Manahan wins corporate governance scholarship

Judging by this country’s perennial predilection for scandals and tribunals, it would seem that corporate governance isn’t top of the agenda in many Irish board rooms. Won’t they ever learn?

Perhaps this is why the numbers enrolled for Professor Niamh Brennan's Diploma in Corporate Governance course at UCD's Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, aimed at company directors and managers, are up by more than 30 per cent.

The 30% Club, a body that promotes the idea of having more women in senior executive roles and directorships, agreed to sponsor a place on the course this year for one woman.

The group, which is supported by corporate figures such as CRH chairman Nicky Hartery, CIÉ's Vivienne Jupp and former AIB chairman Lochlann Quinn, agreed to pay fees of €12,600 for a UCD alumnus or €14,000 for an alumnus of another college.

It will have to shell out the higher sum after the scholarship was awarded to Stephanie Manahan, the chief executive of the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC).

Manahan attended Trinity College, according to her LinkedIn page.

If there is one organisation that could do with brushing up on its corporate governance image, it is the CRC. It was at the centre of controversy about 18 months ago after it was revealed its former management received extravagant salaries and severance packages, partly funded by charitable donations.

Manahan, who once competed in RTÉ's Masterchef series, was brought in a year ago at a lower salary to help cook up a new future for the organisation.

Good luck to her.