Andy Reed

Founder, Think Tank

A former MP for Loughborough, Andy has a wealth of experience in government relations and policy. Andy is the founder of the independent Sports Think Tank and he sits on numerous sport, Social enterprises, companies and charity boards in a voluntary capacity. Andy describes himself as a ‘social entrepreneur’ and it is his desire for aspiring to transform organisations and individuals that led him to establish his Saje Impact company  in 2010 – offering support to sport, charities on strategy, communications and improving their impact


Angela Canavan

CEO, CB & Associates

Angela Canavan is CEO and founder of CB & Associates (a HR Services company) and award winning Canavan Byrne Management and Training Solutions, a firm specialising in compliance services to the early years sector. She is a graduate of UCD and NUI Maynooth. Angela is in business over 20 years and has vast experience in the area of human resource management and training.  She also has wide experience in working with community based charitable organisations and has served on several voluntary boards of management.  She is a fellow of the All-Ireland Business Foundation and was named their Thought Leader for 2022.  


Amy Woods

Manager, Volunteer Ireland

Amy joined Volunteer Ireland in August 2015 as Communications and Advocacy Officer and was promoted to the role of Manager in December 2018. Amy’s role involves managing Volunteer Ireland’s internal and external communications and supporting the organisation’s policy initiatives and events through awareness campaigns. Amy promotes Volunteer Ireland and volunteering through media relations, marketing, social media and online communications including coordinating Volunteer Ireland’s public awareness campaign for volunteering, ‘National Volunteering Week’ – overseeing all PR and marketing activity for the event. Amy also coordinates Volunteer Ireland’s policy and advocacy projects, in particular around Ireland’s National Volunteering Strategy. Amy was Acting CEO from March – December 2021.


Aoife Hennessy

Partner, Sweeney McGann

Aoife Hennessy is a Partner in Sweeney McGann LLP an award-winning commercial law firm in Limerick. Aoife specialises in Commercial Disputes (including banking, shareholder, professional negligence and building disputes), Employment Law, Medical Negligence and Commercial Mediation.


Aoife has acted in several high-profile employment disputes and has significant experience in obtaining and defending interlocutory applications. She has also successfully concluded many complex Medical Negligence & Malpractice actions, in all areas of clinical and medical negligence litigation.
As an accredited Mediator with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR), Aoife also offers a CEDR-qualified mediation service, specialising in employment and workplace disputes. Aoife won Employment Lawyer of the Year Munster 2022 at the Dye & Durham Law Awards 2022 and Winner of the Civil Litigation Team Munster at the Dye & Durham Law Awards 2022.


Ciaran Maher

CEO & CO-Founder – Square1

Ciarán is the CEO and co-founder of Square1, an award-winning creative web and mobile software development company with offices in Ireland, UK, France and Spain.

Ciarán has over 20 years experience working on all aspects of the online industry. Previously he held the position of CTO within the Distilled Media Group (Daft.ie, Boards.ie, Adverts.ie and TheJournal.ie).

As co-founder of Square1, Ciarán has worked with some of the best known brands including Stripe, The Irish Times, Hyundai, Bauer Media and Crowdcube.

 


Curtis Delaney

Marketing Manager, Connexus Recruit

Curtis is the Digital Marketing Manager at Connexus Recruit – a specialist digital recruitment consultancy that focuses exclusively on roles within Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Product, UX/UI and Data.
Curtis holds a Master’s from NUI Galway as well a Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing from the DMI.
A data-driven marketer, he has played a pivotal role in the growth of Connexus Recruit in recent years. Leading and managing their digital presence across PPC, SEO, social, email, website and content as well as implementing a robust lead generation system.

 


Emmet Ryan 

Business and Technology Reporter

Emmet Ryan is a Sunday Business Post and editor of the paper’s Connected magazine, Ireland’s leading IT publication. Emmet is also the paper’s columnist for betting and beer. In 2009 Emmet won the IIA NetVisionary journalist award and has covered technology and digital media in all of its forms for over a decade.


Graham Morris

Founder at Connexus Recruit, C0-Founder at Conscia

Graham is the Founder of Connexus Recruit, a leading Digital Recruitment Consultancy based in Dublin as well as the Co-Founder of Conscia Talent.

With almost 30 years of experience in the recruitment industry, Graham has gained invaluable knowledge and insight on Talent Attraction, Retention and Growth Strategies working with multi-nations and high-growth start-ups in both Ireland and EMEA.


Iseult Dunne

Ms. Iseult Dunne is currently CEO of Dublin City Council Culture Company (CLg) which was established 5 years ago to create and deliver cultural initiatives and run heritage buildings for the people of Dublin. Now and in the past, she has led and motivated multiple cultural, heritage and cross-sectoral teams to deliver ambitious cultural projects, run heritage sites and create an environment for cultural participation and exploration. She is motivated by the aim to make a difference to cultural audiences in the work that she leads. She has over 30 years of experience in the development and implementation of cultural projects across Ireland.


