Speaker Bios
Who is speaking at the IUSA Conference 2024
Mr. Declan Dunne
Declan Dunne is the Chief Executive Officer of Respond, a Government Approved Housing Body and registered charity focusing of social justice.
Respond builds affordable social and cost rental homes, with its own large team of inhouse architects, planners, quantity surveyors, project managers, solicitors, accountants, housing managers and compliance experts. It owns more than 7,500 homes throughout Ireland and recently announced the commencement of an additional 2,900 new homes which will bring it to 4,400 homes Respond has in construction.
Respond is committed to building homes and improving lives in thriving neighbourhoods. More than half of its staff are employed to provide early years, after school, elder care, refugee, family support and homeless services in more than thirty services. In addition, it has over 100 community buildings in neighbourhoods throughout Ireland.
Declan is an experienced CEO. He started his career building a business over many years and sold to a publicly quoted American multi-national, ADT.
He served as a non-executive Director of the Ballymun Regeneration Board for ten years, the largest urban regeneration project in Europe, where he chaired its Audit Committee.
He was instrumental in securing the funding commitment of €15million from Chuck Feeneys Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department of Children for the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme to support the social and emotional development of children in Ballymun.
Declan was Chair of the Housing Alliance from 2019 to 2021. The Housing Alliance is a collaboration of six of Ireland’s largest Approved Housing Bodies and in this capacity he served as a member of the High Level Housing Delivery Group established by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, T.D.
He previously chaired the Homeless Network of all the major Homeless Agencies in Dublin and also served on the National Childcare Coordinating Committee in the Department of Children for six years.
He served as a ministerial appointee, for two three year terms on the Board of the National Education Welfare Board, a Statutory Agency which was established to promote school attendance and also chaired its Audit Committee.
Declan is actively interested in housing, education, and family services and served on many other boards and committees on these issues.
He has been an invited speaker at the OECD, USAID and other national and international conferences. Declan was awarded a U.S. State Department Exchange programme on Accessing the Economy in Boston College.
Declan is particularly proud to have served as President of the Ireland United States Alumni Association.
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