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Ron is chairman and chief executive officer of State Street Corporation. Ron was previously president and chief operating officer of State Street Corporation, and before that president and chief executive officer of State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation. He joined State Street in 2015. 

Prior to State Street, Ron was president of Asset Management & Corporate Services for Fidelity Investments, responsible for all Fidelity asset management organizations and Fidelity’s corporate functions and enterprise technology. Prior to joining Fidelity, Ron served as president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management in Boston, a position to which he was named in 2007. During this time, he also served as vice chairman of Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and was a member of its Executive Committee. Prior to Mellon, Ron was with McKinsey & Company, Inc., from 1986 to 1997 and was elected a partner in 1992. He founded the Investment Management practice worldwide and was co-founder and co-leader of the firm's North American Personal Financial Services practice. 

Ron serves on the boards of Unum Corp., Beth Israel Lahey Health, The Boston Foundation, IYRS School of Technology and Trades, Syracuse University and WBUR. Ron’s philanthropic and civic interests include corporate governance, retirement/healthcare policy and funding, education, and climate. He has led several initiatives on gender equality. Ron is a frequent speaker and writer, and an avid offshore sailboat racer.

First elected to Cork Corporation in 1985, Micheál was Lord Mayor in 1992-93. Since entering national politics in 1989 the Cork South Central TD has served on the Fianna Fáil front bench and in four cabinet posts: Minister for Foreign Affairs (2008-2011), Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2004-2008), Minister for Health (2000-04) and Minister for Education (1997-2000). In March 2009, Micheál published a book from a thesis he wrote while studying at UCC, ‘Freedom to Choose: Cork and Party Politics in Ireland 1918-1932’ is published by Collins Press.

Shundrawn A. Thomas serves as President of Northern Trust Asset Management where his responsibilities include developing long-term strategy, executing operating plans, cultivating client relationships, managing vendor relationships and developing talented professionals. He also serves as a member of the Management Group for Northern Trust Corporation.

Previously, Shundrawn served as Executive Vice President, Head of Funds and Managed Accounts. In this capacity he oversaw the development, management and distribution of Northern Funds, Northern Institutional Funds, FlexShares Exchange Traded Funds as well as the Managed Accounts practice which provides investment advisory solutions to clients. Shundrawn also served as President and Chief Executive of Northern Trust Securities, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Northern Trust Corporation. Prior to joining the asset management executive team, Shundrawn served as Head of Corporate Strategy for Northern Trust Corporation. As a direct report to the Chief Executive Officer, he supported executive management with key strategic planning initiatives. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Shundrawn served as a vice president for Goldman Sachs and held positions in sales, trading and research with Morgan Stanley.

Derville Rowland was appointed Director General (Financial Conduct) in the Central Bank of Ireland on 1 September 2017 and is responsible for consumer protection, securities and markets supervision, enforcement and policy and risk. Derville is a member of the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA).

Prior to this appointment, Derville was the Director of Enforcement in the Central Bank, where she established and developed the Enforcement Directorate. Previous to this, Derville gained extensive litigation and regulatory experience while practising law at the bar and working as in-house regulatory counsel.

Derville is a qualified barrister having being called to the bar in 1996 (Inns of Court School of Law; Inner Temple) and subsequently in 2003 (Kings Inns Dublin). 

Dr. Mark Esposito is recognized internationally as a top global thought leader in matters relating to The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the changes and opportunities that technology will bring to a variety of industries. He is Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer at Nexus FrontierTech, an AI scale-up venture. He was inducted in 2016 in the radar of Thinkers50 as one of the 30 most prominent rising business thinkers in the world. He is a global expert of the World Economic Forum and advisor to national governments.

