Cait Noone

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Cait Noone is that rare bird: a highly visible academic.
Academics and university people may burst into public consciousness every once in a while – hello Thomas Piketty! – but for the most part they stay away from the rough and tumble. Cait Noone doesn't do that – she is in the rough and tumble, she is the organiser, the spark, the catalyst, the galvaniser. If there is something happening in the food world on the west coast of Ireland, chances are that Cait Noone is not only behind it, but also in front of it.
There she is at the Galway Food Festival. There she is at the SKAL tourism dinner. There she is on the board of COPE Galway. There she is masterminding the GMIT Food Forums, cajoling speakers to turn up, persuading chefs to demo, making everyone feel welcome and valued. There she is at meetings of the Taste Council of Ireland, and at Eurotoques forums, turning theory into practice, collaborating, colluding.
She returned to Ireland from China as head of the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management in GMIT in 2007, later becoming head of College Tourism and Arts in 2012. Her gift to her colleagues and students has been a simple one: she engages with the real world, she brings the ivory tower of academe into the day-to-day graft of striving and creativity that is the world of food and hospitality. She knows what makes things tick, and she knows what makes things happen. She knows what the politics of life and work are all about.

Head of College of Tourism and Arts, GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway
+ 353 742236
http://www.gmit.ie/about/cait-noone