Robert Chestnutt

Robert has over 40 years of experience in hospitality, food processing, distribution, retailing, education, professional services, property and not-for-profit sectors. He held senior roles in finance with large companies in the food and retail sectors such as Kerry Group, Clover Meats, H Williams and Irish Country Meats. At EGB, (controlled by the Irish-American entrepreneur Chuck Feeney and founding Chairman of Atlantic Philanthropies), as Finance Director and subsequently Chief Executive, he operated a group encompassing three hotels, a third-level school and a serviced offices business.

He subsequently lead the purchase and construction of two hotels with private investors and established a company to operate those hotels in Limerick also on behalf of private investors. He also helped launch and was a partner in a senior level Executive Search and Selection consultancy based in Dublin and an HR Consultancy practice based in Cork.

For the past 12 years, he has been working with SME owners in the Professional Services, Hospitality/Leisure/Tourism, Retail, Agribusiness, Private Clients and Not-for-Profit sectors providing Restructuring, Strategic Planning, Mergers/Acquisitions/Disposals, Governance and Human Capital advisory services in those areas.

He had been the external member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee of SOLAS and its predecessor from February 2013 to September 2020 when his term of office expired. He has been an external member of the Audit Committee of the Discovery Programme: Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland since 2017 and the independent chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee of Limerick 20:30, a company owned by Limerick City and County Council charged with the regeneration of Limerick, since 2019. He is a director and company secretary of Historic Hotels of Europe a company that supports owner operated historic hotels throughout Europe.

He is a member of Chartered Accountants Ireland.