Mr Blaney has 30+ years' experience in the aircraft, airports and infrastructure financing businesses. As former Chief Executive Officer and a Senior Executive of GPA Group plc, Patrick led that business from its restructuring in 1992, with GE Capital, various M&A Transactions including recapitalisation with Texas Pacific Group (US Private Equity Firm) through to its sale to debis AirFinance, now part of AerCap Holdings NV.

Mr. Blaney is a Founding Partner, Shareholder and Former Director of Amber Infrastructure Group Holdings Limited, and a Former Director of Shannon Airport plc.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, BA (Mod) Econ. and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Patrick completed his training in KMPG.

Anthony Brabazon is Professor of Accounting and Dean of UCD Smurfit School.

Previous positions held in UCD include Director for UCD Smurfit School, Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation for the College of Business and Law, Head of Research for the School of Business and Programme Director for the Master of Accounting Degree. Anthony was also academic project director for the design and construction of the undergraduate Quinn School of Business. In addition, he has held a variety of pro bono and non-executive directorship positions in professional bodies and other organisations, including membership of the Ethics Board of CIMA and a member (and chair) of the CCAB-I (Accounting Standards Consultative Committee - Ireland).

His primary research interests concern the development of natural computing theory and the application of natural computing algorithms to real-world problems, including the domain of business and finance. He is co-founder and co-director of the Natural Computing Research and Applications Group at UCD. Anthony has published in excess of 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and has authored or edited fifteen books. He is founder of EvoFin, the only dedicated European research workshop on the application of evolutionary algorithms to computational finance and economics and is also a member of the IEEE Computational Finance and Economics Technical Committee.

Anthony completed his B Comm and Dip. Prof Accounting studies at UCD before qualifying as a professional accountant with KPMG. Subsequently he undertook postgraduate studies at number of universities including Trinity College Dublin, Heriot-Watt, Kingston and Stanford.

Helen is Director of Smurfit Executive Development at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. She holds direct responsibility for the management and strategic development of Smurfit Executive Development and is a member of the Smurfit School’s Irish Advisory Board and the School’s Senior Management Team and Executive Committee.

Prior to joining UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Helen spent almost 20 years working in international business roles within the private and public sector (CEO, National Dairy Council; Head of Consumer Foods, Aurivo; Head of Market and Business Development, BIM; Director, Nolan’s Seafoods.

While Helen leads the Smurfit Executive Development team, she also specialises in programme design and delivers across the programme portfolio in areas of leadership, change management and organisation effectiveness.  She holds an Executive Masters in Consulting and Coaching for Change from Insead in addition to an MBS from UCD Smurfit School and a BA in Communication Studies from Dublin City University.  Helen is certified by the British Psychological Society for Level A Occupational Ability and Level B Personality Psychometric Test User Certification and is qualified in a range of psychometric and 360 instruments.  She has also continued her professional development throughout her career, undertaking programmes at leading ranked international Business Schools including Harvard (US), Center for Creative Leadership (US) and IESE (Spain). 

Laurence Crowley qualified as a Chartered Accountant and was, for many years, a Partner in KPMG specialising in corporate advice and insolvency.

In 1990, his focus expanded to leadership roles in prominent business organisations including Governor of the Bank of Ireland, Chairman of the Economics and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and of P.J. Carroll. A business innovator, Laurence went on to be a Director of Aer Lingus, Bord Gáis Eireann, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Rothmans International, New Ireland Assurance, Realex Payments, Hardwicke and Davy Stockbrokers. President McAleese appointed Laurence to be Chairman of Gaisce, the President’s Award. This is a challenge for young people to achieve approved goals and is a reward for and recognition of their efforts. He currently serves as a Director of Ecocem and O’Flaherty Holdings.

Laurence was privileged to be appointed as the first Chairman of the newly founded UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in 1990 and remains an active member of the Board of the School.

As Chairman of the Centre for Autism, Laurence helped to establish the all-Ireland organisation and continues to support their mission in working with children most affected by the Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families, carers and teachers.

Laurence holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ireland. In 2004, he was conferred with an honorary Doctorate in Laws by the National University of Ireland.

In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary CBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his role in the peace process in Ireland and in fostering relationships between our two nations.

