Dr Conor Nolan, Professor Breda McTaggert, Dr Gaia Barone

NCI is responsive to the ever-changing needs of industry and society. Founded in 1951 as the Catholic Workers’ College, the demands of trades unions, businesses and ambitious employees saw it become the National College of Industrial Relations in 1966.

In 2000, with an expanded suite of programmes, the college became National College of Ireland, and a distinct School of Business was formed to encompass those subjects.

In 2011, the School of Business added Psychology to its offerings. Forward-looking, NCI also created the Centre for Education and Lifelong Learning, comprising education programmes and caring for the college’s own pedagogic development, now managed by the Teaching Enhancement Department.

2025 sees NCI on the cusp of its 75th year, with a greatly expanded campus, since it first put down roots Dublin’s North-East Inner City, and the time has come for another evolution, to best serve our students, expedite research, and to keep NCI resilient into the future.

Merging legacy disciplines

Today we introduce the School of Business and Social Sciences, led by our new Dean, Professor Breda McTaggert.

“We followed a collaborative process to successfully merge two legacy disciplines. A name holds deep meaning. We wanted a name that our students could be proud of, that would also showcase our expertise and strength. The name we have chosen reflects our history but also captures our aspirations for the future, unlocking untapped opportunities.” – Professor Breda McTaggert, Dean of Business and Social Sciences.

NCI School of Business and Social Sciences coherently consolidates NCI’s expertise in Business, Psychology and Education. Working alongside Dean Breda McTaggert are newly appointed Vice Deans, Gaia Barone and Conor Nolan.

New appointments, fresh perspectives

“The School and its team are deeply committed to making a positive contribution to higher education and all that entails. We possess the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to achieve this. My ambition as Dean is to provide the professional leadership and create the supportive conditions that will enable both our students and the School to realise their imagined futures.” – Professor Breda McTaggert, Dean of Business and Social Sciences.

“I see my strongest impact in the international dimension. With a background of studying and teaching in multiple countries, and with networks across Europe, and the United States, I am in a strong position to connect NCI with new partners and opportunities. I have personally and professionally seen how studying abroad and participating in global initiatives can transform student experience. At NCI I brought students to the Rotman International Trading Competition, where they excelled; next year, we will join the new European edition in Rome, opening opportunities to connect with peers from across 40 countries. Initiatives like these give students confidence, build NCI’s reputation, and embed internationalisation into the daily life of our School. That is the ambition I bring to the Vice Dean role.” – Dr Gaia Barone, Vice Dean of Business.

“My ambition is to help the newly formed Social Sciences side of the School to develop and grow. I want to continue to strengthen the excellent research that’s being done within the School, I want to expand the offerings being provided at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, I want to explore collaborations between existing disciplines and identify new areas where NCI can lead in providing outstanding education. I want to ensure that NCI students continue to have a high quality, valuable education experience and that the teams within the School feel supported.” – Dr Conor Nolan, Vice Dean for Social Sciences.

Profile: Professor Breda McTaggert has worked in the public sector in management positions for over twenty years. She is committed to collaboration and continuous improvement, while cognisant of the challenges and opportunities within the further and higher education landscape for all its stakeholders.

“I joined education with the purpose of supporting students to change their lives through, and with, educational opportunities.”

Research active, Professor McTaggert is particularly interested in the study and actioning of professional leadership, widening access, learner engagement, and institutional development.

“I have long been interested in the field of leadership, and more recently, in the concept of professional leadership, what it means to individuals, professions, and society. In a time of significant change within organisations and the wider world, understanding the responsibilities tied to leadership roles is more critical than ever. Leaders hold the potential to drive positive, meaningful change. My research seeks to explore this, what enables or inhibits professional leadership occurring, and where and how ethical practice occurs within that frame.

“For NCI, I feel this School is a natural evolution of a near-75-year legacy of experience in higher education. The creation of the School of Business and Social Sciences marks the next step forward”.

Profile: Dr Gaia Barone was Assistant Professor of Finance and Programme Director of the MSc in Finance at NCI and, earlier, Assistant Professor of Mathematical Methods for Economics at LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome. She received her Ph.D. in Money and Finance from Tor Vergata University of Rome and an M.Sc. in Financial Mathematics from Stanford University in California.

“Lecturing at NCI was my first role in Ireland, so I associate it with the openness of one country and culture welcoming another. NCI means opportunity, inclusivity, accessibility, and the belief that education changes lives. I deeply share this mission: not all of us are given the same tools, the same starting points, or the same forms of intelligence, but each of us has been given unique gifts. My role as an educator is to help students recognise their gifts, to give them the knowledge and support to grow, and to show them that if they put in a proportional effort, every dream is within reach. I feel aligned with NCI’s mission ‘to change lives through education’.”

Dr Barone’s research interest is in finance, particularly credit risk, and she has published in international journals of economics and finance.

“Quantitative finance has always been my passion. Arbitrages have always fascinated me: these are risk-free profit opportunities exploitable only through a deep understanding of markets. They embody what I truly believe: research, study, and advanced knowledge open the door to greater opportunities. My passion for arbitrages was inspired by Steve Ross, whose Arbitrage Pricing Theory reshaped finance and who personally encouraged my work on credit risk models. His support opened the door to Stanford University, one of the most transformative experiences of my life. Since then, for over fifteen years, my focus has been structural credit risk models. In my PhD I developed the Perpetual-Debt Structural Model, a framework that, in its simplicity, captures the reality of firms and delivers more stable and timely credit risk estimates than existing alternatives. To me, it shows that in quantitative subjects, simplicity often wins over unnecessary complexity.”

Profile: Dr Conor Nolan joined NCI as associate faculty in 2017 before coming on board full-time in 2020. Conor completed his undergraduate degree in psychology at UCD, where he also undertook postgraduate studies in child and adolescent mental health, in conjunction with Lucena Clinic.

“I knew I wanted to work in psychology since I was a teenager. I have family experience with intellectual disability and saw how psychology played a role in diagnosing and supporting those with intellectual disabilities, autism and mental health problems. Psychology is a broad discipline, which is applied in a wide range of contexts and to a variety of issues. I always knew I wanted to focus on child and adolescent areas, as I believe that early intervention is essential.”

After that he went on to do a professional doctorate in behavioural psychology at Maynooth University. Conor is a Chartered Psychologist with the Psychological Society of Ireland, where he is also Co-Chair of Undergraduate Accreditation Committee, and committee member of the Division of Behavioural Psychology. Prior to becoming Vice-Dean for Social Sciences, Conor was programme director for the full time psychology degree at NCI. Conor also supervises masters level research at Trinity College Dublin and sits on a programme board at University of Galway.

Conor’s research interests include Relational frame theory (RFT), contextual behavioural science, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), child mental health, stigma, implicit attitudes, autism, developmental psychology, intellectual disabilities, language acquisition. 

“I have a broad range of research interests. NCI may be relatively small, but its research outputs are exceptional, with staff regularly publishing in top peer reviewed journals, winning competitive grants and engaging in cross-institutional collaborations. NCI also has a dedicated, passionate staff enthusiastically engaging with students full of potential. Teaching is about sharing knowledge, broadening perspectives, developing critical thinking, expanding potential and preparing students for life beyond college. Specifically within psychology, it’s about providing the best quality education experience for students so that they can go on and pursue their desired career, be that in psychology or other fields. Setting students up to go on to be the next generation of psychologists.”