Meet The Board
We're an award-winning multidisciplinary team based in Europe. Please click on our profile pictures to view additional information.
David Whelan is Chief Executive Officer at ENGAGE XR which is a leading virtual world and metaverse company in the enterprise and education space.
Alongside his wife, Sandra Whelan, David co-founded the company in 2014 with the aim of bringing Immersive technology to distance learning and transform how students learn globally. In March 2018, David and the team successfully listed VR Education Holdings on the London and Irish Stock Exchanges.
David has raised over $22m in funding both privately and publicly on the open markets. David has won many international awards for his work in virtual reality including a Time Warner – Future of Storytelling Award, Vision Award and Viveport Award for his work on Apollo 11 VR and the ENGAGE enterprise platform.
David has 18 years’ software development experience with 7 of those years running his own web development studio. David previously worked as Editor and Chief at Virtual Reality Reviewer and is an experienced content writer/reviewer, video editor and audio engineer.
Richard, a Chartered Accountant, has extensive public market experience. From late 2008 to early 2017, after he had resigned, he was the CFO of GVC Holdings plc (now renamed Entain plc), one of the world’s largest sports-betting, gaming and interactive entertainment groups. He was also a non-executive director and chairman of the Audit Committee of Sportech Plc from May 2017 to October 2018.
Richard currently serves as CFO of Equals Group plc an AIM traded payments company, and serveds as the Head of the Audit Committee of Insig AI plc, a data science and ESG solutions company also listed on AIM.
Sandra Whelan is Chief Operating Officer at ENGAGE XR. She co-founded the company, alongside her husband, David Whelan in 2014. During that period, Sandra also worked as a Senior Editor and Content Creator for a top ranked virtual reality website, where she developed a strong rapport with key software developers in the industry. Sandra also has significant experience working with large corporations’ contract management and accounts management.
In March of 2018, Sandra and her team successfully listed VR Education Holdings on the London and Irish Stock Exchange.
Following this, Sandra and her husband were the recipients of The Irish Times Businesspeople of the Month Award and finalists for the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards under the Emerging Category.
Sandra was a finalist in the Irish Women’s Awards which recognises female professionals in all industries.
Sandra is a long-standing panel member on Enterprise Irelands New Frontiers nationwide programme for ambitious start up founders where she assesses and offers guidance to start-up companies.
Sandra holds a Diploma in Project Management from University College Dublin.
Séamus Larrissey is the Chief Financial Officer of ENGAGE and previously served as a Senior Project & Management Accountant at Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (“TSSG”) from 2013 to recently where he worked across projects to support the commercialisation process by developing business and financial models for new product/spinout launches.
During this period, he was the Financial Controller at Fuseami Limited, a start-up conference networking service company. Prior to joining TSSG, Séamus was an Audit Assistant Manager at Ernst & Young where he gained significant auditing and accounting experience across a broad spectrum of industries for nearly seven years.
Séamus holds a Bachelor of Business Studies in Accountancy from Waterford Institute of Technology and is part of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Kenny joined ENGAGE as a Non Executive Director during 2022 and is currently Chief Executive Officer for Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and is an ex officio board member.
Prior to joining the DAA, he spent over six years at Ryanair as Chief Marketing Officer, where he led digital, customer service, marketing and communications. During his career, he has gained valuable international experience working for major companies, including Procter and Gamble, Accenture, Metro Group GmbH, Moneysupermarket Group and Tesco as well as Ryanair.