Board

The ITTA is governed by an elected Board of Directors who are:    

Joseph Hickey, ITTA President

Joseph A. Hickey is the President of the ITTA. Previous posts include Honorary Treasurer of the Leinster Branch, Honorary Secretary of the Association, Chairman of the Senior International Selection Committee and Chairman of the ITTA. He is a former Senior International table tennis player and NPC. At a professional level, he was the Founder (in 1984) and remains as Managing Director and majority shareholder of the Pearse Trust Group, which has offices in Ireland, England, New Zealand, the USA and Canada, with associated offices in other countries. His qualifications include Barrister at Law, a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the International Tax Planning Association and a Fellow of the Institute of Association Management. 

John O’Donoghue, ITTA High Performance Director

John has been involved in Table Tennis for 27 years. During this time he has been a coach, administrator and coach tutor. John is a Level Three Coach and an ITTA/Coaching Ireland coach tutor. He coaches in Eastpoint Table tennis Club which has been in existence for the past 13 years and before that was coach to St Tiernan’s club. In that time he has coached many Irish International players both at Junior and Senior level and introduced hundreds of players to the sport of table tennis. He has served as the Irish National Coach for Juniors and Cadets since 1992. He also coached the Mens team at a World Championships in 2008 and the Ladies team at the European championships in 1992. John completed the Coaching Ireland Tutor course in 2000 and has delivered coaches courses ever since. He has also been involved in developing the coaching syllabi for Level One and Level Two. John was a member of the Leinster Junior Committee for 6 years and then a member of the Leinster Senior Branch. He has coached Leinster Junior and Senior teams at Interprovincial championships for the past 25 years John is also a teacher in St Tiernans Community School where he has worked for 25 years and has been involved in all aspects of the life of the school including being a tutor to several classes over the years and organising the annual sports awards ceremony. He was chairman of the Leinster Schools League for 15 years and then secretary for a further 5 years.  

Kenneth Strong, ITTA International Director

Kenneth is the International Secretary of the ITTA. He has been involved in almost all aspects of the sport for almost 40 years. His work as a voluntary administrator has led him to serve as Secretary (16 years) and Chairman and President (5 years each) of the ITTA’s Ulster Branch. He is a former ITTA Chairman and Chairman of the former National Training & Selection Committee. Kenneth has coached Irish Junior and Senior teams at World, European and 6 Nations Championships from 1981 to 2000 as well as Ulster Teams. As a Level 3 Coach he led work on preparing the Level 2 coaching syllabus and the 2006 – 2009 Coaching Plan. As a player he gained County and Senior Interprovincial honours. Kenneth is a member of the NI Sports Forum and of the Mary Peters Trust Selection Committee as well as of various Omagh District Council advisory committees. In his professional life Kenneth was a senior civil servant in the NI Civil service prior to early retirement in 2003. He is a university graduate who specialized in Social, Community, Economic & Physical Regeneration.  

Ben Haughton, ITTA Participation Director

Ben Haughton is the Participation Director of the ITTA. He has been involved with the sport for 30 years, as a Player (sort of!!), Coach and in Administration. He has coached many players that have represented Ireland at different levels. During his time as a Coach/Organiser he has had much involvement with Clubs, Schools and Universities, which is ideal for this position.  Ben has coached Irish teams in the Past. He has been a coach at the Interprovincial level at both Senior and Junior level.  Ben is also a Civil Engineer and BER Assessor who works with his father in a family business, Haughton Engineering Ltd.

Patricia Hunter, ITTA Finance Director

In preparation