Prof Ciarán Ó hOgartaigh
President, University of Galway
Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh was appointed President of NUI Galway (now University of Galway) in January 2018. Born in Dublin, he was brought up in an Irish-speaking home in Galway city and attended Scoil Iognáid and Coláiste Iognáid. Professor Ó hÓgartaigh is a first-class honours, first-in-class BComm graduate of NUI Galway. He trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen (Dublin) and holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Leeds, UK.
Prior to his appointment at University of Galway, Ciarán served as Principal and Dean of UCD College of Business, leading its schools in Dublin (UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and UCD Smurfit Executive Development) and its overseas programmes in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sri Lanka. Ciarán has also worked in academic leadership roles in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and in Dublin City University.
Ciarán has published widely on financial reporting and on accounting history in international peer-reviewed publications and is a former Fulbright scholar at Northeastern University (Boston, USA). He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and the American Accounting Association Doctoral Consortium. He has served as Audit Committee Chair at the Department of Marine, Communications and Natural Resources and as a member of the Audit Committee at the Department of Finance.
In his first years in office, Ciarán drove the development of a new strategy for University of Galway for the period 2020-2025 in collaboration with staff, students, external stakeholders and university management. In January 2020, he formally launched Shared Vision, Shaped by Values, which outlines the University’s future direction and priorities guided by the four core values of respect, excellence, openness and sustainability. The strategy highlights the importance of collaboration, collective input and regional, national and international partnership in achieving University of Galway’s ambitions to be a force for good in and for the world. The strategy was launched following a process of greater devolvement of autonomy to the University’s four Colleges. On Thursday, 1 September 2022, the President launched a new chapter in the University’s history when our new name, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway, was formally adopted. This new name reflects who we are, our essence and our identity, and our place in Ireland and in the world. It represents an exciting opportunity for our university community, alumni and partners to build on our strong traditions, to shape together our promise for the future, and to reaffirm our mission for the public good.
As President, he has maintained his research interests with his contribution on the history of financial accounting practice in The Routledge Companion to Accounting History (2nd Edition, May 2020).
He is a board member of the National Library of Ireland on the appointment of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media, the Chair of the Council of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the Chair of Universities Ireland and he is currently chairing Greater Galway Forum.
Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh will chair the Building Blocks of the Future session on Wednesday 26 April.