Introducing our new BFBI Board Members

Business For Biodiversity Ireland is delighted to welcome four new board members as we expand our sustainability leadership and compliance expertise in our quest to support every Irish business in moving to #NaturePositive.

Joining our Board of Directors as of Q1 2026 are Garrett Quinn of sustainable packaging company Smurfit Westrock; Professor of  Zoology at Trinity College Dublin Nessa O’Connor; sustainability consultant Aideen O’Hora of SustainabilityWorks and Dr Rosie O’Neill, Director of Sustainability at ifac. They join our existing Board made up of BFBI Chair Susan Rossney of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Board Secretary Lisa Davidson, Ed Pollard of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum and Ken Whitelaw of IDA Ireland.

As we welcome our new directors, we would also like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our departing directors Prof Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin and Dr Kirstie McAdoo of University College Dublin for their years of work with us.

More on our new recruits here below:

Garrett Quinn

Garrett was appointed Group Chief Sustainability Officer at Smurfit Westrock in July 2021 and took on Branding and Communications in 2026. He joined the Group in 2000 and has held a number of roles in operations across the Group in Argentina, France and Ireland before moving to the UK where he managed a number of corrugated box plants. In 2016, he took up the position of Head of Investor Relations, a position held to 2021. Garrett holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University College Dublin and has completed his postgraduate studies with the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership. He was appointed as Director to the Smurfit Westrock Foundation in 2022.

Prof Nessa O’Connor

Nessa is a Professor in Zoology at Trinity College Dublin and a leading scientist in the field of regenerative ocean farming. Her research examines how coastal ecosystems function, their associated ecosystem services, and how they are responding to stressors, such as climate change, species loss and pollution. Her research team have identified many of the effects of global change on marine ecosystems. She has led several national and European interdisciplinary research projects providing scientific evidence for the suitable development of coastal resources (e.g. mussels, oysters and seaweed) linked to business development of emerging markets and nature-based solutions.

Aideen O’Hora

Aideen is a Co-Founder of SustainabilityWorks, a leading, independent sustainability consulting firm, that brings deep expertise in sustainability strategy, ESG reporting, finance, innovation and communications. An environmental scientist by training, Aideen has experience across the public & private sectors, including with Novartis, Abbott Laboratories, The Sustainability Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), The Green Way (Dublin’s cleantech cluster) and various local authorities, giving her a uniquely applied perspective that balances priorities on sustainability performance, commercial value and regulatory compliance. Aideen has a Masters in Integrated Environmental Management from the University of Bath and a BSc (hons) in Environmental Science from Atlantic Technical University.

Dr Rosie O’Neill

Rosie is Director of Sustainability at ifac, and holds a PhD from University College Dublin/Teagasc on the impact of management factors on soil microbial communities and nitrous oxide emissions, with a BA in Environmental Science from Trinity College Dublin. She was previously Sustainability Manager at An Post, supporting the company’s sustainability journey through ISO 14001 recertification across a 160-property portfolio, annual sustainability reporting to CDP, EcoVadis and the International Post Corporation, and conducted cost-benefit analyses of low-carbon infrastructure investments. Rosie leads on sustainability advisory practice at ifac, authoring the organisation’s first voluntary CSRD-aligned sustainability report in 2024, ahead of regulatory requirements and aligned with EU Taxonomy, Double Materiality and ESRS standards. She advises clients across the agri-food, SME and public sectors on carbon accounting, ESG strategy, climate risk and environmental compliance.

Read more about our Board of Directors on our BFBI Team page HERE.