Gerardine, Professor of Accounting and Taxation, is Director of the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Gerardine is Associate Dean of the UCD College of Business and has served as Head of the Accountancy Subject Area. She holds a BSc (Honours) from UCD, and qualified as a chartered accountant and chartered tax advisor with KPMG. She completed her PhD under the supervision of Professor Ted O'Leary on The Emergence of Accounting Innovations: A Health Care Setting. Gerardine's research interests span accounting, medicine, public health and taxation. She has been awarded funding exceeding Euro 14 million for major comparative research projects addressing key areas of health policy and management. She was the principal investigator for Ireland in the European Health Literacy Survey (Grant Agreement Number: 2007113 - HLS-EU) which received three societal impact awards: the European Health Award from the European Health Forum Gastein in 2012, the Crebolder Award from the School of Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University and a societal impact award from Huis voor de Zorg (House of Care), The Netherlands. Gerardine was also Principal Investigator for Ireland for a Seventh Framework multi-disciplinary collaborative project (Grant Agreement Number: 306186) on diabetes and health literacy.She is also a member of a European research network studying costing practices for health services and patient-level costing. Gerardine is a Co-Principal Investigator within the UCD Technology Centre Applied Research in Connected Health (ARCH) funded by Enterprise Ireland/IDA. She has been an expert evaluator for the European Commission for the Seventh Framework programme and Horizon 2020.

Gerardine has held visiting scholarships at Harvard Business School (hosted by Professor Robert Kaplan), the London School of Economics and Bocconi University. Gerardine teaches Taxation at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has also taught Financial Control and Financial Accounting, consistently achieving outstanding scores in her teaching evaluations. She completed the Comparative Tax Policy and Administration programme at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2014. Gerardine also delivers Executive Education courses to non-consultant hospital doctors on Business Fundamentals and Value Measurement for Healthcare. In addition to her role as Head of Accountancy, Gerardine has held leadership roles within the UCD College of Business, including academic director of the Executive MBA (Health Care Management) programme and Head of Teaching and Learning.

External to UCD, Gerardine was a member of the Education and Qualifications Committee of the Irish Tax Institute and Chair of the board of the Final Admitting Examination, Chartered Accountants Ireland. She also served on the Audit Committee of the Health Service Executive and was appointed to the board of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) in September 2014. In 2016, Gerardine was appointed an academic committee member of the European Association of Tax Law Professors.

Liam recently stepped down as CEO of UDG plc, a FTSE 250 company with a market capitalisation of €2 billion. He served as Chief Executive for 15 years and as a member of the Board for the past 20 years. During his time as CEO, the company transformed from an Irish pharmaceutical distribution business into a global healthcare services business operating in over 20 countries and employing 8000 people.

Liam started his career in the Jefferson Smurfit Group plc graduate programme. After a number of years in various Divisions of the Smurfit Group, he spent a brief time in the advertising industry.

He joined United Drug in 1993 and had responsibility for the Contract Distribution Outsourcing (CDO) business before being appointed to the Board in 1996. In that year, Liam also took responsibility for expansion of the Company’s CDO business into the UK market. Furthermore, he was instrumental in the strategic decisions to move into the Contract Sales Outsourcing (CSO) business, both in Ireland and the UK, and to develop the Medical & Scientific (M&S) business division internationally.

In addition to his responsibilities in UDG Healthcare, Liam is a former chairman of The Marketing Society in Ireland.

Liam is a former non-executive director of C&C plc and Warner Chilcott plc. Liam is also a former Chairman of Traidlinks, a charity that supports innovation and entrepreneurship in Southern Africa.

Liam graduated from University College Dublin with an MBS degree in 1987 having graduated with a BComm a year earlier.

Dee Forbes is Director-General, RTÉ, a role she officially took up on Monday 11th July, 2016.
Prior to taking up her role at RTÉ, Dee Forbes was based in London and over 27 years, worked for broadcasters and advertising agency Young and Rubicam.

Most recently she was President & Managing Director of Discovery Networks Northern Europe. Dee joined Discovery in 2010 as Head of the UK/Ireland operation and progressively grew her responsibilities to eventually lead the Northern Europe region, which included 18 markets and territories and 27 channels, both free-to-air and subscription, which broadcast to over 276 million households across Northern Europe each month.

Before joining Discovery, Dee Forbes led Turner Broadcasting’s business in the UK and Ireland, which consisted of seven entertainment channels, including Cartoon Network, Boomerang and TCM. She spent several years working at Turner in a variety of commercial roles including General Manager for the Nordic/Central and Eastern Europe and EMEA regions and Head of Advertising Sales for Europe.

