Shona is the first female Chair of the IFI and brings extensive experience in arts and cultural leadership. She has dedicated her career to championing and developing access to arts and culture for all. As Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society for nearly a decade, she oversaw the world's largest performing arts festival. A Northern Ireland native, she prioritises accessible arts and culture.

Previously, she led Derry-Londonderry's UK City of Culture 2013, successfully delivering  funding for a worldclass citywide cultural programme. Her career includes Director of the British Council Northern Ireland, leading international arts, education, and cultural relations initiatives. She also spearheaded Belfast's European Capital of Culture bid and held key roles at the Northern Ireland Film Council.

A pioneer of the Cinemagic Film Festival and former Director of the Foyle Film Festival, Shona received a NESTA cultural leadership award, enabling her to work in India with Seagull Foundation for the Arts in Calcutta, and  she was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship from the US in 2014, making her part of a global network of leaders and influencers. She has also served as Chair of Walk the Plank and the Oh Yeah Music Centre Belfast, and holds honorary fellowships from Surrey University and the Marketing Society of Scotland, and is a visiting Professor at Napier University.

Anne has a long history in community peacebuilding and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. She is a founding pioneer parent of integrated education, having been instrumental in the inception and development of All Children’s Integrated Primary School, Newcastle, Co. Down, founded in 1986 and Chair of the Board of Governors for fourteen years.

She was Regional Co-Ordinator of the Women Together for Peace organisation from 1990 – 2001 and co-founded the Community Dialogue organisation in 1997. She was their Regional Dialogue Development and Research Co-Ordinator for many years and is an experienced dialogue and storytelling practitioner having worked throughout Ireland and in areas of conflict around the world.

She was the first elected Councillor for the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, serving on Down Council from 1997 – 2001. In 2008 she received the N. I. Community Relations Council Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Community Relations and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

A graduate of Queens University, Belfast, Angila served for 32 years until 2024 as Executive Director of Springboard. In this role Angila built extensive knowledge and experience of working across disadvantaged and divided communities, both North and South, building capacity, community cohesion and an appreciation of diversity, with a particular focus on young people.

Angila was awarded the N Belfast Leadership Award for Services to Peace & Reconciliation in 2024, the Exceptional Achievement for Peacebuilding Award by the Community Relations Council & NI Executive in 2023, and a MBE for her services to Children & Young People in 2022.  She established the Raj Darshna Foundation in 2011 which underlined her personal long-term commitment to charitable giving and became a Beacon Fellow following her award as a Philanthropy Advocate in 2013.

She is currently an independent consultant and also acts as an Ambassador for Community Foundation for N Ireland. Previously she served on the Mary Ann McCracken Foundation, Belfast City Council's Good Relations Partnership and as Charity Commissioner with the Charity Commission for N Ireland.

Ms Conaghan has a keen interest in Leadership in Education and was appointed Principal of St Mogue’s College Bawnboy, West Cavan in 2007. She has a long history of community outreach, tackling divisions that can arise in rural communities due to divergent cultural, economic or religious backgrounds.

Alongside an established career in education, she represents Cavan and Monaghan on the Education and Training Boards Ireland, Principals' Network, which advises the Department of Education & Skills on issues in schools. She has also Chaired community groups, established committees in Donegal to secure funding for young people and worked with disadvantaged communities examining the barriers to education.

In her current role, she has increased cross-border/cross-community engagement and established a link with world renowned Oxford & Cambridge Universities to ensure young people from disadvantaged rural areas can have the same opportunities as other applicants. 

Katy is Professor of Political Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre for International Borders Research in Queen’s University Belfast. She is a Fellow of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, an Eisenhower Fellow, and former Europe’s Futures Fellow (2023/24).

The recipient of a special Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize (2019) award for her work on Brexit, Katy has presented to media, policy, civic and academic audiences worldwide. Her most recent books are Northern Ireland a generation after the Good Friday Agreement and What do we know and what should we do about... the Irish border.

For the past decade, Katy has been working closely with civil society organisations in Northern Ireland and the border region in response to Brexit and the Protocol/Windsor Framework.

She has experience of sitting on the boards of a wide range of organisations, including in peacebuilding, and is a Trustee of the British-Irish Association.   

Janet has over 20 years’ experience in business, in the financial services sector.  She started her career as a graduate with Merrill Lynch and later joined AIB, Capital Markets segment, where she held several roles including Head of Regulatory Reporting and Head of Management Reporting.

She moved to Investor Relations in 2015 and led the financial modelling and valuation stream of AIB’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2017 and was a member of the IPO Roadshow team meeting equity investors.  

In 2021 Janet was appointed Chief Financial Officer of AIB UK plc.  Her achievements in that role include capital optimisation, paying dividends to the parent (AIB Group) and developing and implementing a strategy for the UK business. 

In September 2024, Janet took on a new role as Head of Retail Portfolio reporting to the MD of the Retail Banking segment, with the mandate to ensure optimal pricing and deliver quality management information for decision making.

Janet holds a bachelor’s degree in finance & economics, a master’s degree in finance, and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Mr Pauley is a retired civil servant with 40 years’ experience as an economist and policy analyst cumulating as Director of Strategic Policy and Reform in the Department of Finance.

Bill’s experience and expertise lies in economic and financial policy, financial governance, public sector reform, EU and Peace and Reconciliation funding. 

Bill also has current roles as a non-executive member of the Audit and Assurance Committees of two large non-departmental bodies.