Our Directors

Oren is the President for the Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber. Oren’s day job is Director and Studio Manager with TOTEM, a strategic branding agency based in Dungarvan and Cork.

TOTEM work with national clients such as Cork Airport, Focus Ireland, Trocaire, Failte Ireland, EirGen Pharma, Shorla Pharma, Waterford Greenway, Limerick Greenways, Cork Chamber, Eurofins, Waterford city and County Council and Cliff Hotel Group. Oren has a wide-ranging understanding of all media platforms and has worked in Arts PR for national and international touring productions, and as marketing consultant to festivals and production companies.

Aware of how fortunate she is to be living and working in such a great place; Oren is heavily involved with the Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber applying her skills by way of contribution to her community.

Shane Connors is managing partner of Connors Meskill Chartered Accountants, servicing the South-East region with offices in Waterford and Kilkenny.

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a first class honours MBA degree.  Shane has over 20 years’ experience of working in and advising Irish SME’s and has also lived in Eastern Europe where he worked for an international commodity trading company.   Shane has held senior management roles and managed assets in excess of €250m.

Shane has extensive experience across many sectors including retail pharmaceuticals, wholesale distribution, technology, construction, plant hire, professional services and internationally traded goods. His unique experience gained in corporate finance and especially in mergers and acquisitions makes him an expert in this area, and one of the most sought-after professionals in this field based in the South-East.

Connors Meskill. is a full-service accountancy practice. Within the practice, Shane specialises in the following areas:

• Acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and succession planning in the SME sector
• Cash flow forecasting and cost reduction programmes
• Bank and other financing options, reviews and re-negotiations
• Liquidations, examinerships, corporate recovery and turnaround strategies

Shannon Eastman is an accomplished entrepreneur and business strategist with over 25 years of experience in business growth, leadership, and human behaviour. 

She has worked extensively with tech startups, professional services firms, and enterprise organisations on 3 continents, specialising in people, product, and business development. Notably, Shannon increased revenue by 360% for a professional services firm within the first year and led the transformation of a legal practice into a portfolio of digital products. She also built and ran the crypto crime victim support division within a Web3 digital asset recovery unit, a pioneering role in the field. 

Shannon actively supports executives across the Funds Industry, helping them enhance their regulatory readiness through mock interviews to improve their relationships with the Central Bank of Ireland. 

Her work is driven by a deep commitment to understanding the intersection of business growth and human behaviour, with a special focus on stress and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) among professionals. She explores how stress-related trauma affects neurobiology and, ultimately, performance.

As the author of 18 books on mental health, including C-PTSD at Work: Highly Functioning, Secretly in Despair, and the host of the Trauma-Informed Growth podcast, Shannon brings a unique perspective to psycho-somatic trauma through a business lens. She is currently developing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) project that bridges the gap between the mental health world and the business community.

Shannon is completing her MSc in Mind-Body Psychology at the University of East London, which will qualify her as a psychotherapist. She also holds certification in Polyvagal Theory for Organizations under the guidance of Dr. Stephen Porges. 

Shannon consults, coaches, and trains organisations on how to align business growth with human behaviour, resulting in sustainable and profitable outcomes. She resides in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, Ireland, with her partner and their Bernedoodle, Maggie.

Patrick is an award-winning radio producer, podcast host, and communications strategist, with over 20-years experience working in traditional and digital media. He has produced shows including The Last Word with Matt Cooper (Today FM), The Big Bite with David McWilliams (RTE TV), and Beat Talk with Niall Power (Beat 102 103) .

In 2017 Patrick founded AudioBrand, a podcasting agency that creates turnkey podcast series for brands including EY, Ibec, Irish Life, SuperValu / The Happy Pear, Mario Rosenstock, GIY, TELUS International, and Dublin City University.

Patrick is the founder and director of The Today FM School of Radio and Podcasting; he also creates and delivers bespoke podcast training programmes for organisations including The Public Relations Institute of Ireland and Learning Waves Skillnet.

A Waterford native, Patrick moved home in 2020 and now runs AudioBrand from Dungarvan.

Monica Murphy is an award-winning academic and experienced business owner. She established her first business, MONERE Development Services in 2011 and most recently she set up a second business, ComfortClothing which aims to make it easier for people to dress themselves and others.

