Ireland Management Profiles

Email: brosnank@gmail.com

Karen works nationally and internationally as a strategy consultant, facilitator, Board consultant and executive coach. She works with companies, boards and executives to plan strategically for organisational change, to build governance capacity and compliance and to implement leadership development programmes. Karen advises on strategy, governance, culture change, ethos, diversity and inclusion, communications, relationships, personal effectiveness and people management. She has worked with farmers, processors, service providers, education charities, state and semi-state organisations in the agri-food sector since 2000.

She is the Chairperson of both Nuffield Ireland & Gurteen Agricultural College. She sits on the national Agri-food diversity and inclusion taskforce, organising Masterclasses on talent management, agile and inclusive working places. She is a founding member of Ceres - women in agri-business leadership network. A 2013 Nuffield scholar, her report was on ‘Pathways of leadership development for Irish Agriculture’. Her MBA thesis (2009) was titled ‘Leadership challenges for Irish businesses post Celtic Tiger’, and her chosen specialist MBA subjects were Corporate Governance, and Corporate responsibility. Karen is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, a member of the Irish Management Consultant’s Association, and the Royal Dublin Society.

Email: josephleonard32@gmail.com

Joe Leonard is married to Mairead, they have 4 children and farm at Stamullen, Co. Meath, Ireland. He was awarded the 2014 Nuffield Ireland Scholarship, sponsored by the Peter Daly Trust, Dairymaster and LIC.

Joe is a dairy farmer currently milking 650 cows in a milk production partnership. He is also involved, with his brother, in Bellewstown Golf Course, a business they set up together in 2004.

It was partly as a result of setting up and developing these businesses that he came to his Nuffield topic ‘To Investigate and develop Stress Management Systems in Farming in Ireland’ with specific emphasis on the education of young farmers and agri-industry personnel. As an industry, Joe feels that agriculture needs to recognise that the farmer is the single most important factor in the success of the business.

Joe currently sits on the Board of Directors of Nuffield Ireland and is the current Irish representative on the Board of Nuffield International.

Email: exec@nuffield.ie

Catherine Lascurettes was born, raised and educated in the Hautes Pyrénées, South West France, and did an international trade and business master’s degree through German and English in the Université Toulouse Le Mirail (Toulouse II).

After moving to Ireland, Catherine did a Marketing Graduadeship in the Marketing Institute of Ireland.

She worked for Hibernia Meats, Airmotive Ireland and finally the Confederation of Irish Industry (which became IBEC), before joining the Irish Farmers’ Association.

After 26 years as the IFA’s Dairy Executive, she left in September 2020 to set up her own agri-policy consultancy practice, Cúl Dara Consultancy, based in Kildare Town.

Catherine’s Nuffield Scholarship travels and research were carried out in 2000/2001.

Catherine’s Nuffield topic was “Farmers’ Unions – The Challenges of Representation” and she travelled to Australia, New Zealand, the US, France and the UK to meet with farmers’ unions in all of these countries.

She explored how the increasing rural to urban shift affects their ability to influence political agendas and how reduced numbers of members and consequent reduced unions’ incomes can be overcome to ensure members’ interests can fully and efficiently continue to be represented.