Newsletter
Meet our Board Members
Extern was founded by volunteers and that same spirit of volunteerism that inspired our founder, John Fairleigh, in the mid-seventies remains embedded in our organisation today. Five decades later we are still led by volunteers – through our dedicated Board of Members, all of whom give freely of their time, energy and expertise to guide and govern Extern.
Volunteerism is more than a principle for us – it is a living practice. It speaks to the idea of service, of giving back, of being part of something bigger.
The Board Members remain deeply committed to that founding ethos: people supporting people, on their journey towards a better tomorrow.
Extern is fully committed to ensuring the best quality standards of good governance within the community and voluntary sector.
Extern’s governance structure and practices have been enhanced in 2025 to ensure that the highest standards of oversight and scrutiny are applied by our board.
Under our revised Memorandum and Articles of Association, Extern has a common Board overseeing our three legal companies: Extern Group, Extern Northern Ireland, and Extern Ireland.
The Board is supported in its insight function by four Committees to ensure the necessary scrutiny and controls are in place across all corporate and services functions.
The four Committees:
- Nominations & Remuneration
- Audit & Risk Assurance
- Finance
- Services Safeguarding & Quality
These committees work with the Board, CEO and Strategic Leadership Team as critical partners, providing specialist insights, guidance, and where necessary identifying areas for improvement.
The Committees report on a quarterly basis to the Board.
Meet our Board Members
Brendan Johnston
Chair
Brendan Johnston was appointed Chair of Extern in April 2026. A qualified social worker, he has over 30 years’ experience across social care and youth justice in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, including more than a decade as Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC). Brendan has a long-standing connection with Extern, having previously served nine years as a trustee, including six years as Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, as well as partnering with the organisation earlier in his career through his work in the Western Health & Social Care Trust. In recent years, he has also served as a trustee of several charities and housing associations, further strengthening his board-level leadership experience. This combination of governance experience and sector leadership gives him a strong understanding of commissioning environments across the island and the breadth of Extern’s services.
Anne Campbell
Extern Board Member
Dr Anne Campbell is a Professor in Substance use at QUB . She has established an international reputation for work within the drugs and alcohol sector. Her combined work in both arenas has resulted in distinctive and leading research at UK Government level drug policy and practice reform. She is currently working on ‘wearables technology ’ to detect opioid overdose deaths , labelling for alcohol products using face recognition software and women and harm reduction approaches. Notably, she has also co –authored a number of UK ACMD research papers, for example; A review of Naloxone 2022, Drugs Use and Homelessness 2019, ACMD (2020) and Novel Benzodiazepines A review of the evidence of use and harms of Novel Benzodiazepines (2020). She is also co- leading on two forthcoming reports in 2024 ; Cocaine use in the UK and Ethnic Minorities and Drug use report, all of which feed into changes in UK policy.
Dr Lynne McMordie
Extern Board Member
Dr Lynne McMordie is a Research Fellow at Heriot-Watt University’s Institute for Social Policy, Housing, and Equalities Research (I-SPHERE). With a background in Northern Ireland's voluntary and community sectors, she has been involved in developing and overseeing services to address multiple exclusion homelessness, including emergency accommodation, drop-in centre, and street outreach services. Her academic work seeks to integrates her experience in service development and oversight with her background in social policy and housing studies. She contributes to studies providing longitudinal insights into UK homelessness and destitution trends and policy responses and has also led projects on the relationship between violence against women and homelessness and a UK-wide comparative study of the role of legal remedies in preventing homelessness for survivors of domestic abuse.
Dr Joan Broder
Extern Board Member
Joan has over 40 years experience of developing, delivering and managing a range of services for adults, children and parents / carers across the island of Ireland. Upon leaving school, Joan took up a post with the Civil Service in Dublin before completing a degree in Social Administration. Joan subsequently held several positions including residential Social Worker, Director of Supporting Families and interim CEO of a charity. As a self-employed consultant Joan has experience of undertaking reviews, evaluations, tendering expertise, project management as well as acting as chair of the NI Degree in Social Work Partnership for a 5 year period.
Shane McLaughlin
Extern Board Member
Shane is a UK diplomat with extensive experience advancing security, humanitarian and development objectives in some of the world’s most complex environments, including Ukraine, Palestine, Afghanistan, the DRC and Nigeria. He combines project management, strategic planning, financial oversight and leadership, honed through delivering programmes in fragile contexts with strategic clarity and operational precision. Before joining the diplomatic service, Shane taught geography in Northern Ireland and England, then began his international career with the British Council, leading European education and cooperation initiatives. His commitment to peacebuilding began in Northern Ireland. After graduating from Queen’s University Belfast, he worked with young people from diverse communities through the Spirit of Enniskillen Trust, which promotes dialogue and reconciliation across divided groups. He later worked as an administrative assistant in one of Extern’s probation hostels, where he developed a deep admiration for the charity’s work, one that has only strengthened since becoming a trustee.
