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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.

John Aherne is a senior associate in the Asset Management & Investment Funds Group at A&L Goodbody. John advises on the establishment, authorisation, operation and maintenance of Irish regulated funds across the UCITS and AIF product spectrum. He also advises on regulatory issues impacting asset managers more generally. Prior to joining A & L Goodbody, John was a senior counsel with HSBC Global Asset Management in London and was a senior associate in the London investment funds group of Eversheds LLP. John is a member of the Irish Funds MiFID II Working Group and the EFAMA Distribution and Investor Protection Working Group.

Tara Doyle is a partner and head of the Asset Management and Investment Funds Department at Matheson. She practises Irish financial services law and advises many of the world's leading financial institutions, investment banks, asset management companies, broker-dealers and corporations carrying on business in Ireland or through Irish vehicles. Tara has extensive experience in advising a wide range of domestic and international clients on the structuring, establishment, marketing and sale of financing and investment vehicles and products in Ireland and other jurisdictions. In particular she specialises in advising on the legal and regulatory issues surrounding the establishment of private and public investment funds.

Tara was a member of the Council of Irish Funds, the representative body for the Irish funds industry from 2015 to 2019 and served as Chair for the 2017 / 2018 term. Tara currently serves as Chair of the Irish Funds ESG Sustainability Working Group and in that capacity leads the Irish Funds ESG Policy, Legal & Regulatory Workstream. 

David advises on the establishment, authorisation, operation and maintenance of Irish-regulated UCITS funds and open and closed-ended Alternative Investment Funds. Based in the Dillon Eustace New York office, he advises large US asset managers and their onshore legal advisers on their Irish-domiciled funds. He works closely with colleagues in the Dillon Eustace Dublin and Cayman offices to keep clients up to date on key legal, regulatory and industry developments in the US.

His international experience includes secondments to US and French asset management clients in London and Paris.

David’s representative transactions include advising:

• On the formation and cross-border distribution of a wide range of investment funds, including UCITS, Qualifying Investor Funds, property funds, exchange traded funds, master-feeder funds, index tracking funds and private equity funds in the energy and infrastructure sector.
• US and European asset managers seeking Central Bank of Ireland approval to act as investment manager to Irish domiciled funds.
• On the establishment and operation of Alternative Investment Fund Managers and UCITS management companies.
• A broad spectrum of UCITS – long-only funds, long/short funds, multi-asset funds, managed future strategy funds and UCITS with complex derivatives strategies.
• Securities law matters relating to securities lending arrangements and collateral requirements.

David’s clients include PIMCO and Brandes Investment Partners. 

Colin is an international tax director in PwC Ireland's asset & wealth management practice. Colin regularly advises on the taxation implications of cross-border investment structures. He has a vast amount of experience advising international clients on the tax efficient structuring of a range of traditional and alternative asset classes in multiple jurisdictions. Colin also works closely with global asset managers in the structuring of their corporate operations.