In his academic career, Mark has held academic appointments for some of the world’s leading institutions such as Harvard University , Hult International Business School, , University of Cambridge, Arizona State University’s Thunderbird and IE Business School. He served as Institutes Council Co-Leader, at the Microeconomics of Competitiveness program (MOC) at the Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness, at Harvard Business School under the mentorship of Professor Michael E. Porter. He is a nonresident Fellow at the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai as well as Research Associate for the University College London, Blockchain Technologies. He serves as Senior Advisor at Cambrian Futures a global advisory deep tech thinktank. Since 2020, he is a Subject Matter Expert for the National Program on Artificial Intelligence at the Prime Minister Office of the UAE. In 2021 he joined the Institute for Innovation at Public Purpose at UCL in London as Policy Fellow, under the guidance of renown economist Mariana Mazzucato. He is fluent in 6 languages and in his non academic life, he holds the rank of Master Instructor, Black Belt IV Dan, at the International Budo Institute in Canada.

Research Summary

Dr. Esposito's research focuses on the interlink between policy, business and technology and he researches the impact that the transformation of the 4IR technologies will bring to an array of industries. He writes both professional press and academic pieces on the future, foresights and systems analysis and he has been investigating socio-economic complexity since his time at Michael Porter's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at HBS when he served as Institutes Council Co-Leader. Dr. Esposito is a prolific author with 150 peer reviewed articles, 11 books, several chapters, and over 40 case studies, mainly on clusters and clusters theory. He has participated to 6 reports for the World Economic Forum and he is an active contributor to places like Project Syndicate and Harvard Business Review. His next book will be with MIT University Press, on the great reset ahead of us.

Dr Tara Shine is a TV presenter, Policy advisor, Entrepreneur and Author. She has dedicated over 20 years of her life to the pursuit of fairness between people and between people and the planet. Tara’s passion for and knowledge of climate change, the environment and development issues has taken her across the seven continents of the world in many different capacities. Tara is a co-founder of an award-winning social enterprise, Change by Degrees Ltd, which educates and inspires people to live more sustainability at home, at work and in their community. Her new book, ‘How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time’ helps us to focus on the impacts of our personal actions. Finding a solution to the crisis facing our planet means we have to change everything – even the objects we use on a daily basis.

Lisa Kealy leads EY’s Wealth and Asset Management (WAM) Practice and is a member of EY’s European WAM Leadership Committee. Lisa is EY’s Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) leader for Europe and chairs our global ETF Committee. She has been an assurance partner with the firm for the past 12 years and has extensive experience in advising clients on various aspects of accounting, regulatory and operational change.

Lisa is the current Chair of Irish Funds and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences in Europe and contributor to leading financial services industry publications.

Lisa holds a first class honours degree in Pure Mathematics from Trinity College Dublin and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, from which she holds a practicing certificate.

Pat Lardner joined Irish Funds as Chief Executive in April 2012. He has over twenty five years’ experience in the global asset management industry and has held executive/leadership positions in Ireland and overseas with firms managing a broad range of both traditional and alternative investment strategies. Pat is an active participant on all significant Government sponsored groups relating to funds in Ireland, is a member of the Board of the European Fund and Asset Management Association and is an Advisor to the Asset Management Association of China’s International Partners Committee. He is a past Council Member of the Irish Association of Pension Funds and a former Director of both the Irish Association of Investment Managers and the International Investment Funds Association. He attained honours undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from University College Dublin.

Cora has over 20 years of experience at global asset management firms including Barings, Natixis, Allianz Global Investors and Invesco, based in Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris and London, building up technical product expertise across Europe and Asia. Most recently, she was Head of Product at Artemis, where she established a product team and was responsible for leading all aspects of product strategy, development and management. Prior to this, Cora was Director and Global Head of Product Development at Barings. Cora graduated in Law and German from Trinity College Dublin, speaks fluent German, and achieved an Executive MBA from ESSEC and Mannheim Business School. She is also a Certified Investment Fund Director (CIFD). 