Tony O’Donovan
Extern Board Member
Tony brings a wealth of experience to the Board, having served in various capacities within Youth Justice in Ireland and Canada. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Trinity House School in Oberstown, where he held the post of Director. Tony held advisory roles within the Department of Education and to the Minister for Youth Justice and Children’s Detention, as well as developing and implementing the regulatory framework for inspection and compliance with standards for Children’s Detention Schools. As Principal Officer within the Department of Justice, Tony was closely involved in the design, construction, and oversight of the Oberstown Children Detention Campus. He researched and implemented the innovative Bail Supervision Scheme in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick, as well as securing funding to establish the Youth Justice Research Unit at the University of Limerick (REPPP), and for the implementation of the Greentown Programme—a unique project between the Department of Justice and the University of Limerick—aimed at reducing the influence of criminal networks over children and families. Tony is a graduate of UCC and NUI Maynooth. Since retiring in July 2024, he has maintained links with DCEDIY and Oberstown in an advisory capacity.
Marian Quinn
Extern Board Member
Marian has a long career in child and family services, having held roles as a community youth worker, Youthreach Coordinator and Director of Services in the HSE. In the Reception and Integration Agency, (DoJ), Marian was responsible for developing and implementing a child protection policy for Direct provision centres as well as a range of initiatives aimed at supporting families in the asylum process. She took on the CEO role with the childhood Development Initiative in 2007, from which time she has taken it from a start up to one which is recognised for its high quality, evidence based interventions, its innovative approaches and ability to translate research into learning for practice and policy. Holding an MA in Adult Education, a BSC in Youth and Community Work and a qualified General Nurse, Marian has significant governance expertise, has been a member of several Stare and NGO boards and holds a Diploma in Corporate Governance.
Noreen Wright
Extern Board Member
Ms. Wright, a barrister, joined Northern Ireland Electricity’s (NIE) in-house legal team in September 1976 and remained with NIE/Viridian until 2001. She held a number of senior management posts in the company, including that of Company Secretary and Head of Legal Services. Ms. Wright holds a number of public appointments in Northern Ireland including Member of the Industrial and Fair Employment Tribunals, Lay Magistrate and Member of the Northern Ireland Valuation Tribunal. She is currently a Director of Camerata Ireland and was previously a Director of Springvale Training Ltd and Co-operation Ireland Ltd and a Trustee of Garfield Weston Trust, University of Ulster.
Maurice Whelan
Extern Board Member
Maurice brings more than 30 years’ experience in financial services technology, most of it with Zurich Life Assurance, part of Zurich Insurance Group. As Associate Director of IT, he was accountable for the full range of IT services supporting the company’s Irish business, and led many of its largest technology investment and transformation programmes. Working in a heavily regulated environment has given him practical experience of IT governance, cyber security, operational resilience and data protection, and of translating complex technical risk into clear, risk-based reporting for boards, executive committees and audit and risk committees. He has a particular interest in how boards assure themselves that technology investment is strategically aligned and that programmes are structured from the outset to deliver the benefits on which they were approved. Maurice holds a BA in Mathematical Science and a Higher Diploma in Economics from UCD, the Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the ACCA, and professional diplomas in cyber security and project management.
Debbie Grey
Extern Board Member
Debbie is an experienced Chief Executive with a career spanning the not-for-profit, charitable and commercial sectors. She is currently CEO of the Irish Equine Centre, where she leads a complex, regulated organisation with responsibility for strategy, governance, financial sustainability, organisational development and stakeholder engagement. Her career has included leadership roles within organisations supporting adults with cerebral palsy and injured jockeys and their families, giving her a longstanding commitment to creating environments in which people feel valued, supported and able to thrive. Debbie brings extensive experience of organisational transformation, governance, strategic development, fundraising and partnership working. Her leadership approach is strongly grounded in inclusion, belonging and the importance of building trusted relationships across organisations and communities. She holds an MA in Childhood and Youth Studies and an MBA, and is undertaking a doctorate, with her research exploring leadership, belonging and organisational life through participatory action research.
Glynis Brown
Extern Board Member
Glynis is a senior public sector leader with more than 28 years’ experience across finance, governance, risk management and organisational transformation. A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), she has held a number of senior leadership roles within the Northern Ireland Civil Service, including executive board-level responsibility for finance, corporate services, governance, digital transformation and assurance. She currently leads work on green finance and investment policy, supporting the development of funding and investment approaches that deliver both economic and environmental outcomes. Throughout her career, she has advised Boards, Accounting Officers and Ministers on complex financial, governance and policy matters, including major programmes of organisational change and public sector reform. Glynis has served on the Audit and Risk Committees of Threshold and the Irish Football Association, bringing non-executive experience in financial oversight, governance and risk assurance. A strong advocate for public service, Glynis is passionate about creating opportunities that help people and communities thrive. She brings strategic insight, sound judgement and a collaborative approach to governance, together with a commitment to supporting Extern’s mission of helping people overcome challenges and build better futures.