She is a regular contributor to news and current affairs shows on radio and television. In January 2011, she became Deputy News Editor with the Irish Daily Mirror.

James Laffey

James Laffey was aged 28 when he was appointed editor of the Western People in 2004, making him one of the youngest editors in the history of Irish print journalism. The Western People, a member of the Thomas Crosbie Holdings media group, is among the largest regional newspapers in Ireland, circulating in counties Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon and Galway. Mr Laffey previously worked as a senior reporter and news editor with the Mayo News, having graduated from DIT Aungier Street (formerly Rathmines School of Journalism) in 1996. He is a former winner of the John Healy Journalism Award (2001) and has participated in various national and regional seminars, including the annual John Healy Autumn School, the Humbert Summer School and the Michael Davitt Centenary Conference (2006). A native of Foxford, Co Mayo, Mr Laffey is the author of ‘Foxford: Through the Arches of Time’ and is currently researching a book on the Mayo All-Ireland winning teams of 1950 and ’51, due for publication in September 2011.

Mairead Lavery

Mairead Lavery is editor of Irish Country Living, the lifestyle magazine that is part of the Irish Farmers’ Journal. She is also editor of the newly launched Irish Country Magazine, a 100 page glossy aimed at the rural female reader.

Mairead is a graduate of the University of Limerick and Trinity College and in her early career worked as a systems engineer with IBM. She is a former chairman of the farming and food promotional body Agri Aware and recently chaired Failte Ireland’s B&B Implementation Group.

Married with three children she lives on the family sheep farm near Shanagolden, Co Limerick.

Neil Leslie

Neil Leslie has been Managing Editor of the Sunday World since 2005. He joined the paper in 2001 as Assistant Editor and was also editor of the Sunday World Magazine for two years. Previously he worked as Assistant Editor of the Irish Daily Star, and as the News Editor of the Irish Daily Mirror. He began his journalism career as a news reporter with the Westmeath and Offaly Independent in 1995. He studied journalism at the College of Commerce in Rathmines, Dublin and has a BA in Journalism from DIT Aungier Street. A native of Dublin he is married with three children.

Ian Mallon

Ian Mallon is Group Head of News for the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, The Herald and Independent.ie. Prior to his appointment in 2013, he was the Operations Editor at the Irish Independent and Independent.ie.  Ian’s previous positions include Deputy Editor at the Evening Herald and Assistant News Editor at The Irish Daily Star Newspaper, where he started in journalism as a news reporter. He is also Motoring Editor with the Evening Herald. Ian is a married father of three children and lives in Calverstown, Co Kildare. He studied journalism at Senior College Ballyfermot.

Heidee Martin

Heidee Martin is night editor with the Irish Daily Mail and The Irish Mail on Sunday. Prior to joining Associated Newspapers in 2012, Heidee was assistant editor at the Irish Daily Star, where she worked for ten years. Throughout her career, she has contributed to radio and has a particular interest in the arts. Heidee studied at Ballyfermot Senior College and UCD. She lives in Dublin.

Michael McNiffe

Michael McNiffe has been Editor of the Irish Sun and the Sun in Northern Ireland since 2005. Previously, he was Deputy Editor of the Irish Daily Mirror and Assistant Editor of the Sunday World and senior reporter with the Sunday World. He reported for the Daily Star in London and worked for the then newly-formed Star in Dublin. Before that he was a reporter with the Limerick Post and the Sligo Champion. Michael was educated at Summerhill College, Sligo, and the College of Commerce, Rathmines, Dublin. A native of Dromahair, Co Leitrim, he is married with two children.

Michael O’Kane

Michael O’Kane is Political Editor at the Irish Examiner. Prior to joining the Examiner he worked as Editorial Advisor to Paul Cooke, Managing Director at The Sunday Business Post. Michael is former Editor of the Irish Daily Star where he worked for ten years. He was also an RTE television news correspondent for ten years and from 1995-2001 he was based in Belfast where he reported on historic events leading up to and following the Good Friday Agreement. Michael has reported from many parts of the world  and was among the first group of journalists to enter Afghanistan via Pakistan following the fall of the Taliban in November 2001. He studied Economics and Politics at UCD and entered journalism as a reporter in the Irish Press. He is married with two children and lives in Dublin.

Brenda Power

Brenda Power is a columnist with the Irish Daily Mail and the Sunday Times. She began her career with the Press group before moving to the Sunday Tribune. She has also worked in RTÉ as presenter of the documentary series Would You Believe, and also presented CrimeCall for two years. She has worked as a radio presenter in RTÉ Radio 1 and Newstalk, where she was nominated for two PPI broadcasting awards. She has won a number of journalism awards including an AT Cross award, an ESB award and, last year, a Magazine Journalist of the Year award for a series of interviews in Image. Brenda is also qualified as a barrister and has five children.

Danny Smyth

Danny Smyth has been Senior Deputy Editor of The Star since 1996. He joined The Star in 1991 as a reporter and has worked as a Sub Editor, Deputy Chief Sub, and Features Editor. Born in Co. Down, he has a First Class BA in Politics and Economic History from Queen’s University, Belfast and an MA in Journalism from Dublin City University.

Patrick Smyth

Patrick Smyth is  an Irish Times duty editor, primarily responsible for leader writing and foreign policy, and is currently editing its Century project. He is a former Foreign Editor and Opinion Editor, and has served as the paper’s Washington and European Correspondent.

Ger Walsh

Ger Walsh is Chief Executive of Independent Newspapers Regionals, publishers of thirteen titles in eight counties, a position he has held since 2005. He is also the Chairman of N.N. I. Local and Regional Newspapers. Prior to taking up his current position he was Managing Director of People Newspapers in Wexford.

For a decade from 1989 he was Group Editor of the five titles in the People Group having previously worked as a Co. Wexford based journalist.

He is a former President of the Regional Newspapers Association of Ireland and the Irish Master Printers Association. He also served as a member of the Steering Committee which laid the ground work for the establishment of the Press Council of Ireland.

Ger is a member of the Board of Directors at KCLR radio which broadcasts to Kilkenny and Carlow and was also a founding director of Beat, the regional youth radio station in the South East.

Michael Wolsey

Michael Wolsey has more than 40 years experience in the newspaper industry. He is editorial director of the Belfast-based agency, CNS. He was previously deputy editor of the Irish Independent, assistant editor of the Evening Herald, features editor of the Irish Press and managing director of the Drogheda Independent group.

Fiona Wynne

Fiona Wynne is the Assistant Editor of the Irish Sun, with responsibility for the paper’s Sunday edition. She is also Features Editor and looks after the weekly TV magazine, as well as the Travel, Fashion and Woman sections. She joined the Irish Sun in 2006. Fiona began her career at the Irish Daily Mirror in 2001. Here she worked as a news reporter, covering general news, politics, crime and entertainment. She became Features Editor of the Irish Daily Mirror in 2004. She is a regular contributor to news, entertainment and lifestyle shows on radio and television. A native of Cavan, she graduated with a BA in Journalism from Dublin City University in 2002.