Today, the Campaign for Change at One51, a dissident group of shareholders of the investment group One51, announced that Peter Brennan, Alf Smiddy and Gerry Killen will be put forward for election as independent non-executive directors at the AGM of the group on Wednesday, July 28, 2010.

Gerry Killen is the principal mover of the campaign for a change in the investment of strategy of the company which has focused on infrastructure, environmental services, renewables and shipping (Irish Continental). Killen is a former executive of One51 and there is likely bad blood with the CEO Philip Lynch.

One51 says it can can trace its history to the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society Ltd (the Society), established in 1897 to function as a wholesale commodity trading company on behalf of various farmer co-operatives. In 1988 IAWS Group plc (latterly Aryzta AG) was spun off from the Society in a transaction that saw IAWS acquire most of the Society's assets. In 2005 the Society decided to use some of its remaining assets to fund an investment company and One51 was created. The following year One51 registered as a plc and in February 2007, following a share exchange with Society shareholders, One51 became an independent entity.

The name comes from the headquarters of IAWS, 151 Thomas Street Dublin and between 1983 and 2005, Philip Lynch was CEO of IAWS Group plc.

The Campaign for Change at One51 is seeking the support of shareholders to elect the proposed directors to the board "in an effort to address serious issues of corporate governance at One51, to effect strategic change which will refocus the group as a greentech/cleantech operation and to re-create shareholder value and liquidity in One51 shares."

Alf Smiddy was CEO and Chairman of Beamish & Crawford Plc for over twelve years, and was a member of the board and leadership team of Scottish & Newcastle (UK) Ltd, a FTSE 100 company; Dr. Peter Brennan has a public sector background and was director of European affairs for IBEC. He was the founding managing director of A&L Goodbody Consulting and he is currently managing director of EPS Consulting which specialises in economics, policy and strategic planning; Gerry Killen was founder and CEO of Capital Leasing plc, a financial services businesses providing asset finance facilities, which was floated on the Dublin and London stock exchanges and subsequently acquired by an international bank. He was a divisional managing director of One51 where he says he established the group’s electronic waste processing facilities in Ireland and in overseas markets. He was most recently managing director of Oxigen Environmental, Ireland's leading integrated environmental services company.

The Campaign for Change at One51 today called on the independent non-executive directors of the One51 to clarify the payment in 2008 of €4.96 million in tax-free patent income by a subsidiary called Protech Performance Plastics Ltd.

Protech developed a patent for a paint bucket with an easy-open lid, and the dissidents have questioned whether the intellectual property rights were transferred to Chandela Ltd, another entity controlled by One51.