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People

Hibernia College is led by a strong senior management team with a wealth of experience in academia, finance and business development:


Dr. Seán M. Rowland, President

Dr. Seán M. Rowland, President of Hibernia College, was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. Having attended St. Patrick’s College in Dublin, he taught at primary school level for five years before travelling to the US to attend Boston College. Here he was awarded a Masters Degree in Curriculum, Instruction and Administration. He then pursued and completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum Instruction and Administration (CIA) with a focus on educational finance within the CIA programme. Dr. Rowland also holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

While at Boston College, Dr. Rowland established and was appointed Executive Director of the Centre for Irish Management. His goals in creating the centre were to encourage economic development and create employment in Ireland through education, executive development and relationship building. Dr. Rowland also established the Irish Institute at Boston College, and, as Executive Director, worked extensively with young Irish professionals, political leaders and educators to promote Irish/US relations, provide upskilling in a variety of professional areas and contribute to job creation in Ireland.

In 2000, Dr. Rowland brought together his colleagues from the corporate, education and technological communities to create Hibernia College, Ireland’s first and only, accredited online third-level institution. The programme for which the college is currently best known is its Higher Diploma in Arts in Primary Education. Graduates from this course are now highly sought after by many schools around Ireland.

Under Dr. Rowland’s leadership, Hibernia College has also collaborated with Pfizer (the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company) to develop a Masters Degree programme in Pharmaceutical Medicine and more recently with the UK’s Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) to develop an online education programme for secondary school teachers in England. This programme in England has now expanded to multiple Universities across England. This latest collaboration is particularly exciting because it puts Hibernia College in the unique position of providing teacher education in Ireland and England.

Evidence of Dr. Rowland’s continued enthusiasm and commitment to providing access to quality education can be seen in Hibernia College’s enrolment of students from over 30 countries and the college’s suite of programmes in areas such as law, education, pharmaceutical medicine and continuing professional development. The College is currently adding to its programme suite with a number of new offerings in development.

Dr. Rowland is the current President of the Harvard Club of Ireland and is a member of Harvard University’s Littauer Society. He is also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Leadership Council at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a member of the Harvard Faculty Club and an active alumnus of Boston College. In addition, Dr. Rowland is a member of the Institute of Directors, Ireland and of the Royal Dublin Society. He is on the advisory board of the Soul of Haiti Foundation and is a board member of the Irish Famine Commemoration Fund.

In 2008 Dr. Rowland won the Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award and in 2009 was named as one of the “100 greatest self-made Irish entrepreneurs” by Irish Entrepreneur magazine.

 

Prof. Thomas Mitchell, Academic Chairman

As an academic and educator of international stature, Professor Mitchell brings a wide range of experience and abilities to the work of Hibernia College. He had a distinguished academic career in the United States at Cornell and Swarthmore, before being appointed to the Chair of Latin at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1979. In 1991 he was elected Provost of TCD and led the college through an eventful period of large-scale expansion and development throughout the 1990s. Professor Mitchell has won wide recognition for his scholarly achievements as well as his academic leadership and has written extensively on many aspects of third-level education.

Professor Mitchell holds a B.A. and M.A., both with first class honours, from University College Galway and has two doctorates, from the University of Dublin and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. He has also been awarded eight honorary doctorates by universities around the world.

 

Sara McDonnell, Executive Vice-President

Sara was actively involved in the foundation of Hibernia College and brings extensive experience and expertise, in all areas of educational operations and administration, to her role as Executive Vice-President.

Prior to her work with Hibernia College Sara held a number of positions at Boston College, initially in 1996 as research manager at the Centre for Irish Management. Her role there involved identifying market needs to be addressed by the college’s educational and professional programmes. She played a leading role in the design, development and delivery of these programmes. Sara became programme director for Boston College in Ireland in 1997 and was instrumental in the successful delivery of the institute’s programming in areas including international governance, domestic policy, leadership, tourism management and business development.

Sara has a B.A. Mod (Hons) in Natural Science from Trinity College Dublin and holds postgraduate and professional qualifications in marketing, training and development.

 

Dr. Nicholas Breakwell, Vice-President for Academic Affairs & Knowledge Management

Dr. Nicholas Breakwell is the Vice-President for Academic Affairs & Knowledge Management at Hibernia College with overall responsibility for teaching and learning strategy and e-learning infrastructure. He has been responsible for the development of the next-generation learning tools that now power all Hibernia College online programmes. Supporting this role, he has consulted widely with international experts in e-learning to bring best international practice to Hibernia’s e-learning strategy.

Dr. Breakwell has a B.Sc. in Psychology and a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Birmingham. He also spent five years in the internationally respected neuroscience laboratory of Professor Roger Anwyl at Trinity College Dublin, publishing numerous research papers in leading science journals. During this time, Dr. Breakwell also worked for the Open University where he gained extensive experience of studying and teaching from a distance.

 

Lars Christian Smith, Vice-President for Business Development

Lars Christian Smith is Vice-President for Business Development and is responsible for developing new innovative educational projects as well as building on the successes of current programmes.

Previously he was Director of Academic Affairs for the Laureate Online Education/University of Liverpool partnership, and he has been Professor and Director of MBA Programmes in a French grande école where he taught Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship. He has had an international business career and has worked in several European countries as well as in East Africa. His business experience has mainly been in the IT industry, both as an entrepreneur and founder of two companies and as a company director and manager.

He holds two degrees from Harvard University.

 

Naomi Jackson, Registrar

Hibernia College’s Registrar, Naomi Jackson, has extensive experience of curriculum development, quality assurance and education management at third level. As Course Manager at Bradford College she was at the forefront of the development of Foundation Degree provision, within the college. She has also held the positions of Academic Co-ordinator, Head of Department and Principal Lecturer for the Regional University Network Office at Leeds Metropolitan University. Here she had responsibility for curriculum development, delivery and quality assurance of University awards delivered by strategic partners and providing guidance and support in relation to the requirements of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Naomi has a B.A. (Hons) in Community Studies and an M.A. in Management in Education from the University of Bradford. She also possesses a P.G.C.E. Post Compulsory Education from the University of Huddersfield.