Monica is passionate about what makes micro and small businesses, particularly rural and regional ones, successful. She completed her PhD thesis on the subject of learning and growth of the micro and small businesses in 2016 and has had 3 papers published in international business journals. Monica published her first book:’The Manager’s Handbook for a New World of Work’ in 2021. S

he is an active community person and is director of a local community company in Knockanore which seeks government funding for local projects. She is also on the board of the local National School.

Monica is eager to work with businesses of all sizes in West Waterford as a director of the Dungarvan and West Waterford Chamber. She lives in Knockanore, West Waterford, with her husband Sean, twin girls, Hannah & Matilda two dogs and a cat. She loves to read, swim, walk and spend time with friends when she is not working.

Tommie is an operations manager for a franchised group of McDonald’s Restaurants. Beginning his time in McDonald’s as a part time crew member in 2001, Tommie developed with the company and now oversees the operations of the group, employing over 900 employees across nine restaurants.

Tommie holds an Executive MBA degree, graduating with first class honours from WIT in 2020 where he was also part of the team winning the MBAI National Strategy Prize.

Tommie is passionate about workplace wellbeing. Following on from delivering a research project in the area of workplace wellbeing as part of his MBA, he led his organisation to achieve accreditation from IBEC with the KeepWell Mark, being the first restaurant company to achieve this accreditation.

A native of Kilkenny, Tommie moved to Dungarvan in 2006 when McDonald’s first opened here and is keen to give back to the community which has become home for him.

Isolde is a Leadership and Team Coach. She established Koi Consulting in 2009, a leadership and team development consultancy passionate about creating healthy work cultures. Her career to-date spans over 25 years in both large and small organisations and it has always involved a strong focus on building effective and high-performing leaders and teams in high pace and high change, global environments.

Having spent 12 years in a large cyber-security multinational, in a range of management and leadership positions, she designed and implemented a successful culture change programme resulting in improved employee morale, new ways of working and significant increases in performance. This experience ignited her interest and continued passion for organisation development and led her to re-train as an executive coach.

She works with clients from a diverse range of industry sectors including; Technology, Pharmaceutical, Telecom, Legal, Healthcare, Fisheries, Travel, Transport, Agri-Food, Financial Services, Professional Services, Education and not for profit.

Isolde holds an MSc in Executive and Team Coaching; other qualifications include an MBA, BA in English and Economics, a professional Diploma in Management and a Diploma in Coaching Supervision. She is a Fellow of the Association for Coaching and is accredited at Master level. She is also accredited with ICF and EMCC.

Isolde is originally from Dublin. She moved to Dungarvan in 2021 and is delighted she made the move. She is looking forward to the opportunity to support the local community and businesses as a board member of Dungarvan and West Waterford Chamber.

John Nugent has over 18 years’ experience in Financial Services and as a well-recognised leader in the industry has vast experience in Finance, Product & Proposition design, Leadership, Technology and Business Transformation.

In John’s current role he is responsible for all mass affluent and high net-worth customers in Ireland’s leading pillar bank. John is a qualified Actuary and member of the Institute of Actuaries in the UK and Society of Actuaries in Ireland. He is also a Qualified Financial Advisor and was recent Chairman of the Dublin LIA which is educational body for financial advisors in Ireland.

Originally a West Waterford man he currently lives in Dublin with his wife and three children. John is keen to give back to the local area which has given him so much and which he extremely proud of.

Patrick Shields is a Director with CLIFF Group since 2022 and joined initially as General Manager of Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, West Waterford in 2018. Prior to that, Patrick held the position of General Manager with The Sutton Place Hotel at Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia, Canada which is a luxury property twice named as ‘Canada’s Best Ski Resort’ in recent years at the prestigious World Ski Awards. Patrick has also worked in Hotel & Hospitality Management in the United States and Australia, including with Sydney Opera House, as well as at home in Ireland with over 15 years in senior management, 10 of which as a General Manager.

In Waterford, Patrick currently oversees the operations of cliffresidence.ie which includes Cliff House Hotel, Cliff Beach House, urchin bar & adventures, urchin loft as well as CLIFF River Lodge, a beautiful new addition to the group located in Ballyduff.