Professional and industry experience

• I have specialised in the investment management and funds sector for 16 years.
• I lead on investment management regulatory change within KPMG’s EMA Regulatory Centre of Excellence. The Centre provides knowledge-based analysis of regulatory proposals in the pipeline and of the evolving political and regulatory context. We work with the service line functions, informing the development of business propositions. We publish thought leadership pieces to inform discussions with top management at client firms.
• Before joining KPMG, I worked for 15 years at the Investment Management Association and its predecessor (AUTIF). On the creation of the IMA in 2002, I established the regulatory function, covering investment management regulation, buy-side dealing, segregated mandates, capital requirements and operations. In the last few years, I focussed on directing IMA’s work across all aspects of collective investment funds – product regulation, distribution, fund administration and financial reporting, tax and legal.
• I have extensive knowledge of the EU regulatory process (from which nearly all IM and FM regulation now emanates) and the increasing role of international bodies such as IOSCO. Also, through many years of working with the European Federation (EFAMA), I have acquired a broad knowledge of the different fund and distribution structures around the EU.

Carol Widger is a partner in Dechert’s Investment Funds group in Dublin and Managing Partner of the firm’s Dublin office. Ms. Widger has 20 years’ experience advising fund promoters, fund managers, AIFMs, MiFID firms and other investment funds services firms, on matters relating to the establishment, launch and ongoing management of all types of investment funds, including UCITS and AIF products. Ms. Widger is a former Chair of Irish Funds' Legal Working Group and current Chair and founding member of the Dublin location for 100 Women in Finance.

Ms. Widger is consistently ranked as a leading lawyer in legal publications. IFLR1000 recognizes her as a “highly regarded” individual in hedge funds and investment funds, while Legal 500 says Carol Widger is “well-informed and analytical”. Chambers Global highlights Ms. Widger for bolstering the firm's Irish fund practice. Clients admire her “ability to deal with complex situations; if you are looking to structure funds requiring more in-depth knowledge then she is very strong.” Whilst also describing her as an “excellent communicator, who is very commercial and prompt” who is “great with relationship management and Irish funds and structuring.” She was also “Highly Commended” in the Chambers’ “Diversity Lawyer of the Year: Europe-wide” category for her career-long efforts to foster gender diversity.

Nick Miller is head of the Asset Management Department within the Investment, Wholesale & Specialist Supervision Division at the Financial Conduct Authority. In this role, Nick is responsible for the FCA’s oversight of over 3,000 firms across the asset management and custody bank sectors. Previously, Nick was head of the EU & Global Department, responsible for managing the FCA's strategic relationships with counterpart regulators and other stakeholders throughout Europe and globally. He was also responsible for the FCA’s strategy in relation to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Prior to joining the regulator, Nick was Executive Director and Head of Public Policy, EMEA at Morgan Stanley, where he spent four and a half years. He previously worked in a government relations role at Thomson Reuters and as a trade policy expert at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). He holds an MSc in Finance from the London Business School and an MA in European Politics from the College of Europe in Belgium. He holds a BA in Modern European Studies from University College London (UCL).

Evert van Walsum started his career in banking in the Netherlands. After that period, he proceeded his career in supervision and regulation at the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), where he worked in various roles as a policy officer and as supervisor, in the markets area and in the field of consumer protection.

His last position at the AFM was head of the Capital Markets Division. At ESMA, Evert is Head of the Investors and Issuers Department, responsible for the areas of investor protection, asset management, CRA policy, securitisations, corporate finance and corporate reporting.

Evert has studied at the University of Amsterdam and at INSEAD Fontainebleau.

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.

Olwyn Alexander is a partner in the audit practice and leads PwC Ireland's alternative asset management practice.

Olwyn spent 6 months working in PwC Dallas and 4 years working in PwC New York specialising in hedge funds, structured products and private equity.

Olwyn co-chaired the AIMA Guide to Sound Practices for Hedge Fund Valuation and was a member of the expert working panel for IOSCO's principles on hedge fund valuations in 2007. She has also presented at numerous global hedge fund conferences and has published a number of articles on alternative investments, in particular on valuation.

Olwyn is a member of the AIMA research committee, a Director of the Society of Investment Analysts of Ireland, the PwC representative on the Alternative Investment Management Committee with the Irish Funds Industry Association and is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. Olwyn obtained her Chartered Financial Analyst qualification in 2003.

