Dr Margaret Cullen is an experienced executive educator, consultant, and practitioner who specialises in the area of corporate governance. She holds a PhD in corporate governance from University College Dublin (UCD). Margaret has almost 20 years of leadership experience in executive education working on both university accredited programmes and customised programmes. Margaret is Programme Director of UCD Smurfit Executive Education’s Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance. She has lectured on the programme since 2007 in the subject areas of role and responsibilities of the board, investor stewardship, sustainability, behavioural aspects of boards and executive remuneration and incentives.
Margaret is also Academic Director of the Institute of Banking’s (a recognised College of UCD) Certified Bank Director Programme on an associate basis and lectures bank governance on the programme. She is a fellow of the Institute of Banking. Margaret is a member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) Ireland’s associate faculty for customised programmes. She has successfully designed, led, and delivered customised corporate governance programmes for boards and senior executives across diverse industries and organisational contexts, consistently focusing on driving governance and organisational impact.
Margaret has over 15 years non-executive director experience and has extensive board and board committee experience. She was a former assessor with IoD Ireland’s board evaluation service. She was a member of the Expert Advisory Committee commissioned to conduct the governance and culture reviews of both RTE and the Arts Council in 2023 and 2025, respectively. She is a former member of the Company Law Review Group.