Two new appointments to board of Horse Racing Ireland

Two new members – Elizabeth Headon and Peter Nolan – have been appointed to the board of Horse Racing Ireland by the Minister of Agriculture, Food & Marine, Michael Creed.

They will both serve on racing’s ruling body for four years.

The appointments come on the back of Brian Kavanagh’s controversial reappointment for a third term as HRI’s chief executive earlier this year.

The appointment breached Government guidelines on the length of time CEO's can serve in semi-state bodies and it resulted in the HRI chairman, Joe Keeling, and three other board members, appearing in front of an Oireachtas Committee in October.

Headon is a non-executive director of Kenmare Resources and a corporate affairs adviser at Coolmore Stud. She was also chief executive at the Digicel Foundation in Haiti.

Nolan has extensive experience and banking and treasury management. He was the managing director of Coronet Finance for ten years.

In August, Robert Nixon was appointed as the Northern Ireland representative on the HRI board.