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Sarah leads our money market fund practice in Ireland and is responsible for the coordination of our European practice. Sarah is a member of many industry committees and regularly teaches and presents on industry related topics. Sarah joined the firm in 1998 and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. She has over 19 years experience in the asset and wealth management industry in both audit and advisory roles and has provided services to an extensive range of global fund managers and service providers. 

Based in Ireland, Des is Global Head of Product Development at carne Group. He has over 15 years of experience in senior roles in the funds sector. He works closely with fund clients and regulators on regulatory and listing procedures and has in-depth expertise of day to day fund operations and Irish and EU fund regulations. His experience extends to working with all types of UCITS and AIFs and he has assisted a number of hedge fund managers in launching UCITS products. Des acts as a Director to a number of UCITS and AIF Funds.

Des joined Carne from J.P. Morgan Bank (Ireland) plc, where he was a Vice President in the Bank’s Trust & Fiduciary services division in Dublin, managing a large portfolio of trustee clients, including UCITS and hedge funds managed by both large institutional and boutique managers. Prior to that Des held senior roles in the Irish Stock Exchange including as Listing Manager in the Funds Department, overseeing listing and compliance functions for funds and as an Executive in the corporate finance department. He sat on the Exchange’s policy committee, the Company Law Review Group and worked closely with the Irish Central Bank and EU bodies to adopt new regulations in the funds and securities area. Des was centrally involved in the launch of a number of new markets while at the Exchange. Des began his financial services career with the Trustee Department at Deutsche International in Dublin.

Kieran Fox joined the Association in August 2007 and is the Director - Business Development for Irish Funds. As well as being responsible for working with investment managers and developing our membership offering, Kieran participates in a number of our steering groups including Distribution, Marketing & Promotion and Front Office and has led engagement on specific regulatory matters. Kieran has a BSc Finance and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Information Systems. Prior to joining us he gained significant experience both in industry and within the regulator. He was a senior regulator and risk specialist with the Central Bank of Ireland for almost two years and prior to this spent seven years in a variety of roles across the front office within the hedge fund industry in London. Kieran represents the Association on the Summit Finuas Network Steering Committee.

Jorge is a partner in the Financial Services Group. He has over 15 years’ experience providing audit and advisory services to asset managers, domestic and international banks and capital markets divisions. He has worked with a variety of European and global asset management clients, including the alternative investment product groups of multinational financial institutions and diversified asset managers, large entrepreneurial asset management firms, and start-up asset managers. Jorge has extensive knowledge in risk management and control practices across the funds and banking industry and he has also advised on IPOs, complex financial instruments, Private Equity investments, loan portfolios and reviews of risk pricing models. He is a member of the European Fund and Asset Management Association’s (EFAMA) ETF and Irish Funds (IF) Loan Origination working groups, and he is also head of the central valuations team (CvT) in Ireland.

Before founding Cygnus in 2006, José María worked during 14 years for UBS. Originally an investment banker based in London, he was involved in M&A deals; IPO’s; and equity derivatives structures while in Corporate Finance. After seven years he moved to the Wealth Management Division to create a Corporate Finance capacity and later the Key Clients Group for large private clients in Spain. José María began his professional career in 1986 working for the consulting division of Arthur Andersen (now Accenture), gaining experience on information systems and strategic management consulting. Later in 1988 he worked for Advent España SA, a venture capital firm part of the Advent International network, where he participate in fund raising, deal flow generation, financial analysis and due diligence. He has a Law Degree by Universidad Complutense and a MBA from ESADE, Barcelona. He also holds a CAIA designation.

Jennifer joined Dillon Eustace in 2004 and became a partner the Financial Services Group in 2007. Jennifer’s main area of practice is financial services and she advises fund promoters and their service providers on the structuring, establishment and regulation of all types of mutual funds including retail funds and alternative investment products. Jennifer lectures in the Diploma in Financial Services Law run by the Law Society of Ireland. Jennifer has helped to establish a number of CCFs, Sharia compliant investment funds and funds with a MENA focus, QFIII schemes, and alternative UCITS and QIAIF products.

Founder & Managing Director of Corporance Asesores De Voto, the Spanish proxy advisor, member of the global independent partnership ECGS, Juan Prieto is a corporate and financial professional with 30 years of experience as executive at Banco Santander in Europe, Latin America and Asia, as well as auditor and consultant at KPMG in Spain.

In Santander, he was CFO in different units in America, Asia and Europe, including Santander Insurance Ireland (2010-2015), and Global Head of Securities Services, Stock Lending and Corporate Trust. Founder of Emisores Españoles, Spanish Issuers Association, was member of the board at European Issuers, the International Corporate Governance Network and some taskforces and expert groups at the EC, ESMA and ECB.

A Master´s Degree in Business Administration and Economics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, MBA from IESE and IE Business School, Spanish Chartered Accountant and member of the Spanish and Irish Institutes of Directors.