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Catherine Irwin MBE
With a background in electrical engineering, Catherine has over 35 years' industry experience across a broad spectrum of sectors. Beginning with the DuPont Company at the Maydown site in Northern Ireland, she held several positions in both electrical engineering and health and safety management before transitioning into senior global leadership roles within the company in 2000 (until 2020). In the period when the DuPont company had more than 200 sites globally, she was the corporate leader for maintenance and reliability.
During her career, Catherine’s work has focused on all aspects of operational excellence, and she is widely recognised for her expertise providing strategic leadership for workplace safety, reliability, and maintenance. Benefitting from her experience, she currently provides strategy, leadership, risk management and governance consultancy support to senior executives globally in a wide range of sectors including oil and gas, chemical, manufacturing, food and nutrition, mining and metals. She is regularly invited to speak on these topics at conferences.
Catherine has a degree in electrical engineering, is a chartered engineer and a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. She has postgraduate qualifications in business administration and systems thinking. In 2021 she was awarded an MBE for services to young people and served as County High Sherriff for Fermanagh.
Until recently, Catherine was chair of the trustee board for Girlguiding UK (since 2018), a large UK charity. She was appointed to the board of HSENI in 2021, reappointed in 2024 and subsequently appointed as chair in the same year.