Noel Daly
Noel has over 40 years’ healthcare experience in the Irish, UK, US and European Health Systems.
Noel Daly is Irish and has a breadth of experience in both the public and private healthcare sectors. In the public sector, he was Head of Education and Training with the Health Education Bureau having joined from Meath VEC where he was Education Officer. He subsequently became CEO of An Bord Altranais (Nursing and Midwifery Board). Noel was responsible along with the Minister for Health for implementing the Nurses Act in 1987. As well as introducing many innovations Noel was seconded to the World Health Organisation (WHO) where as well as working on Maternal and Child Projects in Geneva, he led major projects as part of the AIDS Programme in Zambia, Tanzania, Liberia and Kenya. In addition, he was appointed to several Government bodies including Comhairle an nOspidéal where he chaired a special group appointed to make decisions on the future of neurosurgery in the country. After a career spanning 20 years in the public sector, Noel moved to the Private Health Sector.
In the Private Health Sector, Noel gained a wealth of experience in business growth and acquisition, organisational change, and developing partnerships both nationally and internationally. He has held roles which required moving to the US in 1988 for 2 years to prepare and take Gerber Alley, a leading US Hospital Information Systems Company, international. This proved to be very successful and the company trading out of Ireland saw market expansion as far away as Australia. The company was subject to 2 acquisitions in quick succession and Noel was appointed as Vice President International with a global remit. In 1997, Noel was headhunted to take another US company, First Consulting Group international. Based in London, this was accomplished over a 3-year period. During this time, the company also undertook a successful IPO. Following the sudden death of the founder and new leadership as part of the REED SMITH Group, Noel availed of an opportunity to lead a Management Buy-Out (MBO) of the consulting business, and in 2003 founded The Health Partnership. The portfolio of this initiative included the extensive development of the Beacon Hospital, Whitfield in Waterford and Vista Primary Care centre in Naas. In addition, the company was part of the initial project team for the new National Children’s Hospital. Also during this time, Noel was involved in a Primary Care start-up company Meret and was a Non-Executive Director of a Dutch analytics company.
In 2012, Noel retired from The Health Partnership and embarked on a number of Non-Executive roles. The first was Brindley Healthcare, a nursing home group with 5 homes initially which grew to 10 before being sold in April 2021 to Orpea, a French PLC. Noel was Chairman of Brindley Healthcare for 4-years prior to the sale. In 2013, the then Minister for Health, James Reilly approached Noel to chair the newly created West/Northwest Hospitals Group now known as Saolta. The commitment was for 3 years, and following the public assignment, Noel joined the Board of 352 Healthcare (now Kingsbridge Hospital Group). In 2016, the Group acquired St. Joseph’s Hospital in Sligo. Further to this, he was appointed to the Board of PonteMed AG based in Austria which specialises in new technologies designed to rebuild the pelvic floor. In August 2019, Noel was appointed as Group Chairman of the Eakin Healthcare Group headquartered in Northern Ireland, one of the world’s leading providers of ostomy products. In December 2020, the company acquired Armstrong Medical a leading international provider of respiratory products.
In addition to his exciting public and private sector careers, Noel served as a Member of the Governing Body of NUIG (National University of Ireland, Galway) for 8 years from 2013 to 2021. During his tenure, he also served as Chairman of the University’ s Audit Committee.