Our Events

Alan O'Sullivan is a Managing Director and Head of European Business Development for Brown Brothers Harriman. Alan also serves as a Director of the BBH Fund Administration Services (Ireland) and BBH Luxembourg Fund (SICAV). Alan has been with Brown Brothers Harriman for 20 years and has held a number of senior positions within the Relationship Excellence Division, both in Boston and Dublin. Alan is a graduate of University College Dublin and is one of the initial groups that qualified in the Certified Investment Fund Directors Programme at the Institute of Bankers in Ireland. Alan is currently a member of Council of Irish Funds and serves as Chair of the Industry body for 2016/2017.

Michael Barr is a Partner in the Asset Management & Investment Funds Group at A&L Goodbody and focuses on various aspects of mutual funds law and regulation and on the establishment, authorisation and listing of funds in Ireland. He is currently involved in advising clients on all aspects of both the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and UCITS V as well as related issues. He advises on the setting-up of various types of UCITS and AIF Irish regulated funds. Michael has also set up various unregulated structures. He also works with fund service providers in connection with depositary, administration, prime brokerage and other service agreements. He has extensive experience in the field of fund governance. Michael is a member of the AIF Product Development Steering Group of Irish Funds (the industry representative body) and has served on Irish Funds' committees for over eight years. He has been published on a number of legal topics.

Fergus is an Assurance Partner within the Financial Services sector of EY. He has over 12 years’ experience with the firm providing audit and advisory services to our financial services clients. Fergus works primarily within the firm’s asset management practice and his clients include many of Europe’s largest Hedge Fund managers whom he advises on fund structuring, regulation, valuation issues, accounting and disclosure.

Fergus has extensive experience of investment pricing models and in auditing the valuation of a wide variety of investment product types. He sits on the Irish Fund Industry Association’s Alternative Investment Committee where he chairs the Valuation and Operations sub-committee.

Fergus spent a year working in EY’s New York office and has a postgraduate qualification in IFRS. He is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

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.

Adam Donoghue is a partner in the Investment Funds department of the Irish office of Maples and Calder. He has broad experience advising on the structuring, establishment and authorisation of a wide spectrum of Irish regulated UCITS and AIFs (including hedge funds, private equity funds, alternative UCITS, managed account platforms, credit funds, funds of funds and master-feeders), regulated AIFMs and UCITS management companies, and unregulated partnership and SPV structures. His practice also covers the corporate governance, financing, cross-border distribution, management and relocation/ redomiciliation of such entities into and out of Ireland. His clients include asset managers, investment banks and fund service providers. Adam is currently heavily involved with the Irish funds industry's engagement with government in its review of Ireland's limited partnership legislation.

Alexander Kalis, Managing Partner & Head of Investments at Milltrust International, serves as investment manager for Milltrust's private equity and venture capital investments on Milltrust's ICAV Platform which includes the Milltrust Agriculture Buy & Lease Funds in Australia and New Zealand, the British Innovation Fund, and the South Asia Hospitality Fund. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, he is responsible for overseeing the sub advisory relationships with Milltrust Agricultural Investments and East India Capital Management, whilst also helping to originate new investments, carry out research and due diligence for the individual sub-funds, formulate investment strategies, and promote the various Milltrust International Group funds to investors, including the Asian Music Fund and Asian Film Fund. He is also involved in Milltrust's Multi-Manager Managed Accounts UCITS and Investment Solutions business, where he is responsible for manager research and due diligence. Alexander has over 15 years' experience working at top-tier asset management firms including LCF Edmond de Rothschild and Banco Santander where he managed some of the largest emerging markets focused multi-manager funds in the industry. He holds a Masters' degree in Management from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Damian is the Executive Director of Business Development EMEA for MUFG Investor Services, the global asset servicing arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and is based in their London office. He has over 18 years experience in the funds industry, having previously held senior roles with Capita Asset Services, PNC Global Investment Servicing, now part of BNY Mellon and HSBC Securities Services. Damian has sat on the Irish Funds marketing committee for five years and is currently chairing the 2017 Annual Irish Funds Conference working group.

Michael is a Director at Davy's London office. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a Chartered Accountant and a taxation expert and has implemented a wide range of transaction structures with and on behalf of institutions, corporations and other clients. Michael deals mainly with UK and US managers forming new regulated funds or accessing EU capital for existing funds. These include traditional asset classes as well as alternatives such as private equity, real estate, infrastructure, loan origination and hedge funds. Michael is principally involved in assisting asset managers and their legal advisors in forming regulated funds and sometimes acts as fund director or investment portfolio manager for the relevant fund. 