Paud O'Keeffe is the Head of Innovation at BNP Paribas Securities Services. Paud leads the newly founded Innovation Lab recognizing the critical role innovation must play in driving growth at BNP Paribas amid accelerating disruptive forces and heightened customer expectations. A career Innovator, Paud and his team partner with BNP Paribas' businesses to shepherd creativity and implement breakthrough solutions for BNP Paribas clients His experience prior to BNP Paribas spans multiple industries; public sector, advertising, education and information technology. Previous roles include Head of R&D at Citi Innovation Lab, Directory of Technology, Innovation and New Ventures at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Technical Director at Agency.com  Paud is Chairman of the Irish Funds Fintech working group and holds a degree in Applied Physics

Michael Hodson is an Independent Non-Executive Director. Previously he worked with the Central Bank of Ireland from 2011 to 2020 where he held a number of senior roles culminating in Director of Asset Management and Investment Banking. In this role Mr. Hodson was responsible for the authorisation and supervision of a wide range of entity types, including large investment banks, Mifid investment firms, fund service providers and market infrastructure firms. Mr. Hodson is a qualified accountant having trained with Lifetime, the life assurance arm of Bank of Ireland and has a Diploma in Corporate Governance from Michael Smurfit Business School. Following Lifetime Mr. Hodson moved into various roles in the Irish stockbroking sector. Mr. Hodson had roles in NCB Stockbrokers, Fexco Stockbroking and was a founding shareholder of Merrion Capital Group where he held the role of Finance Director from 1999 to 2009 and was CEO in 2010.

Diane MacFarlane is Managing Director, Head of Securities Services EMEA.

Diane is responsible for setting the strategy and managing the suite of Custody and Fund Services products provided to institutional investor clients, servicing some of the largest asset managers in the market. Additionally Diane is a board member of J.P. Morgan Administration Services (Ireland) Ltd and Chair of the J.P. Morgan Hedge Fund Services (Ireland) entity. 

Stephen is a specialist in corporate responsibility and social impact, with twenty years’ experience of working across business, government and civil society.

After working in strategic roles across government Stephen spent 12 years at PwC UK, where he was a senior management consultant, a senior corporate responsibility manager and most latterly their Head of Social Mobility. Stephen developed PwC UK’s first social inclusion strategy, covering recruitment, progression, community and advocacy activities, initiating a programme that has seen PwC become the top-ranked employer in the UK for social mobility.

Stephen founded Exogeny Consulting (exogenyconsulting.com) in 2018 and now works with organisations on issues related to responsible business and inclusion, helping them to define and achieve their strategic goals, guiding their progress and enabling them to measure, understand and maximise their impact. He is a fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

Andrew joined CRH Group in 2019 as the Director of Group Finance based in Dublin. As a member of CRH’s Global Inclusion & Diversity Council, he advocates tirelessly on behalf of all aspects of diversity including gender, LGBTI+, multi-cultural, inter-generational, accessibility etc. Prior to joining CRH, Andrew worked for Bank of Ireland as CFO and Executive Sponsor for I&D. Andrew is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Masters in Accounting.

Anu Madgavkar is a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the global business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Company. Over her two decades at McKinsey, Anu has built deep insights on global labor markets, growth and inequality, and the economic impact of digital technologies. Her major research efforts include:

• The Future of Work: Analyzing COVID-19’s long-term impact on the workforce including the potential implications of more remote work, digital transactions and automation (The Future of Remote Work; The Future of Work after COVID-19).
• The social contract: Framing economic outcomes for individuals in the OECD economies, including the impact of the pandemic and implications for the welfare state; achieving minimum living standards in emerging economies (The social contract in the 21st century; Poorer than their parents; People on the Move; From Poverty to Empowerment).
• The Power of Parity: Assessing the potential economic gains from gender equality (Power of Parity series; The Future of Women at Work; COVID-19 and gender equality).
• Digital ID and digital economy: Analyzing the global economic impact of digital ID and related technologies; assessing the potential of and roadmap to digital opportunities in India ((Digital ID: A key to inclusive growth; COVID-19 and the case for robust digital financial infrastructure, India’s Trillion Dollar Digital Opportunity; Digital India).
• Outperformers: Understanding the potential virtuous cycle of growth in emerging economies (Outperformers: High-growth emerging economies; India’s Turning Point).

