Bryson Charitable Group Board Members

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  David Torrens (Chair)

  David Torrens worked in the IT industry for over 34 years with leading company IBM. David held a number of positions mainly in the area of sales, product development and business operations. He has held European and Worldwide responsibilities, bringing him to live and work in London, Dublin and New York. 

  David was one of the founder members of the Business in the Community Board in Northern Ireland and chaired the original leadership team looking at the rehabilitation of ex-offenders. Since its inception in 1991, David was a member of the judging panel for the Northern Ireland Quality Awards for a number of years. 

  David has been involved in Investment Belfast as a board member as well as being a member of the Remuneration Committee and Chairman of their Knowledge Based Industries Impact Committee. 

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  Stephen Curragh (Hon Treasurer)

  Stephen is a  qualified Chartered Accountant and currently works as a consultant. Stephen carved a successful career at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he worked for 33 years with a range of organisations, giving him insight and knowledge across the private sector in Northern Ireland. 

  Stephen shares his expertise and knowledge in his position on a number of Boards and Committees. In addition to being a member of the Bryson Charitable Group board, he also serves as Chair on the Remuneration Committee, the Investment Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee. 

  Stephen is Chair of Quality Assurance Committee of the Regulatory Board of Qualified Accountants.

  He is also a Board member at East Belfast Mission, Treasurer of Knock Presbyterian Church and Knock Child Contact Centre. 

• Paul Elliott (Vice Chair)

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  Elias Joudeh

  Elias grew up in his native Palestine until moving to Britain in pursuit of a University education. Elias moved to Northern Ireland in 1991 where he studied and worked in business and finance before subsequently gaining qualifications in computing. Since 1999 Elias has been a lecturer in ICT and now teaches at the Belfast Metropolitan College.

  Elias has a wealth of experience in the voluntary sector having served on a number of committees and has been a member of the Northern Ireland sub-group of the Advisory Board on Naturalisation and Integration. 

  Elias is interested in Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) issues and understands the difficulties encountered when attempting to settle and integrate in their new environment. He believes that education, empowerment and the promotion of human rights as well as the recognition and acceptance by the majority communities would not only benefit BME groups and individuals but would greatly benefit the whole of our society.
   

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  Willie Francey

  Willie retired in 2010 after 38 years career working in Northern Ireland local government. Willie worked as Belfast City Council’s Director of Health and Environmental Services where he was responsible for the delivery of a range of direct services as well as environmental health and building control. Willie was also responsible for the Council’s waste management functions and led the development and implementation of the Council’s strategic approach to waste management, both internally and as part of a major waste management partnership of 11 district councils with collective responsibility for more than half of Northern Ireland’s municipal waste (arc21). He was a member of the Waste Management Advisory Board from its establishment in April 2001 until its dissolution in June 2005.

  He also sat as a Belfast City Council observer on the Board of Belfast City Centre Management (BCCM) and chaired its Urban Management Action Group.

  Will has been appointed as a member of the Local Government Staff Commission. He is also a Specialist member of the Health and Safety Appeals Tribunal.

  Willie was appointed MBE for services to local government in the 2010 Birthday Honours List.

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  Mike Mullan

  Mike re-joined Moy Park in 2011, returning to the company having spent close to ten years in the business in the 1990s. He is responsible for leading the Human Resources, Risk Management, Sustainability, Corporate Responsibility and Communication functions to develop and harness the talent and contribution of the Moy Park team. 

  Mike has extensive experience in food processing and prior to his return was HR Director with Dale Farm, a leading UK dairy foods business. 

  Mike is a board member of The UK National Skills Academy for Food & Drink, member of the NI CBI Council and Chair of the NI CBI Employment & Skills Committee; he is also a member of the Food and Drink Sector Skills Council in NI, a member of the Skills Action Group for the food sector in NI and a board member of Bryson Charitable Group. 

  In 2015 Mike was recognised by the IOD with a UK Director of the Year Award for Leadership in Corporate Responsibility.

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  Linda Brown

  Linda graduated in Economics, Accounts and Commercial Law at Queen's University Belfast. Linda’s early career saw her work as a teacher, in the travel business and as a lecturer at the College of Business Studies. Linda was appointed as the first female Assistant Director of the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland, which led to a three year contract as producer of business, general and documentary programmes with BBC Radio Ulster.

  Linda joined Business in the Community and soon became Director, a role which saw her assisting companies to develop a strategic approach to their community involvement through community involvement audits. 

  Since 1995, Linda has held the post of Divisional Director of the Institute of Directors (IOD) Northern Ireland Division reporting to reports to the IoD headquarters at Pall Mall in London. In this role, Linda works with business people, government and representatives from across public, private and voluntary sectors. 

  Linda is also a director of Elleray Brown Limited, a small publishing company.

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  Joan Houston

  Ms Joan Houston lives in Bangor, Co Down and as a Chartered Accountant has previously held senior positions at Peat Marwick Mitchell (KPMG), Deloitte Haskins Sells and Ernst and Young LLP (now EY).  She was the founding partner for the NI practice of Begbies Traynor PLC, before becoming Chief Executive of her own firm Houston Hunter in 2015.

  Her career in these large firms has been predominately in the field of corporate finance and corporate restructuring having worked on many PLC transactions and carried out a broad range of consultancy assignments, economic and financial appraisals for a number of government bodies.  Joan was the first woman in Ireland to hold an insolvency license and was appointed to the Insolvency Licensing Committee Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (CAI) at inception and as its Chairman since 2007.  This expertise has been used in many industries including a number of complex international restructuring assignments with challenging trading situations, where businesses with hundreds have jobs have been saved and new owners have prospered. Joan has served on CAI technical and policy committees and is currently the Chartered Accountant Ireland’s representative for the UK Joint Insolvency Council.  In September 2016 Joan was appointed to CAI Regulatory Policy Board and she is a member of NI Insolvency Rules Committee.  

  
  Ms Houston was NI Representative 2012-2018 (having previously been NI Chairman) of the UK Association of Business Recovery Professionals Council -R3 and is now a Council member.  Ms. Houston is a board member of the Agri Food and Bioscience institute and chair bof the audit and risk committee,  Chairman of Bryson Energy, a Bryson Group Board member and has served as a General Commissioner for Tax (Belfast) and as Governor, Chairman and Finance Director at Hunterhouse College. 

• Leigh Yeaman