Denis Curran is the Global Head of Department in IDA Ireland's International Financial Services Division. He overseas a client portfolio of more then 220 international corporations employing more than 30,000 people including JP Morgan, United Healthcare Group, Fidelity, MetLife, Citigroup, BNY Mellon, Bank of America, First Data and MasterCard. Prior to joining the financial services division, Denis was head of IDA's strategic clients in IDA's Technology Division, working with the leadership teams in companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP AG, Symantec, McAfree and Salesforce.com on international subsidiary strategy and transformation. Prior to joining IDA, Denis worked in Toronto and Belfast for the Euroventure Group which specialised in International Trade Development for SME's, 

Lara Aherne is a managing counsel at State Street Global Advisors, leading the EMEA Product Legal team since 2012. She advises on legal considerations relating to the European fund range, including structuring/restructuring, governance and regulatory matters. From 2005 to 2012, Lara practised at the Luxembourg law firm of Bonn Schmitt, avocats, where she focused in mergers and acquisitions, investment funds and corporate law. Lara was called to the Irish Bar in 2004 and qualified as a New York attorney in 2005. She holds a BL from King’s Inns in Dublin as well as a BCL from University College Cork, the National University of Ireland.

Following a 21-year career in asset management and asset servicing with blue-chip organisations, Pete founded Norio Ventures last year in Dublin, Ireland. Inspired by a venture capital mindset, Norio Ventures provide management consulting services to the global financial services industry

Ross joined FundRock Management Company S.A. (“FRMC”) (at the time RBS (Luxembourg) S.A.) in June 2013, responsible for the oversight of the Administration function. Soon after joining FRMC, the due diligence and distribution functions were also moved under his supervision, closely followed by Investment management and depositary oversight, completing the suite of delegated functions. Over the years, Ross has increased the distribution services FRMC can offer their clients focusing on distributors due diligence and distribution networks. In September 2016 Ross moved to Ireland to set up and manage a branch of the management company in Dublin. This was a strategic decision to expand FRMC’s offering to a second jurisdiction in Europe and to become part of the thriving Irish market. Prior to joining FundRock, Ross worked in the hedge fund administration sector for 13 years before moving to the management company sector. Ross spent 10 years at Citco Fund Services both in Luxembourg and Toronto and held the position of Head of Operations. In addition to this, Ross also held a senior position in IFS / State Street in Toronto before returning to Luxembourg. Ross holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and a MSc (Econ) in Finance and Investment Management from the University of Aberdeen. Ross has also been approved by the Luxembourg Regulator as a Conducting Officer and non-executive Director.

Philip is an Associate Director in KPMG Ireland's investment management tax team and has several years’ experience advising domestic and international funds, investment managers, investors and fund service providers on a broad spectrum of tax issues such as fund structuring, investment level tax structuring, fund manager remuneration schemes, VAT, investor taxation (including investor tax reporting) and tax documentation completion.

He has significant experience advising investment management clients on CCF structures for pension pooling and asset pooling. In addition, he has expertese advising investment funds on withholding tax management in the context of domestic investment jurisdiction legislation, access to Double Taxation Agreements and reclaims based on EU anti-discrimination procedures. 

Manish Vekaria is a Managing Director in the Global Markets Division of Credit Suisse (CS) and is currently CEO of Credit Suisse AG, Dublin Branch. CS AG, Dublin Branch specialises in Global Prime Services products, particularly Prime Brokerage, Stocklending, Collateral Management and also Delta One products (both single name and indexes). Manish is a member of several leading CS Committees including: Global Equities Management Committee, Global Prime Services Management Committee and Global Markets Operating Committee. 

Vincent Coyne is a Partner in William Fry's Asset Management & Investment Funds Department and advises a wide variety of clients on regulatory and structural issues associated with the establishment and management of investment funds in Ireland. He has significant experience in advising both Alternative Funds and UCITS (using both traditional and alternative strategies) as well as advising on the authorisation of UCITS and alternative investment fund managers (AIFMs). Vincent holds an honours law degree and a Masters in European and Comparative Law and is based in the William Fry London office.