Anu is an active thought partner to business and government leaders, a speaker at global forums including the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, the UN ECOSOC Council, the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Chatham House, Asia House, Conference Board, the World Bank, IFC, IMF, UN Women, the UN High Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, DFID, India’s NITI Aayog, the International Organization for Migration, the UN Global Migration Group, and various government and multilateral agencies.

Anu is based in McKinsey’s New Jersey office and was previously based in Mumbai, where she has been a partner co-leading McKinsey’s Financial Institutions practice in Asia. She holds a degree in economics and statistics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Fiona is Vice President within the Investment Management sector at IDA Ireland based in Dublin. She has been working for Ireland’s foreign investment agency for over 12 years where she has responsibility for fostering and developing business from international Financial Services companies across Funds Servicing, Asset Management, Aircraft Leasing, Private Equity/Non-Bank Finance and Speciality Services. Previously Fiona was on secondment as Deputy Director within the Trade Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade where she worked on cross governmental international trade coordination and strategy. Prior to that Fiona was based in Paris developing FDI business for Ireland across Europe within the Technology, Content, Consumer and Business Services sectors. Fiona is a member of the Board of Tuath Housing.

Keshava Shastry is a Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets at DWS, managing trading partnerships and assisting clients in asset allocation implementation as well as the market structure and regulatory coordination. He joined Deutsche Bank Group from Credit Suisse after working on the deal leadership team to sell the CS ETF business, and he was at BGI/Blackrock prior to that. Before joining the buy-side industry more than 10 years ago, he was trading various asset classes (fixed income, fx, derivatives) on the sell-side. Keshava has a Masters degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Imperial College London and is a CFA charter-holder.

Kevin Nowlan is one of the founders of Hibernia REIT plc and is its Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this Kevin held senior roles in NAMA and Treasury Holdings and was MD of WK Nowlan Real Estate Advisers. He is a Chartered Surveyor with more than 25 years’ experience in the Irish property market, including commercial agency, property management, investment, development and development financing, commercial loan portfolio management and debt restructuring. He has a BSc in Estate Management from the University of Ulster, an MBA from Ulster Business School and a Diploma in Project Management from Trinity College, Dublin. Kevin is currently the Chair of ULI Ireland.

John is a non-exec director and investor, with 30 years experience in scaling technology innovators.

From 2015 to early 2021, John was VP at LinkedIn for EMEA and Latin America, driving the company’s strategic direction in the regions and fostering business and member growth. Prior to that, John was VP at Google for a decade, where he held a number of international roles and scaled its EMEA online sales and operations across that region.

John has also held senior management positions at companies including First Data, PeopleSoft, Adobe Systems and Oracle Corporation in his career.

He is currently Non-Exec Chair at Cainthus, an agritech innovator and Non-Exec Chair at Carne, a digitally-driven platform for the global asset management industry.

A Chartered Accountant, John holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University College Dublin and was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Economic Science by University of Limerick.

Anna Driggs is director and associate chief counsel with ICI Global in London, working on policy issues that affect the fund industry, including sustainable finance and retirement savings. Previously, she led the Investment Company Institute’s global retirement savings initiatives from Washington, DC, facilitating a global dialogue around ageing, the retirement system design, and the role that mutual funds can play in long-term saving. Before joining the Institute in 2007, Driggs worked in private law practice. She has an EMBA from Oxford Saїd Business School, a JD, with honors, from the University of Washington School of Law, and a BA, magna cum laude, from Gonzaga University. She also studied at the Linguistical University in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

As Chief Technology Officer, Marie is responsible for implementing a technology strategy, which underpins the business vision, and subsequently leads the transformation across Sanne's Business System Innovation, Cloud, Data, Cyber and Modern Workplace themes.

