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Smurfit Executive Development is delighted to announce the award of the 2025 30% Club scholarship to Olive Loughnane.

Olive is Senior Executive Manager & Director of Transformation at Sea Fisheries Protection Authority, the State agency that oversees sustainable fishing and seafood safety. In this senior management role Olive is responsible for organisational transformation and leads across a range of portfolios including enforcement, trade compliance and quality. She joined the SFPA to implement the recommendations of a complex external review and her work formed part of the 2020 Program for Government. Earlier in her career, Olive spent many years at the Central Statistics Office, where she developed a deep respect for data and evidence in shaping better policy. She led the redesign of key national outputs and created the COVID-19 Transport Bulletin in response to urgent policymaker needs. 

Olive’s governance experience has also been shaped by over seven years on the Board of Sport Ireland. As a four-time Olympian, she was initially appointed to provide a perspective on high-performance sport, but over time, she became deeply engaged in all aspects of the Board’s strategic and governance responsibilities. During her tenure, the Board undertook several significant initiatives - one of which was implementing the Government’s policy to achieve a minimum of 40% female representation on the boards of sporting bodies. 

Building on this governance experience, Olive has also taken on the role of Chair of the High Performance Committee (HPC), which is responsible for implementing Ireland’s High Performance Sport Strategy and for overseeing the governance of public investment in high-performance sport - set to reach €27 million in 2025. Having once been a recipient of high-performance funding herself, she now plays a key leadership role in shaping the future of Irish sport. She has led the HPC during a period of unprecedented Olympic success, helping to guide Ireland through one of its most transformative and successful eras on the international stage.

Olive has completed the Diploma in Leadership Development with Smurfit Executive Development and looks forward to completing the Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance as the second Diploma on her MSc in Business (Leadership & Management Practice) pathway. Her objective in undertaking this programme is to ensure she has the expertise to help shape and strengthen governance infrastructure in a way that effectively supports the delivery of organisational strategy. As a scholarship recipient, Olive is also committed to promoting the core values and aspirations of the 30% Club and the UCD Centre for Corporate Governance.

Alongside the growing emphasis on education and training of company directors and governors, is an increased emphasis on diversity in boardrooms. Following the banking crisis, the Stock Exchange’s Corporate Governance Code added forceful material on the need for diverse boards, including gender and race. That Code advocates diversity as a means of avoiding “groupthink”, encouraging different approaches and experiences around boardroom tables. Under the State Code, due regard for diversity is required in making state board appointments, with chairs and government departments required to consider the benefits of diversity on boards, including gender diversity.

To advance the objectives of the code, UCD Smurfit Executive Development, in association with the 30% Club, offers one scholarship per annum to a female student on the fully accredited postgraduate Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance. The 30% Club was launched in January 2015 and has the objective of improving gender balance at all levels in Irish business, with a focus on gender balance on boards of directors and in senior executive leadership positions.

To date nine scholars have completed the programme including Stephanie Manahan, CEO of the not-for-profit charity, the Central Remedial Clinic; Katherine Licken, Secretary General of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; Niamh Duddy, Company Secretary of the Irish branch of Investec Bank plc; Georgina Gray, Inspector in An Garda Síochána; Sinead Ryan, Director of Governance, National University of Ireland; Cora Sutton, Director of Cronin and Sutton Consulting Engineers; Marie Gleeson former Lieutenant Commander in the Irish Navy and now a Leadership Consultant and Motivational Speaker; Caradh O’Donovan, Premium Search Manager at Boardmatch Ireland and Alison Duffy, Head of Corporate Services at Chester Beatty.

We are proud of our 30% Club scholarship recipients, and of their range of backgrounds from not-for-profit, to Government department to private sector financial services and non-executive director positions.  Each class comprises participants with a diverse range of expertise. Executive development involves learning from the lecturers on the programme, and even more valuable, peer-to-peer learning, from the depth and range of expertise in each class of senior, experienced executives.

For more information on the September 2025 intake of our UCD Diploma in Corporate Governance programme click here or contact annabelle.phelan@ucd.ie.