New Chairman appointed to GMIT Governing Body by Education Minister

GMIT is pleased to announce the appointment of Cormac MacDonncha, Operations Director, ThermoKing, as Chairman of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT).

The Minister for Education & Skills, Richard Bruton, appointed Mr MacDonncha to the post for five years with effect from 29th March 2017. He succeeds former Chairman Des Mahon whose term ended in October 2016.
Mr MacDonncha, a native of Galway city and resident of Moycullen, currently has responsibility for running ThermoKing factories in Galway and Essen, Germany, employing almost 1,000 people. He has over 30 years of manufacturing experience as well as having run an engineering design consultancy.

While studying for a BE in Mechanical Engineering at NUI Galway in the early eighties he attended GMIT for a course in Workshop Practice and returned as a lecturer. He later went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in Quality in NUI Galway before qualifying with an MBA from Indiana University in the US. He is a fluent Irish speaker and a great supporter of the Irish language.

Mr MacDonncha has been a very active member of IBEC, having served as the president of the Western region for a number of years. “As a native of Galway city, I am looking forward to contributing to the success of the Institute for the benefit of the region and the education of our young talented students,” he says.

Welcoming the Minister’s appointment, Dr Fergal Barry, President of GMIT, says: “I look forward to working with Mr MacDonncha on the development of the Institute during its transition to a Technological University that will serve the future economic and social development needs of our region”.

“I thank our former Chairman Des Mahon for his work with the Institute over the past five years, and Joe Cunningham who was Acting Chair for the past number of months.”