Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern Worldwide, has been appointed as Chairperson of the Convention on the Constitution by the Government. Mr Arnold will be paid for his work as Chair of the Convention. He will initially continue in his current position as CEO of Concern Worldwide but has indicated that he will step down from that position during 2013 as the work of the Convention grows. His precise remuneration will be agreed in due course, in that context.
Mr Arnold is has served as CEO of Concern Worldwide since October 2001. Prior to that, he worked with the Department of Agriculture and Food as Assistant Secretary General and Chief Economist, with ACOT, the farm advisory and training body, and with the European Commission.
He has also chaired the OECD Committee for Agriculture and the European Food Security Group, a network of European NGOs dealing with international food security and is currently a member of the Consortium Board for the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Additionally, he has served on the Commission on Taxation and the Irish Hunger Task Force. At international level, he was a member of the first Board for the UN Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) and of the UN Millennium Project’s Hunger Task Force. He is currently Chair of the Irish Times Trust and a Director of the Irish Times newspaper.
Mr Arnold holds a degree in agricultural economics from UCD and Master’s degrees from the Catholic University of Louvain and from Trinity College Dublin.
The Taoiseach welcomed the appointment and Mr Arnold’s “strong personal commitment to justice and to improving the lives of citizens around the world” which “make him an ideal choice for this task”.
Also welcoming the appointment, the Tánaiste stated that this year, “as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Bunreacht na hEireann, the Government has established a process to ensure that our Constitution is equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Along with the Chair, each member of the Convention has an important job to do on behalf of Irish society and I look forward to the outcome of their deliberations.”