With a history of being involved in a number of local enterprise groups, Patrick holds an Honours Degree in Hospitality Management from the South East Technological University and an MBA in Management Strategy, graduating with First Class Honours in 2022. Since 2021, Patrick has been an External Reviewer for Munster Technological University on a voluntary basis providing feedback on numerous Management, Business & Hospitality modules from Certificate right through to Masters level.

Patrick is thrilled and honoured to have been elected to the Board of the Dungarvan & West Waterford Chamber and looks forward to contributing to such an excellent, award winning organisation.

Philip Singleton is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over 20 years industry experience. He has worked in the food, chemical, vaccines and pharma industries during this time. He holds a wealth of experience working in the areas of asset care, project management, sustainability, and automation. Philips holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering (hons) and a Masters in Project Management, both accreditations awarded by the University of Limerick.

In his current role as site Engineering and Automation Director for Haleon Dungarvan, he has accountability for all engineering activities across the two sites. Haleon produces two of its power brands in Dungarvan, Polident in the Oral Care site and Panadol in the neighbouring Over the Counter site. Philip is responsible for maintenance of all site assets, securing investment in both facilities (e.g. production equipment, sustainability initiatives, delivering cutting edge technologies), through his highly talented Engineering team.

Originally from Mallow in North Cork, he now lives in Cappoquin with his family for the past 20 years.

Originally from Dublin, Emilene moved to Dungarvan in 2008 when she purchased Merry’s with her father, Jim and began a renovation job, converting Merry’s into a Gastro Pub and opening its doors on 1^st May 2008.

She lived in America where she worked as a chef and ran a successful Gastro Pub for a number of years before returning to Ireland to start a catering business and eventually finding Merry’s & Dungarvan. Emilene, her father & brother Will, opened a new venture, The Merry Cobbler, in Dublin 4 in November 2016, located next to The Aviva.

After opening The Merry Cobbler, Emilene was invited to join the committee of The Licensed Vintner’s Association, dealing directly with international suppliers such as Diageo, Heineken and Bulmer’s, organising trade deals to benefit pubs nationwide.

Covid made Emilene realise how blessed she is to live in a wonderful prosperous town like Dungarvan and she decided to get more involved with the community. She organised Dungarvan’s first ever Dungarvan Pride – letting people from all over the world see what a wonderful welcoming town Dungarvan is to all walks of life, through the virtual Pride video of Dungarvan.

Emilene hopes that by joining as a Chamber Director she can bring something new to the Board and continue to help develop Dungarvan as the welcoming tourist destination it has become – making it a town where we all feel blessed to live and appreciate what we have on our doorstep.

Chamber Treasurer David Walsh is a Qualified Financial Advisor with over 25 years experience in the Financial Services Industry and runs his own Independent Financial Advisory Business nationwide, having previously worked with Canada Life, Field Financial, Holden & McEvilly Ltd and ACE Life & Pensions. David is a Director of Complete Financial Planning Ltd. t/a Better Finances. David’s philosophy in building long term relationships with clients is ‘going the extra mile’ and delivering quality service. He believes this is much easier to achieve working as an independent financial adviser with a ‘close knit’ team.

David is a Director of the Dungarvan Community Employment Scheme and is Chairman of the Glenbeg School Boar of Management. David continuously works on behalf of the Dungarvan & West Waterford community and has a big picture view when leading Chamber activities. David is a keen supporter of hurling, soccer and other sports and is currently Secretary of Dungarvan Utd and has been Chairman previously for a number of years.

Jack Walshe is founder/director of Hanntec engineering ltd,  Hanntec provide CCTV, Networking solutions and Technical installations to the SME and agricultural sector in Ireland. Hanntec are Lucky to have a broad customer base and now supply technical services to Irelands leading Agri food companies and Farms, Providing customers with results driven solutions in the fields of Security, Electrical and Automation and product development.

A graduate of Engineering from WIT Jack has a strong interest in new product development and emerging technologies, he is passionate about how technology can solve the Energy crisis and help the world heal from the negative environmental impact caused by human activity.  A Proud Waterford man, when Jack is not working on the business or his Beef farm he spends time travelling Ireland with Family, Mountaineering and is an avid wild track walker.