Simon Harris TD is the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. He previously served as Minister for Health from May 2016 to June 2020, and as Minister of State at the Departments of Finance PER and Taoiseach with Special Responsibility for the OPW, Public Procurement, and International Banking (incl IFSC) from 2014 to 2016.
Peter Cosgrove brings the latest insights and research from across the world of work, technology, diversity and talent and does this in an entertaining, exciting and passionate manner. His messages are delivered through memorable stories and experiences which leave the audience excited, inspired and informed.
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Adèle joined The University of Manchester as its inaugural Director of People and Organisational Development in November 2022. Previously she was the Director of People and Organisational Development at Loughborough University and worked at Pace University and College Avenue Student Loans in the US. Prior to her family’s move to the US, Adèle was Director of Human Resources and then Chief Operating Officer at Aston University. Her early career was spent in Financial Services.
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Helen is an experienced People and OD leader with a background in Healthcare, International Higher Education, and Science Publishing sectors. Her areas of excellence are designing and implementing workforce and OD strategies, client-led service improvement and leadership of organisational change through cooperation, collaboration and colleague engagement. She is a qualified coach, a Fellow of CIPD and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
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Kay Nicholls is a Project Manager in the University of Manchester’s Strategic Change Office. She is an experienced transformation and change specialist, with a background in management consultancy working in public and private sectors across Australia and the UK. Her areas of expertise lie in people and change management, leadership and stakeholder engagement, behaviour change and workforce effectiveness.
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Rachael leads on the University’s approach to colleague experience. With a background in internal and external communications and marketing, she has led a number of high profile strategic projects at the University including the engagement programme which led to the creation of the University’s vision and strategic plan Our future; engaging more than 800 colleagues in uncovering our University’s values and she is a key member of the Professional Services hybrid working project team.
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David Vuletich is a Senior Director in EAB’s Research Advisory Services and serves as the Academic Strategy Team lead. The Academic Strategy Team houses EAB’s experts in academic affairs, student success, and university budget models, and is responsible for driving value for our partner institutions through consensus building, decision support, and guidance on best practices implementation.
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I am a policy analyst and government specialist with an extensive and broad knowledge of all the main public policy areas. I hold a PhD and Masters in Comparative Social Policy from Oxford University and a BA Social Policy from Trinity College Dublin. I am a former political staffer and pollster.
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Executive Director, Employer Relations (2015 to date). With IBEC since 2000 in senior positions including Head of Industrial Relations and Human Resources Traded Services, and Director of the North East Region. A graduate of Trinity College, prior to joining IBEC, Maeve McElwee worked with the World Bank in Washington DC.
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Noeline Blackwell is a human rights lawyer and CEO of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, a voluntary organisation which works to prevent the harm and heal the trauma of sexual violence. Prior to this, she was for ten years Director General of access to justice organisation FLAC, the Free Legal Advice Centres. She previously ran a solicitor’s practice where she had a particular interest in refugee and immigration issues and in family law.
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An education and research professional with over a decade’s experience in the tertiary education sector in Ireland and overseas.
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John Geary is Full Professor of Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at the School of Business, University College Dublin and Honorary Professor at the Marco Biagi Foundation, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy. He is currently Subject Area Head for the Human Resource Management and Employment Relations Group in UCD's School of Business. John is a graduate of the University of Maynooth and obtained his doctorate (Sociology) at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
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Maria is Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management in the UCD College of Business and works in the Human Resource Management and Employment Relations Subject Area since 2015. She holds a PhD in Management and an MSc in International Management and Global Business from the University of Limerick. Her core research and teaching focus on HR Analytics, international HRM, and industrial relations in multinational companies (MNCs). She is Academic Lead for the HR Analytics Think Tank.
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My teaching and research focuses on the psychology of sport, exercise and health behaviour. Current I'm looking at physical activity related behaviour change, mental health promotion in sport, and performance management and leadership in elite sport.
