Meet the Business for Biodiversity Team

Meet the people behind the platform

Dr. Maria Fitzpatrick

Executive Director

Maria has a PhD in Freshwater Ecology, looking at Irish headwater streams, and worked as an Environmental Consultant before moving to London to work at Queen Mary University of London and then to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to build and head up the Research Funding Services for Kew Science.

She is Circular Economy trained with a CSRD professional qualification and blends scientific expertise, project, relationship management skills, and a keen understanding of the environmental challenges our world is facing to build compelling cases for change. Maria joined the BFBI Team in 2025 as our Business Development Manager and has since been appointed BFBI Executive Director. Maria also sits on the steering committee for Natural Capital Ireland.

Contact Maria at mfitzpatrick@businessforbiodiversity.ie

Caroline Cawley

Business Programme Lead

Caroline is a senior sustainability and circularity leader with over 15 years’ experience helping organisations embed sustainability, climate action, circularity, and nature considerations into core business strategy and decision-making.

She has worked across consumer electronics, telecommunications, and environmental services sectors, building and leading sustainability functions, developing materiality-led ESG strategies, targets and reporting frameworks, and delivering Net Zero roadmaps and decarbonisation programmes aligned with the Science-based Targets Initiative. Caroline is recognised for her ability to connect sustainability priorities with commercial outcomes, risk management and long-term value creation. She is also recognised as an expert in fostering circular cultures and ways of working in organisations.

Most recently, Caroline served as Head of Corporate Sustainability at Bang & Olufsen, where she established the company’s sustainability function and integrated circularity, product longevity and climate targets into corporate strategy, financing, governance and product development. She has also held a senior sustainability role with TDC Group in Denmark and with Liberty Global in the Netherlands, delivering commercially impactful initiatives in circular and sustainable product design, eco-packaging, supply chains and energy management.

Caroline holds an MBA from Rotterdam School of Management and an MSc in Environmental Science from Trinity College Dublin. She brings a strong business-led perspective to advancing a circular, low-carbon and nature-positive economy.

Contact Caroline at CCawley@businessforbiodiversity.ie

Dr. Catherine Farrell

Business Programme Advisor

Catherine Farrell CIEEM is one of Ireland’s leading voice’s for nature in business having developed Ireland’s first Biodiversity Action Plan for a corporate body (Bord na Móna) in Ireland in 2010; and supported the company’s sustainability journey and transition away from fossil fuel extraction towards peatland restoration and renewable energy. She has worked with Business in the Community Ireland to engage with businesses on biodiversity and has supported the Business for Biodiversity Ireland Platform since its origin.

Catherine is Assistant Professor of Business & Nature, Trinity College Dublin, where she developed a module for Trinity Business School, The Business of Nature Positive, that incorporates learnings about nature, society, economy and explores ways for undergraduate students to work with businesses in Ireland to support the global Nature Positive Initiative while preparing them to report for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. She also teaches on the topic of Natural Capital Approaches and Nature Literacy for Business and Society in Trinity Business School.

A founding member of Natural Capital Ireland, Catherine worked on the EPA funded research project INCASE, applying the UN SEEA Ecosystem Accounting framework at catchment scale in Ireland (2019-2022). Her current research as part of BiOrbic National Bioeconomy Research Centre, focuses on developing mechanisms to structure, finance, monitor and communicate the direct impacts and broader societal benefits of nature restoration (ReFarm Ireland).

Catherine provides advisory support to the Community Wetlands Forum and was lead organiser of the Peatlands Gathering 2021.

Smiling woman in black top in fornt of green hedge

Iseult Sheehy

Operations

Iseult is a Political Ecologist, working at the nexus of environment, economics, politics and sociology. She has BA in Economics and Political Science, an MSc in Development and was a Fulbright Scholar with the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute in the University of New Mexico, studying aspects of Puebloan and Navajo praxis for sustainability.

Iseult is the former Executive Coordinator of Natural Capital Ireland where she brought her expertise in Natural Capital to many national projects including Ireland’s 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan and the National Economic and Social Council’s Valuing and Accounting for Nature in Ireland briefing paper. Iseult is an Adjunct Teaching Fellow at Trinity College Business school where she developed the module Organisation Change for Sustainable Futures. She has a keen interest in fostering ecological knowledge and values across disciplines.

Dr. Emer Ní Dhúill

Technical & Research Lead

With qualifications in horticulture, ecology and botany, Emer received a PhD in conservation biology in 2014 and has had a long career as an ecologist surveying both rare and invasive plant species in Ireland. She is a national expert on the iconic Killarney Fern, a protected species in Ireland and Europe and has developed monitoring guidelines for this species to enable the continued assessment of its conservation status.

Emer’s work as an ecologist has brought her to some of the most remote and beautiful places in Ireland. However, during many field surveys, she has witnessed the negative impact of invasive species and certain land use practices on Ireland’s biodiversity. This pushed her to think more deeply about the biodiversity crisis, focusing on understanding what our impacts and dependencies on biodiversity are. In 2021, Emer joined Natural Capital Ireland as part of the Research Team and has worked on an array of projects and workshops relating to natural capital, biodiversity, and nature-based solutions. Emer also worked with The Heritage Council and Science Foundation Ireland delivering educational workshops on ecology.

Emer has appeared on two TG4 television programs to share her expertise on plant species that she has surveyed. This gave her the opportunity to communicate with a wider audience and also to improve her Irish! Emer has a grá for the Irish language, in particular how Ireland’s nature is intertwined with so many of our place names.

Fiona Smith

Communications

Having started out as an arts and culture writer, Fiona has focused on environmental communications since 2019, when she joined Natural Capital Ireland as Communications Executive. She has since led outreach on several major biodiversity-related projects including the Data 4 Nature report, the National Biodiversity Conference 2022, ForES (sustainable forestry tool), the EPA’s INCASE (Irish Natural Capital Accounting for Sustainable Environments). She also co-authored a IEN/NCI workshop report on Funding Nature Restoration in Ireland in 2024.

With a degree in History and Greek & Roman Civilisations from University College Dublin, and having also worked in the heritage sector, Fiona enjoys how nature is interwoven with our history and mythology. She grew up in a new estate next to a cromlech stone in a field full of dandelions and hares, not far from Puck’s Castle, the Witch’s Hat and Killiney Strand. With an ongoing interest in creative writing, Fiona is interested in the role of storytelling and the media in influencing behaviour, and hopeful that biodiversity will be embraced in the mainstream before it’s too late for us to successfully act collectively.