Cliona
Board Director | Aligning Strategy, Governance and Performance Oversight | Leadership balancing growth & risk
Cliona is known for her considered leadership style, her strong commercial sense and her ability to combine oversight with decisiveness. An excellent communicator, in the boardroom, she brings clarity, depth and constructive challenge. Cliona is always focused on protecting what matters most while enabling sustainable growth.
About Cliona
I am a former Vice-President Research & Development at PepsiCo with over 25 years experience in the Food & Beverage sector and a track record of delivering growth from innovation in the UK, Europe, China and Asia Pacific and digitising and strengthening assurance systems including as Vice-President Global Quality Assurance. Currently an advisor to companies, the Irish Development Agency and EnterpriseIreland and an adjunct Profesor at University College Cork
A Chartered Director with over a decade of boardexperience on public sector and subsidiary company boards and currently serving as an Indpendent Non-Executive Director (INED of Bord Bia, the Irish Food Marketing Organisation where I Chair the Audit and Risk Committe. I am also an INED of The Irish Red Cross. I am known at the board lever for aligning strategy, governance and performance oversight and for risk and crisis management. Currently also an advisor to companies, the Irish Development Agency and Enterprise Ireland and an adjunct Professor at University College Cork.
My executive background in Research & Development, Supply Chain and Global Quality Assurance and my former roles on Business Leadership teams allows me to understand organisations end-to-end and from the factory floor to the boardroom. My board experience enables me to distill complexity into the few key issues and metrics that matter to manage risk and enable sustainable growth.
What I stand for
I believe strong governance is fundamentally about protection, protecting long-term enterprise value and growth, protecting consumers, brands, reputation and the bottom line.
My focus is on enabling considered yet decisive decision-making, helping organisations clarify accountability, strengthen oversight frameworks and align strategy with regulatory and commercial realities to create the conditions for responsible, sustainable growth.
What I have delivered
Throughout my career, I have enabled organisations, be they commercial businesses, state agencies or global industry initiatives, to strengthen governance and drive performance.
As Global Vice President Quality Assurance at PepsiCo this included transforming global QA through digitisation, capability building and modernised governance structures linked to enterprise risk management. This safeguarded PepsiCo’s brands, reputation and regulatory integrity across more than 200 markets while enabling over $1 billion in annual innovation-driven growth.
In my board roles, this has included contributing to enhanced transparency, strengthened audit and oversight practices, supporting long-term strategic planning and ensuring organisations are structurally equipped to protect value while pursuing growth.
Skills and focus
- Corporate governance & Risk Management
- Aligning strategy, governance and performance oversight
- Protection of brand, reputation and regulatory integrity
- Global quality assurance transformation
- Strategic growth enablement
- Accountability, transparency and ethical leadership
Trusted by leading food companies
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Roy
Roy is known for his principled leadership, direct communication style, and unwavering commitment to integrity. He brings clarity to complex risk landscapes, always grounded in consumer protection, transparency, and trust.
Matilda
Matilda is known for her passion, focus and unwavering standards in quality and food safety. She is also recognized as strong business leader and partner. She brings scientific rigor, strategic clarity and a deeply personal dedication to protecting consumers. Ensuring that safe food is not only a requirement, but a lived value across the organisation.
Hans
Hans is known for his analytical precision, his ability to bring structure to complex systems, and his focus on solutions that are both impactful and economically sound. He prioritises substance over rhetoric and consistently aims for strategies that withstand critical scrutiny and are truly implementable.
Cliona
Cliona is known for her considered leadership style, her strong commercial sense and her ability to combine oversight with decisiveness. An excellent communicator, in the boardroom, she brings clarity, depth and constructive challenge. Cliona is always focused on protecting what matters most while enabling sustainable growth.
Eric
Eric is known as a connector: someone who listens deeply, understands different perspectives, and brings clarity to complex stakeholder environments. He combines strategic vision with strong execution, ensuring that quality and food safety strategies are not only well designed, but truly embedded within the organisation.
Tania
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Tania is a Quality and Food Safety leader aligning business strategy with operational execution. She designs and implements tailor-made Quality Management Systems that mitigate risks, strengthen customer trust, and empower teams to drive sustainable performance from the shop floor to the boardroom.