Marie has over 20 years’ experience in technology and operations within the finance industry. Across her career, Marie has worked for major international institutions, including Coventry Building Society for over four years where she was Chief Information Officer, responsible for building a technology strategy and leading the transformation; and Capital One where she acted as Chief Engineer and was a member of the IT Leadership team.

Fionán leads the firm’s Irish office. He has extensive experience in advising asset managers and fund promoters on the structuring and establishment of Irish domiciled funds, including UCITS and AIFs. Funds have ranged from retail funds to funds tailored for sophisticated investors and pursuing hedge, private equity, master/feeder and real asset strategies. He also advises service providers within the investment funds sector on the establishment of operations in Ireland and in relation to their ongoing businesses. Clients in this area include AIFMs, UCITS management companies, MiFID firms, fund administrators and depositaries. Fionán also advises domestic and international institutions in the broader financial services sector on all Irish and European financial services regulatory matters, including credit institutions, insurance undertakings, investment firms and payments institutions. 

From 2002 until she decided to take a career break in 2019, Jayne led MS Amlin’s investment business, where, as CEO and CIO, she directed strategy, governance and operations for their awardwinning, global multi-asset, multi-manager portfolios. The team she built from scratch reflected her belief in the importance of all aspects of diversity and the benefits of inclusive leadership. She is also a former non-executive director of the FTSE100 investment management services company Hargreaves Lansdown. She is currently an Executive Coach, leading the Diversity Project’s Inclusive Recruitment Initiative and co-leading its Ambassador Programme. Before joining Amlin, Jayne was an independent management consultant advising a number of bluechip companies, whilst completing an Executive MBA at Cranfield School of Management.

Veronica van der Hoeven is Managing Director, People Strategy at MUFG Investor Services where she has responsibility for Culture, Diversity and Inclusion, Learning and Development and Internal Communications. She has over two decades of experience in the financial services industry in both Human Resources and Investor Operations. She has lived and worked in Ireland, London and Holland and has a keen interest in people and psychology and is passionate about driving business success through an organisations most valuable asset, its people.

Brian has extensive experience in advising clients with regard to the establishment of regulated investment funds and fund managers in Ireland. He also advised on capital market transactions, cross border structured finance transactions, securitisation (including aviation) deals, structuring acquisitions, disposal of business assets, restructuring of group operations, cross border lending/financing, determining appropriate fund structure and domicile from a regulatory and tax perspective, International tax planning and the impact of OCED, EU and other international developments.

Stephen is Pantheon’s Head of Ireland and Global Head of Operations. Stephen has many years’ senior level experience across operations, finance and risk for private and publicly listed international financial services and renewables businesses in London and Dublin, including with Pantheon in London, 3i Group and Cantor Fitzgerald. Stephen is a member of Chartered Accountants Ireland and received his BComm from University College Dublin.

Mairead McGuinness is an Irish politician, who has served as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union since October 2020. A member of Fine Gael, she has also served as First Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2017.

As chief operating officer, Alain has leadership and general management oversight responsibility for all core activities of Wellington Management Funds Global Group (WMF Global), which serves as fund sponsor for certain Wellington-managed fund vehicles offered to clients outside of the US. The team oversees all aspects of these funds, including fund governance, product development, risk management, marketing, operations and servicing of fund investors.

Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2018, Alain was the head of Fund Administration at PIMCO (2008 – 2018), where he was responsible for all aspects of fund operations and management for PIMCO European Offshore Funds. Before that, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the United States, Luxembourg and Spain (1998 – 2008), with a focus on asset management.

Sean is Head of Institutional Strategy, Sustainability and Growth at Head of Institutional Strategy. Prior to joining BOI, Sean was head of Danske Bank Institutional Banking business which included acting as lead arranger for the NTMA inaugural €3bn Green Bond. Previously Sean established and was Head of Global Markets for HSBC Bank in Ireland. Sean is a Certified Bank Director and has been a guest lecturer to the MSc in Investment and Treasury in DCU and ESG insights at Dublin Business School.

