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, Finance, and Services, Safeguarding & Quality, 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
Dr Lynne McMordie
Interim Chairperson
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 an Education Adviser for the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. He graduated from Queen's University Belfast and achieved his Masters in Education from the University of Nottingham. Shane previously worked in Kabul, where he had oversight of a girls education programme, working with the Afghanistan government to increase girls access and improve learning outcomes for 70,000 girls. Shane has also worked for the UK’s Stabilisation Unit and the British Council working on multilateral policy and managing international education programs with UK and EU funding. Shane is currently supporting education reform and promoting girls' education to increase access to quality education in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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.