Our People

Colman Collins was one of the founders of Collins McNicholas in 1990 and served as Joint Managing Director with his partner Val McNicholas until 2003 when Val retired. He was then sole Managing Director of the company until Niall Murray, Antoinette O’Flaherty and Michelle Murphy bought out the company in November 2015. Previously Colman worked in executive-level roles in Human Resources and Customer Services with Nortel Networks, and in HR with Westinghouse Switchcontrols and Thermo King. He has a B.Comm degree, a post graduate Diploma in Social Science, a Diploma in the Psychology of Counselling and a post graduate Diploma in Management Practice. He is a certified business coach and is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Colman currently sits on the board as a Management Consultant for Collins McNicholas.

Padraic has been Executive Chairman of the Collins McNicholas Group since 1998. He is Chairman of a range of SME companies and chairs the Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund managed by Kernel Capital. Padraic is chairman of the Louth Economic Forum which is a pioneering local authority initiative bringing together representatives of the business community, State agencies, DkIT and local authority management to advance economic development and job creation in the county and surrounding areas. Padraic was Managing Director of the Industrial Development Authority of Ireland (IDA Ireland) in the decade to June 1990 when Ireland endured and then emerged from the last prolonged recession. During his tenure, IDA negotiated the initial location in Ireland of some of today’s leading multinationals such as Microsoft, IBM Software and Intel. He was the inaugural Chairman of the Railway Procurement Agency [2002-2007] which was responsible for the construction, launch and initiation of the LUAS light rail services in Dublin. He is a native of Kinlough, County Leitrim, and is married to Senator Mary White, co-founder of Lir Chocolates Ltd.