John Fanning is a specialist in advertising, branding, marketing and communication and currently lectures on these areas at UCD’s Smurfit School of Business. He was Managing Director of McConnell’s Advertising for more than 30 years, is the author of The Importance of Being Branded: An Irish Perspective (Liffey Press, 2006) and many articles in the press. He has a long-standing commitment to the arts, and has served on the boards of the Abbey Theatre and Rough Magic Theatre company. He has recently completed a PhD in the English Department in UCD on the cultural connections between Thomas Kinsella, Sean Ó Riada and T.K. Whitaker in the 1950s and 1960s.
Date of appointment: 7 October 2011
Length of tenure: 5 years