John Kenny

Creative Director, CultureHead

John Kenny has worked in the arts and entertainment sector for over 20 years.

He is the director of CultureHead, a leading communications agency for the creative industries in Ireland specialising in Public Relations and Digital Marketing for the arts, entertainment and technology sectors. Clients include numerous large scale national-cultural events including The UCD Festival, Culture Date With Dublin 8 and Culture Night Dublin as well as many of Ireland’s key heritage sites and museums including Butler Gallery, Kilkenny the Wexford Arts Centre and the Seamus Ennis Arts Centre.

John is founder of the Glow Depot, a creative production house that runs the ArtLot area at the annual Electric Picnic Festival. He has been a guest lecturer at University Limerick, University College Dublin and the graduate marketing program at EM Normandie. His commentary on arts and marketing has been published in The Sunday Times and The Business Post.

 


John McGrane

Executive Director, Family Business Network

John is the Executive Director of the Family Business Network. He is also the founder and Managing Director of NSI Technology, the Founder and CEO of enterprise solution tech start-up Kmend and the Director General of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce ,  a private sector organisation which he co-founded in 2011 to represent businesses with interests in the two islands and their economies. Retired from a forty-year career in business banking, his career has spanned substantial initiatives in the enterprise and corporate sectors, both indigenous and foreign direct investment.

His interests weave through commerce, culture and community. He sits on the Boards of Fishamble: The New Play Company,  he is the Chair of the Irish Film Institute and he has led numerous public policy initiatives including the Government’s Forum on Philanthropic Funding of the Arts and the creation of the National Concert Hall Quarter.


Jonathan Carroll

Independent Curator of Contemporary Art

Jonathan Carroll is an independent curator based in Dublin. He has curated the visual arts strand for St. Patrick’s Festival and was on the panel of curators for the Goethe-Institut. He was the assistant curator of the Project Arts Centre and is a regular columnist for the Visual Artists’ News Sheet. He co-founded Artlot (programming outdoor art for vacant space) with John Kenny of Culturehead.

Jonathan is a graduate of Art History UCD, Cultural Management Instituto Universitario Ortega Y Gasset, Madrid and Curating Contemporary Art at the RCA, London.


Julie Schiro

Assistant Professor of Marketing and Academic Director of the MSc in Digital Marketing programmes at UCD Smurfit

Dr. Schiro is an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Academic Director of the MSc in Digital Marketing programmes at UCD Smurfit. Her work explores what content goes viral on social media, how to make popular prosocial smartphone games, and how to optimize search engine strategy based on the values and beliefs of the searcher. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in business and completed her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has industry experience in market research and statistical consulting. To learn more, visit her website at julieschiro.com.

 


Rick McKee

Chief Executive of The Foundation

Rick is Chief Executive of creative brand agency The Foundation. He has over 25 years’ experience of marketing business leadership, with a background in business strategy, sales and operational delivery. From over 15 years driving the growth of the largest digital business of its kind in Ireland from start-up through an acquisition in 2009, Rick held a number of leadership and business growth roles within a large UK & Ireland media plc through to 2013. He is also an experienced business consultant and mentor, having spent some years designing and delivering strategic planning and management development assignments with an Irish consultancy business, before taking up his current role with The Foundation in 2017.

Scarlet Bierman

Founder of Engage Content & Ethical Marketing Consultant

Scarlet has 30 years’ experience working in marketing and communications across the public and private sectors in the UK, France, and Ireland. Since founding Engage Content at the end of 2014, she has delivered a range of award-winning content marketing strategies and services to organisations in various sectors, including Enterprise Ireland, Williams Lea Tag, ICDL, UCD Professional Academy, and several Skillnets. She is also a mentor for Dublin City Local Enterprise Office, supporting small business owners in all areas of marketing and branding.

Scarlet recently launched a ground-breaking ethical marketing practice, making her Ireland’s first and only ethical marketing consultant. She helps organisations to play their part in creating a more sustainable and equitable world by implementing just and transparent marketing strategies that minimise reliance on, for example, surveillance capitalism.


Sharon O’Donoghue

CEO OF Media Life

Sharon has significant experience and expertise in entrepreneurship, marketing, and brand development. She has worked in the hospitality and communications industry since 2000.

A business graduate of MTU, Sharon also holds the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII) Diploma in PR and the Institute of Marketing, Diploma in Digital Marketing.

Sharon is a former board member of Brook Foods, where she also held the position of Sales & Marketing Director from 2005 until 2016. She was also former Marketing Director of the Rose of Tralee International Festival, Sales & Marketing Manager of The Earl of Desmond Hotel.

She was named ‘Network Cork Business-Woman’ and ‘Network Ireland Business-Woman’ of the year 2013. She was elected first female president in Rotary Ireland in 2011.

She is currently CEO of Media Life, a Marketing and Digital Company representing clients in the hospitality, enterprise, and healthcare sector.


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