Meet the Team
Meet the team responsible for producing our award winning salads
Paddy Callaghan
Chairman
Paddy is the company founder and Chairman and has seen the business grow from garage start up to now employing 250 great team colleagues.
Paddy started out as a Mechanical Engineer before taking a leap of faith to become an Entrepreneur.
In his spare time he can be found satisfying his addiction to frequenting Supermarket shelves or battling in vain on the gym treadmill.
Paddy is delighted that two of his four children have returned from abroad, back to Ireland to join the family business and that his two grandchildren (aged 2 and 3) are happy to frequently help him with product sampling.
Rory Callaghan
Managing Director
Rory has worked for Nature’s Best for the past 3 years having previously worked in music venue management in the UK, after studying Economics in Edinburgh. He firmly believes it’s easier to sell healthy salads than beers and gig tickets.
He loves playing golf and thinking of elaborate excuses to avoid the gym. Sometimes he can be found dressed as a janitor doing really long complicated sums on the whiteboard when everyone else has gone home.
Declan Tolan
Financial Controller
Declan has been working with us for over 10 years now. An FCCA Qualified Accountant he has an Honours Degree in Accounting & Finance.
Declan worked in all areas of finance before taking over as head “bean counter” here at Nature’s Best. Incidentally he doesn’t really like beans.
He loves Playing Rugby and has a pet fish named Steve!
Ivars Shushkavnicks
Production Manager
Ivars has been working with Nature’s Best for ten years and took the reigns as production manager 3 years ago.
He believes “If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn‘t anything you can’t do if you want to!’’
Kathleen Shaw
Technical Manager
Kathleen graduated from UCD with a degree in Food Science, following which she spent 6 years working with Kerry Group. Kathleen joined the Technical team at Nature’s Best as Compliance Manager and now works as our Interim Technical Manager.
In her spare time Kathleen loves to go on walks with her family- which of course includes their German Shepherd Sheeba
Helen Kearney
Operations Manager
Helen has an Honours degree in Food Science & Nutrition from UCC and previously worked as Production Manager for Nature’s Best Ltd.
Helen has been Operations Manager since 2009 and has somehow managed to still live to tell the tale!
In her spare time, Helen loves to go on long relaxing walks on the beach with her family. She is currently learning to swim so one day her dream of swimming with dolphins can come true!
Anthony Carolan
Maintenance Manager
Anthony has been working with us for over 20 years, a Qualified Fitter by trade with a wide Experience in the Engineering field.
Anthony worked initially as a fitter in the engineering department before becoming head of the “ McIvor Department”, a role he has held for the past 17 years.
A Fond Gaelic enthusiast he coaches underage football for his local club Glen Emmets Gfc and to keep him from getting bored he is also Chairman of the club in his spare time.
Siobhan Dawdry
NPD Manager
Siobhan has been with Nature’s Best for almost 4 years.
People say she never sleeps, guarding the fridges by night from hungry foragers.
Siobhan can usually be found at all other times roaming the fields of Louth with a Caman and sliotar.
Gerry Thorpe
HR Manager
Experienced HR professional in recruitment, employee relations, training and development. Worked in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare multinationals prior to joining Nature’s Best some 12 years ago.
Gerry believes the wonderful and dedicated people he gets to work with on a daily basis are the best part of his job. Long may it continue.
Aileen Phelan
Account Manager
Aileen joined the Natures Best team in 2003 when she joined a very busy Sales Office. Currently Aileen manages one of our customer accounts.“A lover of good food – our NPD kitchen is one of my favourite places to visit – hence the need for long walks in my spare time”