AGM 2026

NetworkIrlande members and board members gathered in the Embassy of Ireland and online for the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 18^th June at 9.30am.

Quorum of one quarter of NetworkIrlande membership was met with the presence of 17 members including NetworkIrlande board members, a further two participating online and 20 proxies gathered in advance of the meeting. We wish to thank all members who sent in their proxies.
Following on directly from our Q2 Board Meeting and starting a few minutes late, President Richard Dujardin presented the annual report, detailing the various activities that took place over 2025. This was followed with a short presentation of activities for 2026 according to the agenda. Treasurer Nick O’Conor then presented the accounts for approval, and they were approved unanimously.

Richard Dujardin proceeded to present the current membership and highlight any changes since the 2025 AGM, which included 12 new individual members, four new business members and one new Pioneer member - Sanofi. We nevertheless also lost members in the same period including IDA Ireland as a Pioneer member.

Richard Dujardin then thanked the board members for their continued support and proposed to elect the slate again with current Board Members all retaining their position on the board. This was passed unanimously. There were three company representative changes over the past year: Catriona Ward took over from Patrick Torrekens’ as Country Manager, France for Enterprise Ireland; Barbara Wood took over from Monica MacLaverty as Regional Manager Southern Europe for Tourism Ireland; Camille Merillon took over from Eric Ruols of Grant Thornton.

Andrew Coffey, CEO France of Pioneer member Smurfit Westrock was proposed for the board and once again the vote was unanimous. 

Earlier in the morning at the Q2 Board Meeting, H.E. Ambassador Alison Milton graciously accepted to support NetworkIrlande as Honorary President and Richard Dujardin had thanked her on behalf of the board members and we very much look forward to working with the incoming Ambassador.

After an exchange of questions and answers, the AGM was drawn to a close at 10.20am. Members exchanged business and personal news over tea and coffee before returning to their working day!

We wish to thank the Embassy of Ireland once again for their unwavering support of NetworkIrlande and for hosting our Annual General Meeting 2026. We would like to thank Thomas Bidou for assisting us with our salaries, pioneer member Grant Thornton for preparing the financial package and pioneer member Ecocem for the provision of an intern without charge to the association. We also wish to thank Pioneer Members who sponsor and host events and activities throughout the year, whose support on which we count.