John nugent
Senior Vice President
IDA Ireland
John Nugent, based in Mountain View, Calif., is vice president of IDA Ireland. He is responsible for media,
entertainment, and communications investments from the west coast of North America into Ireland. He also
has special responsibility for the IDA Ireland’s globally traded services. He assumed his current post in 2006. He
previously served IDA in Ireland, working closely with many leading engineering companies. Before joining IDA, Mr.
Nugent served its sister agency, Enterprise Ireland, in a technical role. Mr. Nugent is a graduate of Queen’s University,
Belfast.
Barry o’Leary
Chief Executive Officer
IDA Ireland
Barry O’Leary assumed his appointed role as CEO of IDA Ireland in 2008. He has served IDA for more than 30 years
in most of its business areas, including two periods totaling 15 years in Germany, most recently as director of Europe.
He has been involved in changing the profile and raising the value of Ireland’s inward investments over the past ten
years. Since his return to Ireland in 2002, he has been primarily responsible for the successful establishment of the
country as the leading global location outside the U.S. for biopharmaceuticals. He has also undertaken strategic change
and built new strengths in R&D, medical technologies, information and communications technologies, and other
areas. Before joining IDA Ireland, Mr. O’ Leary held a number of positions in industrial companies, including Nestle
and the Smurfit Group. He is a board member of the Dublin Molecular Medicine Center and the Trinity College
Institute of Neuroscience.
Chinwe onyekere
Program Officer
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
Chinwe Onyekere, MPH, is a program officer on RWJF’s Childhood Obesity Team and Pioneer Portfolio. Before
joining RWJF in 2002, she was a researcher for a joint Harvard Medical School and Weill Medical College of Cornell
University project, “Cultural Competence in Health Care.” For this project, she investigated the emerging frameworks
of and practical approaches to cultural competence. Ms. Onyekere also has research and program experience in
health-care disparities, pediatric chronic care issues, social determinates of health, and international health. She has
worked on projects with the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health, Management
Sciences for Health, and Children’s Hospital in Boston. Ms. Onyekere received a master’s degree in public health from
Columbia University, Division of Sociomedical Sciences, and a BA degree in political science from Wellesley College.
ahmet m. oren
Chief Executive Officer
Ihlas Holding AS
Ahmet Oren, as CEO of Ihlas Holding and chairman of the company’s Media Group, has more than 15 years of
experience in building media and communication companies with global prominence. His key business philosophy is
to grow promising businesses by internationalizing their focus. Mr. Oren established the Istanbul-based
TGRT-TV in 1993 as one of the country’s pioneering private broadcasters. He repositioned TGRT in 1998 as a
young and dynamic channel, delivering superior business results through international concepts and expertise, and
culminated in the establishment of TGRT-EU in 2004. As Ihlas concentrated its television operations on the 24-hour
news channel TGRT Haber, Mr. Oren completed the sale of the group’s entertainment channel to News Corp. in 2006;
it was the first major foreign acquisition in the Turkish TV industry. Mr. Oren serves on the board of the International
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a member of numerous professional organizations.
