HSENI board

Information on the current membership of HSENI's board is provided on this page.

Chairman

Derek Martin

Derek Martin was Managing Director of H&J Martin Ltd. from 2001 until 2015, when the Company completed a merger with Lagan Construction Group. During this time, the Company grew from a turnover of £30 million to over £100 million through the development of Joint Venture Partnerships and the diversification of business into Facilities Management and specialist Fitting Out. Coinciding with this growth, Derek oversaw the development of and implementation of ISO accredited management systems for Health and Safety, Quality Assurance and Environmental management throughout the Company.

He is a Past President of the Construction Employers Federation, a graduate in Civil Engineering from Queen’s University, a Chartered Member of the Institution of Structural Engineers and a Fellow of the Institute of Building.

He holds two other Public Appointments - he is a Board member of CITB NI and is one of two Independent Members of the NI Assembly Secretariat Audit and Risk Committee.

Derek took up the role of HSENI Chairman on 1 April 2017.

Board members

Harry Sinclair

Harry is a livestock farmer from Co. Londonderry. He was active in Young Farmers for many years and then became involved in the Ulster Farmers Union, where he was chairman of both the livestock and hill farming committees and then went on to become president from 2012 – 2014. He also served as a vice president of COPA, a collective of 57 farming unions across all the member states of the European Union. During his time as president, farm safety was one of his priorities, and he was one of the initial drivers in the establishment of the Farm Safety Partnership, of which he is the current chairman.

He is also a board member of the Livestock and Meat Commission and sits on the Audit and Risk committee of both the HSENI and LMC.

Tom Wright

Tom Wright retired as Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer from the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service in 2011 after 33 years service. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers and also a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.

He graduated from the University of Ulster in 2000 with a Masters Degree in Business Administration and in 2010 successfully completed the Executive Critical Leadership Development Programme at Queens University. Tom also sits on the Board of Governors of Oakwood Integrated Primary School.

Tom is Chair of HSENI Audit & Risk Committee and also sits on the Board of Governors of Oakwood Integrated Primary School.

Andrew Cooke

Andrew is the Safety, Health and Environment Director of GRAHAM, a privately owned company with a 200-year history specialising in Building, Civil Engineering, Interior Fit-Out, Facilities Management and Investments across the UK and Ireland.

He has worked with GRAHAM since 1991, and has held a various engineering, project management and central management roles in the company before taking up his current position in 2007. Andrew is also the Group Compliance Office under the Modern Slavery Act and leads the Safety Culture and Climate Programme. He is a Mental Health First Aider and Behavioural Safety coach.

Andrew holds degrees in both Law and Civil Engineering, as well as diploma and certificate level qualifications in law, risk management, and occupational health & safety. He is a member of both the International Institute of Risk & Safety Management, and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and has been a guest speaker at numerous seminars for HSENI on both construction safety and behavioural safety.

Andrew also sits on the Civil Engineering Industrial Liaison Panel at Ulster University, is a founder member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (NI Region) H&S Group, and sits on JSAP (the Joint Standards Advisory Panel which advises on the standards for certification to Safe-T-Cert).

He was previously appointed as an Independent Member to the HSE (GB) Fee For Intervention Dispute Panel.

Catherine Irwin MBE

A Chartered Electrical Engineer, Catherine has over 32 years industry experience with the DuPont Company (until July 2020). Beginning at the Maydown site, Northern Ireland, she held a number of positions before transitioning into senior strategic leadership roles with global responsibility in 2000. She currently runs a management consultancy business, predominantly working in the petrochemical, mining and manufacturing industries across Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Catherine is Chair of the Trustee Board for Girlguiding UK since 2018, where she also chairs the Nomination & Governance Committee, and the Remuneration Committee. She was appointed to the Board of HSENI in 2021.

Gerry Strong

A former High School Principal, Gerry spent most of his professional career teaching in grammar schools, comprehensive schools and in technical colleges in England. For 3 years he worked for Manchester University as a Mentor for graduates studying for their Post Graduate Certification in Education. Gerry also held the posts of Chief Examiner and Chief Moderator for the Northern Examination and Assessment Board (NEAB) for a period of 8 years.

In 1998 he returned home to Northern Ireland to take up the post of Principal of a High School in Omagh. He took early retirement after 35 years in education in 2008.

In his retirement years he held the following posts:

worked for 8 years as a Non-Executive Board Director in the Business Services Organisation (BSO) serving on several internal committees;
worked for 3 years for a Cancer Charity, in a voluntary capacity, as the Governance Chair and their Development Chair;
worked for 4 years for the Commissioner for Public Appointments NI (CPANI) as an Independent Assessor on Government Departmental board appointments;
worked for 2 years for the Department of Justice Policing Board as their Independent Complaints Monitor in the appointment of Independent Members to Policing and Community Safety Partnerships and Community Safety Partnerships.

At present Gerry holds two posts:

he is a Board Panel Member for the Department of Education’s Exceptional Circumstances Body (ECB);
he was appointed by the PSNI as their Lay Panel Board Member for their Police Misconduct/Disciplinary Panel.

Pat Hart

Pat was a Consultant Ophthalmologist in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (RVH) for most of her medical career. She spent 7 years in Singapore, as Visiting Consultant at both Singapore National University Hospital and Singapore National Eye Centre. During that time she also served on the SERI Project Advisory Board to create and develop the renowned Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI).

On return to NI in 1992 she was instrumental in establishing the NI Diabetic Eye Screening Programme, working extensively with a wide range of stakeholders. She served as Director of Quality Assurance of that programme until 2014.

Pat also served on The Advisory Board of the English Screening Programme until 2014. She does not hold any other public appointments.

Simon McDowell

Simon McDowell has spent most of his career in a variety of roles at Kilwaughter Minerals Limited, he was the Managing Director from 2001 to 2019 and continues to sit on the board. Simon holds the position of Chair of the Executive Committee for the Mineral Products Association Northern Ireland. He completed an Institute of Directors Diploma in Company Direction in 2014.

Siobhán Rooney

Siobhán Rooney trained as a General Nurse, Midwife and Health Visitor and has worked in Acute, Community and Primary Care health and social care settings. Throughout her career she has held senior positions at Health and Social Care Trusts and Department of Health in Northern Ireland.

Siobhán has a MSc in Health Service management and is also an Associate Consultant with NI HSC Leadership Centre. She has also worked with the former Commission for Healthcare Improvement (CHI) and participated in health care reviews in England and Wales.

She is currently an elected Trustee on the Motor Neurone Disease Association National Board, Chair of the MNDA Care Committee, MNDA NI Branch member, MNDA Association Visitor and member of the Northern Ireland Neurological Charities Alliance.

Siobhan has held several Board Chair and Non-Executive Director positions in the Statutory and Voluntary Sector and brings to her position an extensive knowledge of corporate and clinical and social care governance, risk management, patient safety, performance management and accountability systems within both health and social care and voluntary sector organisations.

Board membership information

For more information on the current membership of HSENI'S board, please see the following link:

HSENI board membership information

HSENI Board meeting minutes

To view the minutes of the HSENI Board meetings for the past 12 months please click on the links below:

If you would like to view earlier Board meeting minutes please request this by emailing policy@hseni.gov.uk