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Dr Kara McGann is Head of Social Policy at Ibec, Ireland’s largest business representative body. She supports employers with strategic advice on labour market, equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and wellbeing policy and practice. Chair of the Joint Equality Council at ESB; a Board Member of the Governing Authority of DCU, a member of the External Group of Experts of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) and a member of the Labour Market Advisory Council.
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Rónán Ó Domhnaill has been Language Commissioner since 2014, having been reappointed by President Michael D Higgins for a second term in 2020. Prior to his role as Language Commissioner, Rónán was a journalist with national broadcasters RTÉ & TG4 in the role of Political Correspondent.
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Maria is Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management in the UCD College of Business and works in the Human Resource Management and Employment Relations Subject Area since 2015. She holds a PhD in Management and an MSc in International Management and Global Business from the University of Limerick. Her core research and teaching focus on HR Analytics, international HRM, and industrial relations in multinational companies (MNCs). She is Academic Lead for the HR Analytics Think Tank.
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I am a veteran people leader, organisational behaviourist, senior executive coach, and HR strategist with over 20 years’ experience. I started my career in the Hotel industry, working for the Jury Doyle Group where I held numerous business leadership roles. I then diversified my career and moved into high growth scaling technology businesses where I served as Chief People officer for CarTrawler and for Cubic Telecom. I now work with Workvivo as their Expert in Residence - Employee Experience.
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Louise provides commercial and solutions focused advice to a wide range of clients to include clients in the financial services, manufacturing, retail, technology, energy, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Louise advises and represents employers in all types of employment disputes, including unfair dismissal, employment injunctions, occupational stress and bullying claims, transfer of undertakings, fixed-term and part-time work and discrimination claims.
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Séamus advises and represents employers in disputes with employees, ex-employees, applicants for employment and trade unions, including in hearings before the WRC, the Labour Court, the Circuit Court, the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the CJEU. He advises on bullying/harassment, grievances, discrimination, disciplinary matters, investigations and on dismissals/redundancies.
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Kevin advises corporate clients in a wide range of sectors, and also advises statutory bodies, Governmental and public institutions, universities, cultural institutions, schools and hospitals. He represents clients before the Workplace Relations Commission, the Labour Court and the civil courts in employment litigation such as unfair dismissal, equality/discrimination, occupational stress, fixed-term and part-time work, health & safety, restraint of trade, strikes and picketing.
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Dylan Mehigan, Head of Solutions and Services- Dylan Mehigan is the Head of Solutions and Services at MakoData, a HR Analytics solutions provider that works primarily with organisations that use the CoreHR/PeopleXD platform.
Dylan and his team worked with over 40 organisations in 2022 to assist them with the calculation and analysis of their Gender Pay Gap metrics, including a number of Universities and Higher Education Institutes.
An internationally recognised leader in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, bringing the depth and breadth of knowledge to provide strategic leadership to the design, development and execution of D&I strategy. Highly qualified and experienced as a Development Manager and Coach, accredited to deliver a wide range of best-in-class personality, leadership and emotional intelligence diagnostics. Professional education includes accreditation by INSEAD’s Global Business School.
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Katharine is involved in the design, development and implementation of a range of projects which support the implementation of the UCD HR Strategy. Katharine has worked in the people development sphere for 15 years and has an extensive background in higher education environments. Katharine is interested in the changing landscape of L&D, specifically how new technologies and platforms can support traditional approaches.
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Paul is currently working as a specialist in employee engagement with a focus on events, social media, video production, website design, policy development, project management, data analysis and surveys. He also has 20 years experience working in HR roles from resourcing to people development. Prior to UCD, Paul worked in graphic design, web design and e-learning.
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Following Analyst roles with Microsoft and Apple, Tom joined UCD and has been involved in projects such as the enhancement of the Gender Analytics dashboard which supports colleges and schools with their Athena SWAN applications. The development and rollout of the employee self service diversity screen which allows employees to update and input their diversity characteristics across the equality grounds. A speaker at previous events, Tom is also Chair of the IUA EDI data practitioners network.
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