Dee is a former non-executive director of the board of The Irish Times and currently sits on the board of Munster Rugby. A native of Drimoleague in west Cork, Dee is a graduate of UCD where she studied history and politics.

Brian Fynes is Associate Dean (International) and Professor of Supply Chain Management at the College of Business, University College Dublin. Prior to that he was EU Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Operations Management at London Business School. His research interests focus on supply chain practices and performance in manufacturing and service industries.

He has published over 50 articles in premier journals including Production and Operations Management, the International Journal of Operations & Production Management and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. He received an Outstanding Reviewer Award for the International Journal of Operations & Production Management (2017) and has received four Emerald Literati Awards for his published work.

He was President of the Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) in 2013 and continues to serve on its Executive Board. He served on the Board of the European Operations Management Association (EurOMA) from 2008 to 2014 and co-chaired the 20th EurOMA Conference in Dublin in 2013. He served as Head of the Management Subject Area from 2007 to 2016.

He is co-founder of Zendfast - a supply chain start-up that solves the last mile delivery challenge with a crowdsourced on-demand courier service.

Emer is a former Chairperson of Mason Hayes & Curran and a Partner in the Dispute Resolution team. Emer is experienced in a broad range of commercial and financial services litigation. Emer specialises in project management and investigatory work and acts as a legal advisor to corporates and boards on corporate safeguards and compliance procedures.

Emer is a member of the Advisory Board at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, a Council member of the Economic and Social Research Institute and a Board member of Greencoat Renewables plc and the Ireland Funds. Emer is also a qualified mediator.

Ronan is MD of Google UK & Ireland. Prior to this he was VP of Google EMEA and Head of Google's operations in Ireland. Ronan joined Google’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin in 2005. Since then he has focused on growing the company’s online advertising sales across EMEA and also launched several other Google products and initiatives in the region.

A graduate in electronic engineering at University College Dublin, Ronan began his career with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation at their Information Storage Products division in Japan. He went on to spend nine years in Japan working in consulting and technology and returned to Ireland in 2001 to work in private equity before joining Google.

Hailing from Ennis, County Clare, I am proud to serve a vibrant community of 2000+ undergraduate students and staff at our beautiful UCD Belfield campus as Associate Dean and Director of UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business, and to serve as academic lead for Moore Learning.

As Associate Professor in Management I teach across the UCD Business portfolio from first year undergraduate to Executive Education, focusing on Organisational Behaviour, Work, Management and Development. I lean towards experiential methods and am especially interested in group dynamics and collaboration skills. I recently completed four-year tenure as Vice Principal for Teaching and Learning.

My curiosity about the human side of organising reflects formation in HR&IR (University of Limerick), Management and Organisation Studies (UCD Smurfit), the study of working and managing in front line customer service (Lancaster University PhD 2003), and more recently ongoing clinical training as a group analyst with UCD School of Psychotherapy.

My research appears in journals including Work, Employment and Society; Human Resource Management Journal; Work and Occupations and Journal of Business Ethics and numerous book chapters. I have published two edited collections - Work Matters: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and Searching for the Human in Human Resource Management (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) with co-author Professor Sharon Bolton. 

As a member of the Centre for Business and Society, I am Principal Investigator for a competitively funded Caroline postdoctoral project with Siobhan Airey, examining governance and financing of the Sustainable Development Goals. I work with Dr Penelope Muzanenhamo and Dr David Nyaluke on the Proudly Made in Africa Project, and Catherine McElhinney whose doctoral study of daughters of family business is soon to complete. All told, I am proud and fortunate to work across a diverse, exciting portfolio, with some very inspiring people, and to love what I do.

Ian Hyland is CEO and Publisher at Business & Finance Media Group, President of the global business platform Ireland INC, founder of The Principals Club and a partner with Principal Consulting and Haymarket Capital.

Incorporated in both Dublin and London, Business & Finance was launched in 1964 and acquired in by Ian in 2002. Today Business & Finance operates in the multimedia, digital, print and networking events domains, with its main focus on Dublin, London, New York and Washington DC. Business & Finance hosts The Principals Club of which Ian is founder, and the annual Business & Finance Awards gala.

