Our People

Donncha Haverty (B.Sc., Ph.D.) 
CEO, HKPB Scientific Limited

Donncha has a B.Sc. in Industrial chemistry and received his Ph.D. in Quantum Chemistry at the University of Limerick in 2005. He has also lectured physical chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Limerick. Dr. Haverty has more than 15 years experience as a researcher working in the area of biomaterials chemistry and surface science, particularly Hydroxyapatite. Over the course of his career he has concentrated on commercial research, including industrial projects in Ireland and Australia with companies like Cook Inc. Aughinish Alumina and the CSIRO (the Australian Commonwealth Science and Research Organisation), an Australian government research body established to provide research expertise to Industry. He is a named inventor on five patents in the biomaterials space since 2005 and is published in the scientific literature. In 2006 Dr Haverty founded EnBIO and has extensive experience in the high-technology start-up space. He founded HKPB Scientific in 2008 with Dr Kennedy.

David J. O'Flynn (B.C.L., LL.M)
CFO, HKPB Scientific Limited.

David is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tolisons Private Equity which has invested in HKPB Scientific. As part of the Tolisons Private Equity's investment in HKPB Scientific, David has taken up the role of Chief Financial Officer.

David graduated from University College Cork with an Honours Law Degree. Subsequently he completed a Masters Degree of Laws and trained as an apprentice solicitor with Nagle & Co. in Cork. He has wide experience in land use, planning and environmental law. In particular, he has acted as external consultant to many major organisations within the extractive industry.

Following his legal training, David trained and worked as a tax consultant with the FDC Group, one of the largest accountancy firms in the country. Here he specialised in advising private clients as well as Irish based companies in relation to: purchase and sale of businesses, passing assets to family members, estate planning and providing personal tax and wealth management advice to high net worth individuals.

During his time as a professional, David also successfully fostered his own entrepreneurial interests in a wide range of industries from renewable energy to web based enterprises.
David's personal business successes have been built on a strong understanding of national and international legislative regimes, his ability to identify and engage with new business opportunities and his drive to successfully deliver predetermined business objectives.

Brendan Kennedy (B.Sc., Ph.D.)
CTO, HKPB Scientific Limited.

Brendan has a B.Sc. in Industrial Chemistry and received his Ph.D. in Electro-Chemistry from the University of Limerick in 2006. He is a named inventor on two patents and has 8 years experience in the commercial research space. In addition to having a proven research record in nanotechnology with several peer reviewed journal publications under an international, collaborative EU-IST project, (EU-Molecular Interconnect for Nano-technology) Dr. Kennedy has also worked in China's, Guizhou province as a consultant with CENERGY a company providing environmental solutions to the coal mining industry in China regarding Coal Mine Methane (CMM) utilisation under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Brendan spent two years as senior scientist in Trust Water an innovative Irish company providing proprietary electrolytic water purification technologies to the industrial and health care sectors. Brendan founded HKPB Scientific in 2008 with Dr. Haverty.

Joseph Murray (BE Elec., Grad Dip. Chem. Eng., Ph D.)
COO, HKPB Scientific Limited.

Joe graduated from University College Cork with a degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering in 1997. In 2003 he completed a graduate diploma in Chemical engineering at the University of Limerick and completed his PhD in physical chemistry in 2008. Joe is a member of the IChemE and his work experience includes 3 years as an electronic engineer and 4 years in the chemical process industry. More recently Joe worked as senior Engineer with a start-up wind energy company and was responsible for the management of wind farm construction projects in the south of Ireland.

Paul Rigby (B. Sc. Mech Eng)
Manufacturing Manager, HKPB Scientific Limited.

Paul worked for more than 30 years with the Procter  and Gamble (P&G) Company, in many locations within Europe, the US and the Far East. He joined P&G in 1970 after completing his degree at U.M.I.S.T. As a junior engineer working in a manufacturing plant in the UK, he undertook the stewardship of engineering systems for thermal and process safety. Paul soon progressed into project management taking projects from conceptual feasibility studies through to the detailed design and construction of manufacturing operations. He is also considered expert in C.Q.V. (commissioning, qualification and verification). He has extensive experience as a production manager, managing chemical process operations and high speed packing lines; during these assignments he had responsibility for over one hundred direct employees. As a senior engineer Paul spent 5 years in the P&G Brussels office working within the R&D division on new initiatives and ideas, with responsibility for all aspects of the new product development cycle, feasibility, costing and manufacturing capability. He has experience as health and safety manager leading fire protection, process safety, electrical safety, environmental management and risk assessment.

Pat Kelly
Manufacturing Operations, HKPB Scientific Limited

Pat has 20 years experience working in a GMP manufacturing environment. He has extensive experience in the formulation of pharmaceuticals products, maintenance of line operations and the management of ancillory plant services including a waste water treatment plant. Pat has also had responsibility for environmental monitoring as per OPC licence requirements and reporting on same to the EPA and relevant local governement authorities in a manufacturing environment.

Majella Keogh
Office Manager, HKPB Scientific Limited

Majella has over 14 years of diverse experience in Administration, Customer Service, Credit Control and Sales. After completing her college education in the Galway, Mayo Institute of Technology, she worked with Edward Dillon & Co Ltd, a wine and spirits Distribution Company based in Dublin in their Credit Control Department. In 2002 Majella joined IBM Ireland based in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Here she took a position as Personal Assistant to the Territory Managers for Ireland. Furthermore, she provided extensive sales support to the GSMB team (7 members).

Having grown up in Nenagh, Majella return to her home town in 2007 and took up the position of Heavy Glass Planning Manager with Carey Glass, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. During her time with Carey Glass Majella gained valuable experience across all areas of the business including business development, marketing and office management. Majella's ability to adapt to demands and required skill sets of different industries has been core to her professional development to date. Majella joined HKPB Scientific in November 2010 as Office and Purchasing Manager. Her role in HKPB Scientific takes in a wide array of diverse responsibilities including dealing with human resources, ordering supplies, performing payroll monthly runs using SAGE, carrying out accounting duties, and implementing functions necessary for the efficient running of the business.

Dr. Seamus McMonagle
Senior Advisor, CES Dept., University of Limerick

Dr. McMonagle has been a senior lecturer in Physical Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of Limerick for over 20 years. His expertise encompasses physical/solid state chemistry including catalysis, semiconductor sensors, computational structural and surface chemistry. Dr. McMonagle is a chartered member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and prior to his academic career he worked as a process and chemical engineer with DuPont in Canada. Dr. McMonagle's chemical engineering expertise extends to multiphase reaction engineering, aerosol flame spray synthesis, continuous and batch reactor design, biochemical reactor design, process control and automation, computational fluid dynamics and process engineering.

Dr. Tewfik Soulimane
Advisor

Dr. Soulimane joined the University of Limerick faculty in 2008 as a lecturer in Biochemistry. Prior to that he held prestigious research positions at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex, UK; the Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried, RWTH-Aachen and Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Germany; the Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland and the University of Limerick. His expertise includes membrane protein biology particularly structural resolution of integral neurological membrane proteins and understanding their biochemical and biophysical function as receptors.

Professor Tony Pembroke
Advisor and Chair Biochemistry, CES Dept. University of Limerick

Professor Pembroke has been a lecturer in biochemistry on the faculty at the University of Limerick for over 20 years. His expertise includes bacterial biofilms implicated in human infections and mortality, strategies to combat antibiotic resistance and biomaterials, specifically novel tissue engineering materials based on hyaluronic acid modifications that release metal ions. Other interests include molecular phylogenetics of thermal bioremediation and the development of enzymes for biofuel production from cellulose wastes.