At today’s meeting of the Board of Novara Technology Sean Donnelly was appointed as Non-executive Chairman.

Mr. Donnelly was formerly an Executive Director of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). He was a member of the Expert Review Group that produced a four-year strategic plan in 1993 for the development of the Food Industry. He had responsibility for all Irish-owned industry and became a member of the IDA Executive Board. He was responsible for producing IDA strategic plans for a number of industrial sectors including Food, Telecommunications, Aerospace, Timber, Clothing and Software.

In 1988 Mr. Donnelly was seconded from the IDA to become Special Projects Advisor in the Department of the Taoiseach, reporting directly to the Taoiseach.

With the re-organisation of Ireland's Industrial Development Agencies, Mr. Donnelly was appointed Executive Director of Enterprise Ireland, maintaining his development responsibility for all Irish-owned industry together with overseas investment in natural-resource-based sectors.

In January 1995 Mr. Donnelly was appointed Chairman of the Industry Research and Development Committee, which has a budget of €200m.

In October 1996 Mr. Donnelly left Enterprise Ireland to establish his own business development consultancy and is now Director/Advisor of a number of companies and organisations across a wide range of sectors, including Qualceram/Shires plc, SIAC Butler Steel, Chanelle Group, Michael H Fashions, Prospectus, Strata3, Sattal, Homewatch Caregivers, Donnelly's Fruit & Vegetables, NCTC, Irish Sports Council and the GAA.

Mr. Donnelly was a member of the Strategic Review Committee of the GAA, which presented a ten-year strategy for the organisation and reported in January 2002. He was also a member of the Advisory Team for the Prospectus Strategic Study of the Irish Dairy Processing Industry, published in 2002.