Jennifer is a Director on KPMG’s Asset Management Team. She has extensive experience in providing audit and accounting services to asset managers and asset management service providers. She has worked with a variety of European and global asset management clients with regulated/unregulated investment vehicles in multiple jurisdictions. She has a particular focus on UCITS, AIFs and Private Equity.

Jennifer is a member of Irish Funds (IF) Events Working Group.

Elizabeth Samson is Vice President, Head of UCITS Product Development and Governance for PGIM Investments. She is responsible for the development and management of the UCITS and QIF product lines and the overall governance of the vehicle. Previously, Elizabeth was responsible for the UCITS and QIF operating platform. Prior to working for PGIM Investments, Elizabeth lead the Product Development effort at Quantitative Management Associates (QMA) where she had previously managed the firm’s institutional and sub-Advisory client service team. She has also served as a Vice President at Prudential International Investment Services, where she focused on product integration, development and management. Prior to joining Prudential, Elizabeth worked as a relationship manager for Lipper, working with key clients, first in the US and then as the head of client service and product development in the UK. She earned a BSBA in Finance from American University and an MBA in International Business, Management & Economics from New York University.

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.

Dirk Holz is Head of Private Capital Services, Director Product Management at RBC Investor & Treasury Services. Before re-joining RBC in November 2020, Dirk led Product Development for Private Equity and Real Estate services at Société Générale. Prior to this, Dirk held various positions within RBC and was an integral part of the Private Capital Services business for nearly eight years. Dirk is now responsible for supporting the strategy, development and profitability for RBC’s Private Capital Services business. Dirk has also worked in the Private Capital Asset business units at PGIM, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and Bankhaus Ellwanger & Geiger. He has more than 20 years of experience in the Real Estate, Private Equity, Infrastructure and Private Debt asset management sector. Dirk has a degree from the University of Tuebingen, Germany in business administration, a degree in real estate portfolio management from the ebs Immobilienakademie Oestrich Winkel, Germany and has been a qualified member of RICS since 2012.

Shantini has over 20 years’ buy and sell side experience, focused on alternatives and real asset strategies including Infrastructure Debt, in the global institutional investment management industry. As a senior member of the Alternatives Product Specialists team, she is responsible for the growth strategy of the Infrastructure Debt capability globally. Shantini was previously the lead global private credit product specialist at Legal & General Investments Management, Real Assets in London, where she worked on the establishment of its private credit platform across the CRE, infrastructure and corporate financing sectors from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, in her capacity as Head of International Product Development, at AMP Capital Investors in Sydney, she built and launched an Infra Debt Mezz Financing Platform, which was awarded the world’s largest Global Infrastructure Debt Fund capital raise in 2012 by Preqin. With an exclusive focus on working with global institutional capital over the past two decades, Shantini has in-depth infrastructure asset class experience across economic and social infrastructure sectors in both debt and equity. Shantini holds a bachelor’s degree in the mathematical sciences from the University of New South Wales and a postgraduate diploma in applied finance and investments from the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. She is fluent in English and Malay.

Frank Paone is responsible for the strategic direction of Lord Abbett’s international business, which includes sales and client service efforts. In this role, he co-manages Lord Abbett’s dedicated International Investor Services team, which serves the distinct needs of the firm’s international clients. He is based in our London office. Mr. Paone also serves on the firm’s Partnership Committee. 

Mr. Paone joined Lord Abbett in 1998 and was named Partner in 2013. Prior to his current role, he managed Lord Abbett’s national retail sales team in the Eastern Region of the United States. In this role, he oversaw regional managers in the field, supported by the senior regional managers. In addition, he led the Advisor Consultant team. His previous responsibilities include serving as Director of Institutional Investor Services; Regional Manager; Divisional Sales Leader for the Northeast, while also covering Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Advisor Consultant. He has worked in the financial services industry since 1998. 

