Brian Hanna CBE
Chair, British Council Northern Ireland Committee
Brian Hanna was Chief Executive of Belfast City Council from 1994 until 2002. During this time of great change within Northern Ireland he brokered the City's first agreed cross-party corporate plan which helped to create the climate and set the direction for positive change within a Belfast beginning to emerge from the trauma of the "troubles" of the previous thirty years.
He had previously been Director of Health and Environmental Services in the Council (1984-94) and this led to his involvement from 2000 to 2004 as Northern Ireland's Sustainable Development Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission.
Brian was President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health from 2002 to 2004. He is currently Chairman of the Local Government Staff Commission for Northern Ireland, a member of the Northern Ireland Public Service Commission, Deputy Chair of the Northern Ireland Science Park Foundation and a non-executive director of Titanic Quarter Limited, a private company charged with the task of regenerating an extensive area of land within the Belfast Harbour Estate previously used by Harland and Wolff.
Brian is also a member of Queen's University Belfast Senate and a governor of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, a voluntary grammar school situated in the heart of Belfast.
He has had a lifetime of involvement in sport and from 1993 to 1995 was President of the Irish Hockey Union during which period Ireland hosted both the Women's World Cup (1994) and the Men's European Cup (1995) in Dublin. He also served as Chairman of the company established to run the very successful 1999 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Belfast. He is a member of the Instonians sports club in Belfast, a club which has produced many Irish internationals in rugby, cricket and hockey including two British Lions captains.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000 for services to local government, was given an Honorary degree, Doctor of Science (Econ), by Queen's University in 2001 and made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health in 2005
Brian joined the British Council Board on 10 February 2009.