Ian is Chairman of Ireland INC, a global business platform, with activities operating in Ireland, UK, US and Asia Pacific, aimed at promoting Irish business interests. Ireland INC has operated engagement platforms in New York, Washington DC, London, Shanghai and Hong Kong, with a particular focus on the Unites States and hosts its main activities in New York and Washington DC. Having created the Ireland Day Business Forum at the NYSE – now in its eighth year - Ireland Day is the only international country day hosted by the NYSE.

Ian is a partner at Principal which is an engagement-focused consultancy leveraging human capital of international CEOs, business owners, C-level executives and stakeholders while assisting in positioning of corporate brands in key international markets.

Ian also serves as a director of the Haiti charity The Haven Partnership (New York). He has been Chairman of the Haiti Week programme launched by President Clinton in 2012, raising nearly €2m for housing and education projects across Haiti. He has recently been appointed to the board of the international technology- and education-focused charity Camara, and has served on the founding advisory board of Self Help Africa (New York).

Damien is Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean – Internationalisation and Distance Learning at UCD Smurfit School. He has served on the faculty of the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, Asia’s leading business school, the Indian School of Business and at Harvard Business School.

Known internationally as a Strategic Marketing specialist, Damien has published more than seventy papers in prestigious international journals and conferences. He published a book with David A. Aaker of UC Berkeley, Strategic Market Management: Global Edition. As a thought leader he has also written more than a dozen case studies, mainly relating to leadership issues in the food and agribusiness sector.

Damien has worked with a number of the world’s leading firms including Alltech, Allianz, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. He designed and currently leads Alltech’s Global Advanced Management Development Programme and Bord Bia’s Marketing Fellowship Programme, and previously Google’s Marketing Academy for the EMEA region. A former Dean of UCD Smurfit School, in 2008 he was appointed to the Medical Council of Ireland and in 2010 to the board of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), by the Minster for Health and Children. As a board advisor he has worked with a number of high growth firms in the technology sector, including GeoGuides Ltd.

Damien has also been active as an expert witness in cases involving marketing issues. His work is highly regarded and has been recognised with a number of domestic and international awards and distinctions.

Angela is the Managing Partner of Ravensdale Capital, an investment platform created to provide angel and venture capital investments in startup and early stage technology businesses in the US.

She is the Managing Director of Macha Capital Partners, a private investment fund focused on making investments in small, growth-orientated business in Ireland, with a special focus on women-led initiatives, investing in businesses beyond seed stage in a broad range of sectors including manufacturing, technology and tradable services.

Angela serves on the boards of several organizations, including: UCD Smurfit School Advisory Board; Women in Business NI; Northern Ireland US East Coast Advisory Council; Governance Board at Crescent Capital; The Virginia Distillery Company; The American Ireland Fund; North American Friends of the Lyric Theater Belfast; Somos Amigos Medical Missions; and is a member of the Irish Global Economic Forum. She received her undergraduate training at St. Mary’s College, Queens, and has a BA & MBA from George Washington University.
Angela is originally from Newry, Co. Down and currently resides in the Washington DC area and Carlingford.

Martin is a former Managing Director and Chairman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Ireland. He serves as a board member of Ulster Bank and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) which provides a range of asset and liability management services to the Irish Government. He is also chair of the Labour Market Council, an expert group that advises the Government on labour market policy and provides input on wider employment issues.  He is a past President of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

Martin holds a BA.BAI(HONS) in Maths and Engineering as well as a Masters in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin.

Group Finance Director, CRH plc Senan was appointed to the Board of CRH in January 2016.

Senan has over 25 years’ experience in international business across financial services, banking and renewable energy. He joined CRH from Bank of Ireland Group plc where he was the Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Group’s Executive Committee. He previously held positions as Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director at Ulster Bank, Chief Financial Officer at Airtricity and numerous senior financial roles in GE, both in Ireland and the United States.

Qualifications: B.Comm, FCA.

Mr. Ciaran Murray is the Executive Chairman of ICON plc since March 2017, having previously served as Chief Executive Officer from October 2011 to March 2017. He joined ICON as Chief Financial Officer in 2005 and served in that capacity until his appointment as Chief Executive Officer in 2011.

Mr. Murray is an executive with 35 years of leadership experience forged from a career spent operating in global markets in high-growth entrepreneurial companies and blue-chip multi-nationals, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Kraft Foods, Novell Inc., Northern Foods and Codec Systems. Mr. Murray has also played a leadership role in advocating for safe, ethical high-quality research through his 2014 Chairmanship of the Association of Clinical Research Organisations (ACRO). ACRO represents the CRO industry globally to key stakeholders including pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, regulators, legislators and patient groups.

