Mr Lawrence Fisher (Chairman of Council 2024)
Lawrence has been a member of the Whiteabbey Group for the past 20 years becoming involved through his wife Marion, he is currently Group Chairman. Lawrence has worked in the Department of Finance working in the Valuation Office and in the private sector working for Auctioneers in Dublin. In early 2019 he retired from the NI Housing Executive where he worked in the Private Sector Improvement division dealing with policy and procedures in connection with Private Sector Grants and Houses in Multiple Occupation.
Dr Gwyneth Hinds (Vice Chair of Council 2024)
Gwyneth worked as an Associate Specialist in the Breast Unit at Belfast City Hospital until her early retirement in September 2017. She has a special interest in hereditary breast cancer and in the support of women who carry BRCA mutations. Gwyneth is particularly passionate in promoting lifestyle change as a means of reducing the risk of cancer and is currently developing a number of initiatives and activities in support of this.
Ms Kelly McBride (Honorary Secretary and Member of the Audit and Governance Committee)
Kelly is a very experienced Human Resource professional having held a number of senior HR positions across several industries including Higher Education and Manufacturing. Currently, Kelly is employed as Head of Resources in CCEA, (Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment in N. Ireland) with responsibility for HR, Estates and Health and Safety. Council for the Curriculum,
Kelly is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). She is passionate about the benefit of diversity, inclusion and well-being at work and during her career has led multiple teams resulting in the awarding of a number of business accolades.
Ms Marion Rybnikar (Treasurer and Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee)
Marion has over twenty-five years’ experience across Telecoms, E-commerce, Banking and High-Performance Technology. The last ten years she has focused on implementing rapid technology transformation, accelerated cultural change and building external local partnerships to deliver advanced analytics, business intelligence, automation and improved data quality.
Mrs Valerie Heron (Chair of the Group Forum and Member of the Professional Services Committee)
Valerie is the daughter of Sadie Strain, the Moneyreagh Group’s longest serving founding member. Valerie worked in the family business, “Strains of Comber”, for most of her life and is married to Dee Heron, a sheep farmer from Raffery who is also a member of the Moneyreagh Group. Both share a passion for local football. Valerie is treasurer for Killyleagh Football Club and Chairperson of Northern Ireland Womens Football Association.
Professor Stuart McIntosh
A fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Stuart is a Consultant Breast Surgeon in the Breast Unit at Belfast City Hospital. His entire practice is in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast conditions. Stuart has extensive experience in all aspects of breast cancer surgery, and has a particular interest in reconstruction of the breast following the surgical treatment of breast cancer.
In October 2015 he was appointed an Honorary Consultant Breast Surgeon and a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Surgical Oncology at Queen’s University, Belfast. An active clinical researcher, Stuart is currently the local lead for multiple national and global studies as well as Clinical Director of the Northern Ireland Cancer Trials Network responsible for the strategic development and delivery of clinical cancer research across the region. Stuart is also currently the Royal College of Surgeons Surgical Lead for breast cancer. This national leadership role carries the responsibility for developing a broad portfolio of clinical research studies in breast surgery and working with breast surgeons across the UK to increase engagement with recruitment to clinical trials.
Dr Kris Holte
Kris graduated with an honours degree in medicine from Queens University, Belfast. He completed training in dermatology in Belfast, immediately followed by general histopathology training in Edinburgh (including a year of subspecialist dermatopathology). Dr Holte has written national dermatopathology guidelines, contributed chapters to books in both dermatology and histopathology. He is a recipient of the Wilson-Jones Cup in dermatopathology, which is awarded each year to the best plenary presentation in dermatopathology within the annual meeting of the British Association of Dermatologists. He was appointed as a consultant histopathologist in 2022 in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast and has started working as a staff grade in dermatology for the Northern HSC Trust.
Ms Amy Weir
Amy is one of our youngest Group Members and yet she has been actively involved in our Moneyreagh Action Cancer Group for the past 10 years. Granddaughter of Lily and Sammy Weir, Lilly is one of the founding members of our Moneyreagh Group. Amy has held a number of positions within the Group in addition to having responsibility for running their Social Media and the planning and running of several fundraising events. Employed by Energia, Amy is also an officer in her local GB Company and a member of the Young Farmers.
Mr Les Drew
Over the past 45 years Les has had a varied career, the vast majority of which has been spent in financial, commercial and governance roles within the Northern Ireland energy sector, specifically electricity. Les has also considerable experience in Non-Executive roles within the Northern Ireland Public Health Sector. Les was the last Chairman of the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board leading on its amalgamation in 2022 into the Department of Health. Prior to this appointment he was for 5 years a Non-Executive Director in the Public Health Agency (PHA) (2015- 2020) and prior to that appointment a NED for 9 years in the Belfast Health Social Care Trust (2006 – 2015).
Mr Lowry Grant
Lowry Grant is recognised as one of the foremost Accountants in N. Ireland with an in-depth knowledge of the local Not For Profit (NFP) sector. Retired in March 2024, Lowry previously ran a highly successful accountancy practice which he established in 1985 before merging it with PKF FPM which subsequently merged with AAB to form FPM AAB.
Lowry has exceptional knowledge and experience as both a Statutory Auditor to a number of leading NFP organisations as well a serving on numerous NFP Boards. He also held a full-time lecturing position at the University of Ulster for some 27 years, specialising in advance accounting and computer-based information systems and as a visiting lecturer to Universities in Sri Lanka and Florida.
Married with 3 children and 11 grandchildren, Lowry is also an elder in his local church and any spare time he has can often be found riding his bike around beautiful County Antrim or further afield.