In 2008 the Forum became a Limited Company, governed by a Board whose members are:

Frank Nugent M.A. MIITD. - Chairperson: Frank is a founding member and is the current honorary chair of IUF. He was involved in organising and contributed to the Galway Conference in 1995. Much of his recreation time is spent mountaineering among Irish hills and upland districts. He is a former Chair of the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (1997 to 2000) and has climbed in Ireland, Britain, the Alps, Pyrenees, Greenland, Himalayas and Andes ranges as well as participating in sailing expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica.

He was deputy leader of the first successful Irish Everest Expedition (Stelfox1993) and a member of the crew of Northabout, when it sailed the Northwest Passage in 2001. He is author of Seek the Frozen Lands – A history of Irish Polar Explorers 1740 to 1922. Professionally Frank is an expert in occupational training, curriculum and assessment design. Now retired from FÁS – the former state Training and Employment Authority he holds a Masters Degree in Adult Learning and Development with NUIG and is researching the history of Irish alpine pioneers.

Alan Craig - Treasurer: Former Director, National Parks and Wildlife Service, 1999-2006, now retired. Studied botany and did research on vegetation history in Ireland and USA, before joining the OPW National Parks section, where he became Senior Naturalist and later Chief Parks Superintendent. Has also been active in a variety of voluntary organisations and bodies concerned with community development, conservation and education.

Sean Byrne - Vice-Chairperson Lives in the Wicklow Mountains overlooking Lough Dan where he operates an 80 acre hill farm and a successful guesthouse specialising in walking holidays, also involved in road haulage and road passenger transport, a founding member of Wicklow Uplands Council and board member for over 10 years, member of Wicklow Mountains National Park advisory council, member of advisory committee of the EPA.

Brendan O’Hanrahan: Studied Zoology degree at Trinity – 1987. Postgraduate research on ptarmigan & setaside community ecology at Aberdeen University, but didn’t complete PhD. Worked for Scottish Natural Heritage for c. 5 years as peatland vegetation surveyor and Habitats Directive Officer – Sutherland and Western Isles. Have worked since 2001 as freelance ecological consultant, specialising in peatland and montane vegetation studies. Since 2004 much of work has focused on assessing habitat condition and large herbivore impacts on sites with these habitats. Also led multi-year programme of survey for upland grasslands and fens in Cairngorms National Park. Drafted overall survey methodology, provisional vegetation classification and habitat condition assessment methodologies for Irish Upland Survey for NPWS 2009.

Colin Murphy: A community and peace activist. He combined a business career in Belfast and Dublin with involvement in many voluntary/non-governmental organisations. Current connections include Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation (Chair of Policy Council) and Wicklow Uplands Council (Director 2000-2011). He has a particular interest in consensus-building and the search for ways out of stressful conflict. Colin was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in 2006 for services to Glencree. Colin is particularly interested in the context that Wicklow Uplands Council’s founders developed in the mid -1990’s around the importance of local involvement and statutory/non-statutory partnerships in rural communities and landscapes in the mountains south of Dublin. These concepts provided the inspiration behind the Council’s leadership under its two chairpersons: Dermot Hand and Declan O’Neill. Thus Colin was enabled to work on projects such as voluntary countryside access, litter management, sustainable trails private woodlands, local heritage interpretation, vegetation management etc. This journey has been supported by the Heritage Council and has been aided by the broader national remit and activities of Irish Uplands Forum.

Dr. Peter Norton: Lives in County Wicklow, is a native of Yorkshire, a zoologist who graduated at Trinity and completed a paleoecology PhD at Cambridge. He is a former lecturer at the university of Glasgow. He then studied for ordination at Durham and served as a Church of England clergyman for 23 years including vicar and rural dean in Cumbria, part time chaplain to the army and airforce and honorary Canon of Carlisle. He represents Mountaineering Ireland on the IUF board.

Ruairí Ó Conchúir: Lives in the Burren County Clare. He has worked for the last 20 years in agricultural management, land reform, conservation and community based eco-tourism projects in Ireland and South Africa. He is an active hillwalker and mountaineer and was chair of Mountaineering Ireland’s (MI) access and conservation committee for many years. He is the current chair of the Board of MI.