In 2014, Mr. Murray was named as a leader in CRO Innovation by PharmaVOICE100, a listing of the most influential people in the biopharma industry.

Mr. Murray graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin and he is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. Mr. Murray was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws from University College Dublin in 2013 for his support of third level research and innovation in Ireland.

Orna is Chair of Founders Intelligence, Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Burberry plc and Senior Independent Director at Saga plc. She is also Deputy Chair of the National Trust. She has served on the Boards of Bupa, HMV, Northern Foods and Bank of Ireland UK and has been an advisor to Apax Partners LLP.

She holds a B.E. (Electronic Engineering) from UCD, an M.Eng.Sc. (Microelectronics) from UCC, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She joined McKinsey and Company in 1983 and became the first female partner in its UK office in 1990. The key focus of her client service was retailing/consumer businesses and she co-led McKinsey’s European Retail Practice for many years until she left McKinsey in 2001.

Breege has until recently been a Board Member & Group Director (Business Development & New Markets) at Primark and after 37 years now continues in an Ambassadorial role in Primark.

Breege is currently Chairman of Real World Analytics, Chairman of The Design and Crafts Council of Ireland, Non-Executive Director of Shaw & Sons Ltd, a Board member of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, and a member of the Outside Appointments Board (Civil Service Code of Standards and Behaviour).

Breege has held government appointed positions on the board of a number of state companies including An Post, Aer Rianta, Chair of Shannon College of Hotel Management, Chair of the Labour Relations Commission, Director of Fáilte Ireland and has been a Trustee and a Council Member of IBEC.

Most recently Breege has been honoured as follows:

2017
UCD Business – Smurfit Patrons of Excellence
2016
Doctorate of Philosophy (honoris causa), Dublin Institute of Technology
Fashion Retailing Personality of the Year, Drapers UK
Irish Tatler Women of the Year, Hall of Fame Award
Ireland’s Most Powerful Women, Top 25, Davy Business Leaders Award
Chevalier of The Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur by President François Hollande
Iconic Businesswomen of the Decade’ at the WOMEN ECONOMIC FORUM, New Delhi
Ireland’s Most Powerful Women: Top 25, Davy Business Leaders Award
2015
UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School, New York Honoree
UCD Quinn School ‘Alumna of the Year’ Awards, Dublin
2014
The Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award IMAGE
2011
Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Business Award

Hilary O’Meara is the managing director of Accenture’s Resources practice in Ireland, leading Accenture’s work with utility, energy and fuel companies.  Working at Accenture for 25 years, Hilary supports clients’ in the design and delivery of strategic business and IT transformation at scale.

Hilary is a member of Accenture in Ireland’s leadership team, a business that has been operating in Ireland for over 50 years. Prior to this, Hilary was the head of Accenture’s Technology practice for five years, responsible for delivering large-scale client technology solutions to accelerate their growth and increase efficiency.

With a deep passion for inclusion in the workplace, Hilary leads Accenture’s inclusion and diversity efforts within the Resources sector across the UK and Ireland, supporting Accenture in its aspiration to be the most inclusive organisation in the world.

Hilary is a member of the Advisory Board at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and  holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from University College Dublin. She is also a board member of Fast Track to IT.

Feargal O’Rourke is the Managing Partner (CEO) of PwC Ireland since 1 July 2015 and in early 2019 was reelected to a second 4 year term to 30 June 2023. He is also a member of the PwC EMEA Leadership Team. Prior to this he was the Head of PwC Ireland’s Tax and Legal Services practice and played a major role in the Irish and Global Tax policy debate during that time.  Admitted as a Partner in 1996, he works primarily in the Foreign Direct Investment sector of PwC advising US companies, primarily from the West Coast, on their operations in Ireland and Europe.

He has been appointed by a number of Irish Governments to various roles. He served for 7 years on the board of Forfás, the Irish State body responsible for the development of Industrial policy and the development of science and technology in Ireland. In 2004 he was appointed as one of Ireland’s “independent persons of standing” under the terms of the EU Double Taxation Arbitration Convention. Feargal was appointed by the Government in February 2008 as the only Big 4 representative to the 18 person Commission on Taxation. The Commission was asked to review and report back on the structure, efficiency and appropriateness of the Irish tax system and many of the recommendations proposed by the Commission have now been implemented.