He earned a BS in economics and marketing from Boston College. He also is a holder of the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation and Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation

Joanne McEnteggart has a dual role as Managing Director for IQ-EQ’s Irish and UK Corporate service line and as General Manager of the newly authorised IQ-EQ Fund Services (Ireland) Limited. She is responsible for expanding the Group’s fund administration offering into the Irish market; growing the Group’s Irish and UK client base in the corporate space; and leading the Irish and UK senior management team in driving the strategic direction of the business across the Corporate and Funds service lines. A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Joanne has over 20 years’ financial services experience. She trained with Ireland’s largest insurance company before joining one of the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms. She then spent several years as a director of one of Ireland’s leading stockbrokers. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Legal Studies from University College, Dublin. Prior to IQ-EQ, Joanne was an executive director and held various senior-level roles within the asset services arm of a prominent international business process outsourcing and professional services company. She joined IQ-EQ in 2015 as a business development director and quickly achieved successive promotions, culminating in her appointment as Managing Director for Ireland in 2017.

Daragh O’Mahony is the Chief People Officer of National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for delivering the Irish Government’s National Broadband Plan. As the biggest investment in rural Ireland since rural electrification, the National Broadband Plan is recognised as one of the most ambitious telecoms projects globally. In his role at NBI, Daragh has responsibility for the Human Resources and Facilities teams, which are critical functions to deliver this transformative project for Ireland. At its peak, nearly 2000 people will be employed to work on the National Broadband Plan and under Daragh’s leadership, NBI continues to rapidly grow its team bringing together the best and brightest minds in Ireland and across the world with expertise to build, operate and maintain NBI’s network. Daragh joined NBI in 2021 having worked in a range of HR roles over the last 20 years across industries including telecoms, insurance, financial services, airport operations and retail. His vast experience includes supporting new country set ups, working in organisations with large amounts of legacy people and business practices, engaging in M&A activity and supporting boards and RemCo’s on strategic people projects. Daragh holds a Masters Degree in Human Resource Strategy from Dublin City University.

Colm Kincaid was appointed Director of Securities and Markets Supervision in January 2018. Prior to this role, he was Head of Consumer Protection - Policy & Authorisations Division and Deputy Head of the Legal Division at the Central Bank. He joined the Central Bank in 2004, having previously practised as a solicitor in London and Dublin.

Johnny has 30+ years of experience in the financial markets starting in 1988 after graduating with a degree in mathematics from the University of Bristol, UK. The breadth of areas includes banking, asset management, hedge funds, private equity, wealth management, clearers, exchanges and the emerging areas of digital securities for blockchain/DLT.

Since 2012, he has been acting as an independent consultant and investor. He advises at C-level/MD-level and has implemented solutions for a wide range of business problems, including: macro risk, trading & investment processes, risk management (market, credit, operational, enterprise, stress testing); sustainability, ESG & climate risk; business architecture, operating models; large regulatory change (MiFID II, FRTB, BCBS239); and governance & policies. Across all of these activities, digitisation of businesses and the adoption of new technology have been central.

Enda McMahon, Managing Director, is Chief Executive Officer and Board Director of BlackRock’s Irish Management Company, which he combines with his role as EMEA Head of Governance and Oversight for BlackRock. In addition to his Irish CEO and Director role, Enda is responsible for establishing and expanding best practices in governance across the region, with specific focus on BlackRock's management and fund companies. Enda was previously responsible for managing BlackRock’s EMEA Compliance Department, which is comprised of over one hundred Compliance professionals across the region. Enda has over 30 years industry experience having joined BlackRock in December 2013 from State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), where he was EMEA Head of Compliance, prior to which he was Global Chief Compliance Officer for Bank of Ireland Asset Management, a Regulatory Inspection Leader with the Central Bank of Ireland, an Auditor with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and as an Accountant with Eagle Star. A member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the U.K. Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, Enda also holds the CGMA designation. His studies also include the exams of the Master of Science in Investment and Treasury in DCU and Law in King’s Inns.