Board and governance

Board of Directors

Aidan Greene (Chairman)

Aidan Greene is the Deputy CEO of Core Media. As part of his role, he has strategic responsibilities across the nine Core Media companies. He was previously Managing Director of media planning and buying agency, Mediavest, and has 27 years' media experience. He launched the direct response media agency, Clear Blue Water, in 2005, before taking the reins of Mediavest in 2007. He previously was a director of Catseye, the internet solutions company in the Dialogue Group.

He has also worked in Ogilvy & Mather and Carat. Aidan represents the advertising industry as Chairman of the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS) committee and sits on the management committee of the Joint National Outdoor Research (JNOR). He has lectured in media in the Dublin Institute of Technology and the Fitzwilliam Institute. Aidan is also the former President of IAPI, the trade association and professional institute for Irish advertising agencies.

Anne-Marie Curran

Appointed Managing Director of Drury Porter Novelli in June 2010, Anne-Marie has over 15 years’ experience in the public relations industry. Anne-Marie combines her management role with strategic client support across a range of publicly quoted companies, blue chip corporates and public sector clients.

A graduate of University College Dublin (UCD) with a BA International in French and German, Anne-Marie has an MA in Public Relations from the Dublin Institute of Technology. In 2007 she graduated with a Diploma in Legal Studies from King’s Inns and in 2009 completed a diploma in Executive & Business Coaching. Prior to joining Drury Porter Novelli, Anne-Marie was with Fleishman-Hilliard for five years. Anne-Marie is a guest lecturer in Public Relations at DIT and the Smurfit Business School. She sits on the board of Orbis Ireland and the Irish Heritage Trust and has been involved with the Oesophageal Cancer Fund’s Lollipop day for over a decade.

Ruth Hunter

Ruth Hunter is a partner and head of the Entertainment Law Group at Matheson. She focuses on the area of film and television production including the negotiation and drafting of financing agreements, distribution agreements, equity and tax-based financing arrangements (including Section 481 tax credit financing), talent agreements (including film rights agreements), writers agreements, actors, directors, designers and composers agreements. She also provides advice in relation to errors and omissions, insurance and music copyright clearance as well as theatre and public performance contracts, music contracts and general intellectual property issues including trademarks.

Ruth also works with banks in relation to financing arrangements for film and television. Ruth works with Screen Producers Ireland (the film producers’ representative organisation in Ireland) and is a member of the Audiovisual Federation and the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC).

Hugh Linehan

Hugh Linehan is Culture Editor at The Irish Times. Previously, he held the position of Features Editor, and prior to that was the first editor of the newspaper’s weekly entertainment supplement, The Ticket.

He was previously a film and television critic, and editor of the magazine Film Ireland. Prior to that, he spent five years in film and TV production, working on feature films including The Dead, The Commitments and Into the West.

Ronan Murphy

Ronan Murphy is currently COO of leading Irish ticket agency, Tickets.ie. Ronan oversees all elements of the company's agency business from strategy to ticket delivery. Ronan is recently returned from the USA, where he established and managed the US operations for Irish SME, Stimare. He previously served as Head of Ticketing in the GAA for six years and has worked in the finance industry for several years.

Suzanne Noble

Suzanne Noble is a leading film publicist and communications professional and has been the Head of UK Publicity and Corporate Communications at STUDIOCANAL in London since 2009 spearheading strategic campaigns for titles such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Four Lions, Rush, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, Legend, Paddington and Shaun the Sheep: the Movie. She was previously VP International Publicity at The Weinstein Company and Head of Publicity for Icon with 20 years of industry experience.

Mark O’Halloran

Mark O‘Halloran is a writer and actor from Co. Clare, Ireland. On screen, he has appeared in numerous films, most notably as one of the eponymous heroes in Adam & Paul, for which he also wrote the screenplay, and the lead role of MP in History’s Future directed by Fiona Tan, for which he was nominated as Best Actor at the IFTA Awards 2017. He also appears in The Guard, Viva and Calvary.

Mark‘s screenwriting credits include the multi-award-winning film Garage, Viva and the television series Prosperity. As an actor, he has worked with all the major theatre companies in Ireland, most recently in the acclaimed production of The Importance of Nothing with Pan Pan Theatre and The Shadow of a Gunman with The Abbey Theatre Dublin.

Paula Woods

An alumna of Trinity College, Dublin, Paula Woods’ career in film publicity spans two decades. Since 2008, she has run her boutique consultancy out of LA and is currently working on global campaigns for Widows on behalf of Steve McQueen, If Beale Street Could Talk for Barry Jenkins and Adam McKay’s Vice, starring Christian Bale. Paula has handled many award-winning campaigns including Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds as well as all Tim Burton’s titles and Netflix series The OA on behalf of Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij.

Previously, Paula did a stint at Miramax and then The Weinstein Company where, as Senior Vice President, she headed the international publicity department for two years.

Governance

The board of directors is committed to maintaining the highest standards of governance and has embarked on the journey of compliance with the Governance Code. The organisation complies with all regulatory requirements and operates in accordance with its governing document. Their dates of appointment can be viewed here.

We keep detailed books and records of accounts and maintain strict financial controls. The organisation is transparent in its audited financial statements and we are working with our auditor toward compliance with SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice) in our 2017 financial statements and beyond.

Organisation Structure

Virgin Media DIFF Festival CLG is an incorporated not-for-profit (company registration no: 365622), operating with charitable status (CHY 15821). The legal and financial responsibility for DIFF Festival CLG is vested in the board of directors, and the management is delegated to the Festival Director and the Managing Director.