In 2014, Feargal was appointed to the board of directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland which is the representative body for the 700 US companies based in Ireland at both Government and Industry level. As part of this role, he has chaired the Taxation working group and currently chairs the Brexit working group.

He is a member of the Finance Committee of the Irish Rugby Football Union. He holds a First Class Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin and also holds the Diploma in Professional Accounting from that University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and an Associate of the Irish Taxation Institute.

Dr Michael Smurfit is former Chairman of Smurfit Kappa Group.

Born in St Helen’s, Lancashire in 1936, Dr Smurfit was educated at Clongowes Wood College and joined his father’s company Jefferson Smurfit & Sons Ltd in 1955. He was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Jefferson Smurfit Group in 1977, a position he held until his retirement as CEO in November 2002.

Dr Smurfit led the early expansion of the Group in Ireland and the UK and followed it with a series of acquisitions in the USA, Latin America and Continental Europe – creating in the process Ireland’s first international company and a global leader in paper-based packaging.

As Chairman, Dr Smurfit oversaw the merger of the Smurfit Group with Kappa Packaging BV in 2005 to form the Smurfit Kappa Group – employing 42,000 employees in 33 countries on 5 continents. Following the successful flotation of the newly merged Company, Dr Smurfit retired from his position as Chairman of the Smurfit Kappa Group.

In addition to the many honorary doctorates that Dr Smurfit has been awarded, he was also made a Knight Commander of the British Empire in June 2005. He is the honorary Irish consul to Monaco and has been honoured for his achievements by the Governments of France, Italy, Spain, Venezuela and Colombia.

Dr Smurfit is a member of many sporting and social clubs in Ireland, the UK, USA, Monaco and Spain and is the owner of the K Club in County Kildare which hosted the Ryder Cup in 2006. He has four sons and two daughters.

Michael Smurfit Jnr is Chief Executive Officer of SF Investments, a private investment company based in Dublin.

Prior to this position, Michael held a number of senior management positions within the Jefferson Smurfit Group based in the United States and Europe. Michael is also Director of a number of private companies.

He graduated from The Michael Smurfit Business School, UCD in 1993 with an MBA Degree.

Sheetal is an angel investor and sits on the Board of MetaCert a mobile security company in San Francisco. She is Founder of Shanti Life an international charity that provides the poor in India access to financial literacy, hygiene training and capital for the creation of small businesses and access to sanitation. Funds are given directly to the beneficiaries and then reinvested upon repayment. Sheetal is Deal Maker (by appointment) to the Global Entrepreneur Programme, Department for International Trade (UK) and presents frequently on the topic of entrepreneurship, women in technology and access to funding. She has presented at Stanford, Berkeley, University of Alberta, Cambridge, LSE, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, Doha Forum, TEDx, House of Lords, Big Society and other prestigious forums.

Previously Sheetal created the Venture Capital Relations team at Microsoft in the USA and took the initiative global from the UK; and she was one of the first representatives of WestLB in the Gulf Region providing diverse financial products from project finance to wealth management.

Sheetal has received several awards: Asian Women of Achievement: Social and Humanitarian (Prince Charles and Cherie Blair) for her efforts on taking technology to developing communities in India and Africa (2005); Management Today Magazine 35 Under 35; Success Magazine No 5 of top most powerful Asian women in the UK (2006), Award for Entrepreneur of the Year by Asian Woman Magazine and No 3 Ones To Watch’ section of the Asian Power 100 list – the most influential and highest achieving Asian women in Britain (2007). Asian Woman Magazine covered a story of Sheetal’s business in the Sept 2007 issue. Sheetal has been invited to Buckingham Palace for “Women in Business” reception hosted by Her Majesty, The Queen in November 2007, Alumni Award of Excellence from the University of Alberta and was most recently nominated for the Microsoft Alumni Integral Awards 2012. Sheetal has a Masters in International Relations (Economics) at the London School of Economics and a BA (Honors) in International Politics at the University of Alberta, Canada.

David Widger is a Partner with A&L Goodbody and Head of the Firm's Corporate Department. David advises a wide range of Irish and international public and private corporations, institutions and private equity and venture capital funds on all legal aspects of their corporate affairs.

He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, joint ventures, restructurings, venture capital, contractual arrangements, capital markets and securities law.

David is consistently recognised by clients and peers in leading international publications and directories for his knowledge of the law and expertise in dealing with complex client issues. David studied law at UCD, qualified as a Solicitor in 1995.