NXF Board & Governance
The NXF is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. Strategic direction for the NXF and GCN is the responsibility of the Board of Directors of National LGBT Federation Ltd.
The members of the NXF Board have wide ranging experience in working for lesbian and gay organisations, the advertising and commercial sector, the HSE, higher educational institutions, journalism, publishing and in community development. Members of the Board have served on the Irish government’s National AIDS Strategy Committee, the Equality Authority’s Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Advisory Committee, and the NESF Working Group on Implementing Equality for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people.
The main Board meets monthly, and subcommittees of the Board meet as necessary to work on specific projects. The monthly time commitment of Board members is normally 4 – 6 hours. New Board members join for an initial period of six months and after a review usually become company directors of National LGBT Federation Ltd.
Current NXF Board
Anna Nolan (Chairperson) has over 20 years’ experience in the media industry, having worked for the BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. She is now Head of Development at COCO Content, one of Ireland’s leading television production companies. Anna joined the NXF in 2021, tasked with working with GCN. Over the last 18 months she has collaborated with the GCN team to create their new 3-year strategy, which will be published this spring.
Conor McCarthy is a new member on the Board of the National LGBT Federation joining in 2021 as the new Treasurer. Most of his career to date has been in the Tech industry & Consulting and has spanned
across different roles from Business operations to Procurement. Conor has a keen interest in social issues and has been active in promoting diversity & allyship programs in the workplace.
Steve Jacques (Secretary) joined the NXF Board in 2015 having previously been involved in 2008/09. Steve is a qualified social worker and has worked in the child protection sector for over 20 years in both government and non-government agencies. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Key Assets – The Children’s Services Provider (Part of the Core Assets Group) which is an international children and family social services agency working in 12 countries in Europe, North America and Australasia. Steve has been involved in LGBT+ activism since his early 20s and has a particular interest in faith and sexuality. In 1998 Steve co-founded “Same Love” which is an LGBT+ inclusive faith based network based in the north of England.
Brendan Byrne joined the NXF Board in 2016. Having being inspired by actively campaigning in the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015, Brendan was seeking out more active opportunities to use his skills to help give back to the community. Brendan is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years experience including living and working in different countries growing his understanding of the necessity of an active I&D agenda within the corporate world.
Adam Long is a long-standing board member of the National LGBT Federation where he oversees advocacy & policy, including a prominent social media presence.Adam has worked in the area of LGBT+ rights advocacy in both a voluntary and professional capacity over a number of years. He was a news analyst for Ireland’s national LGBT radio programme and has written frequently on the subject of LGBT+ equality. In addition, he has chaired the annual Dublin Pride Political Debate and more recently the Pride ‘Leaders Series’, where he interviews the Taoiseach & other prominent political figures on LGBT+ policy priorities.Adam has a strong interest in politics and using the political system to advance LGBT+
equality and progressive change more generally.
Chris Noone joined the NXF Board in 2017. Chris is a post-doctoral researcher at the School of Psychology, NUI Galway. Chris has contributed to research on a wide range of topics broadly related to wellbeing including the cognitive effects of mindfulness, citizen consultation for the design of wellbeing measures, behavioural interventions for hypertension, and sexual counselling for patients in cardiac rehabilitation. Chris has been an involved in activism for many years and is currently Chair of the Research and Policy Sub-Committee of the National LGBT Federation and a coordinator for Bi+ Ireland. He has also contributed to the development of the first LGBT+ Staff Network at NUI Galway.
Mary McAuliffe is an Assistant Professor in Gender Studies at UCD and holds a PhD from the School of History and Humanities, Trinity College Dublin. Her latest publications are; We were there; 77 women of the Easter Rising (co-written with Liz Gillis), and Sexual Politics In Modern Ireland on which she was a co-editor. She is past President of the Women’s History Association of Ireland. Her latest research includes a forthcoming biography of 1916 rebel, feminist and trade unionist, Margaret Skinnider, and a major research project on gendered and sexual violence during the Irish revolutionary period, 1919.
Gavin Hennessy is D&I Lead at AXA Ireland, having previously held D&I roles at Irish Life, LinkedIn, and Business in the Community Ireland. Over his career he has established ground-breaking programmes to reduce barriers to employment for family carers, hard to reach youth, persons with disabilities, and refugees. He is an active and respected contributor to the wider corporate D&I landscape sitting on industry working groups such as the Insurance Ireland D&I Taskforce and the IBEC D&I forum. As a member of the LGBTQ+ and Irish Traveller communities, he regularly contributes to discussions on driving forward inclusion for minority groups. In addition to his role with NxF, he is a co-founder of the Traveller Graduate Network. Gavin’s passion lies in driving meaningful, lasting change in the workplace and wider society.
Claire Egan is a Communications and PR professional who has worked in a variety of sectors including journalism, publishing, sport, higher education and currently corporate communications. She joined the board in 2018. She has a strong interest in social issues, including mental health and well-being, LGBT+ rights and equality issues.
Steve Sands joined the NXF board in 2017 and serves on the GCN sub committee with a keen interest in governance and equality legislation. Steve works for daa and is also a part time lecturer in Trinity College Dublin in employment law and industrial relations.
Contact Details:
National LGBT Federation (NXF), C/O GCN, the Skylab
2 Exchange St Upper
Dublin 2
Ireland
Phone +353 1 675 5025
Fax +353 1 671 3549
facebook.com/NLGFederation
Tweet @nxfie
Our site:nxf.ie
Email:info@nxf.i