Global Ireland Summit 2023: speakers
Keynote address
Micheál Martin
Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence. He was appointed to these roles on 17 December 2022.
He served as Taoiseach from 27 June 2020 to 17 December 2022.
He has been leader of the Fianna Fáil party since February 2011.
Previously he has served as Lord Mayor of Cork in 1992-93 and has held four cabinet posts:
- Minister for Foreign Affairs (2008-2011)
- Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (2004-2008)
- Minister for Health (2000-04)
- Minister for Education (1997-2000)
Micheál Martin was born in Turners Cross, Cork. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Masters degree in Political History from University College Cork.
Priorities for young Irish people
Rianna Jarrett
Republic of Ireland Senior International Football Player with 16 caps, Currently playing for Wexford Youths Women in the SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division, formerly of Brighton & Hove Albion in the Barclays Women's Super League, and London City Lionesses in the Barclays Women's Championship in the UK.UEFA A Licensed Coach, Second Class Honors Grade 1 in Bachelor of Arts (Honors) Sports Management and Coaching (Level 8) at South East Technological University - SETU Carlow Campus.
Honors include over 100 goals for Wexford Youths Women, SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division winner 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2017 & 2018, FAI Senior Cup winner 2015, 2018 & 2019, FAI National League Cup winner 2014, SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division Player of the Year 2018 & 2019, SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division Young Player of the Year 2013, SSE Airtricity Women's Premier Division team of the year 2013, 2018 & 2019 & Champions League Qualifying Round 2018 & 2019 – 3 goals
Shane O'Connor
Currently a First Year student studying Finance at University College Cork. He is the 2023 winner of the BT Young Scientist and Technologist Exhibition and has represented Ireland at the London International Youth Science Forum. In September 2023, Shane placed 2nd place in the European Competition for Young Scientists, which was hosted in Brussels.
Shane has also been involved in the Irish Second Level Students' Union, contributing to the Education Working Group and Monitoring and Advisory Committee. Currently, he sits on the Expert Advisory Panel for the Irish Rugby Federation's pro-active mental health programme 'Tackle Your Feelings'.
Alicia O' Sullivan
A 22-year-old young woman from Cork, Ireland. She is a student at University College Cork studying Law (Clinical), she is also a Quercus Scholar for Active Citizenship. She is currently Irelands UN Youth Delegate for Ireland.
She began her advocacy journey by joining Cork County Comhairle Na nOg (Irish Youth Council) and represented Cork County on the National Executive. Here she worked on Equality in Schools for a two year term.
She also is a member of YMCA Ireland where she acquired skills of videography, photography and digital literacy. She was Irelands Lions Club Youth Ambassador in 2019 and from that she developed her own youth mental health event for parents 'GenZ', the project is now ran by Healthy Ireland at Cork County Council with Alicia’s input.
Technology and AI
Dr Alessandra Sala
The Sr. Director of AI and Data Science at Shutterstock. Alessandra has over 15 years' experience in research and innovation gained whilst working in academic and commercial environments. Alessandra is passionate and has a strong technical background in Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, advanced analytics and ethical frameworks with the focus of transferring innovation from research to products.
As Co-chair of the UNESCO Women for Ethical AI Platform and Global President of Women in AI (a non-profit do-tank working towards gender-inclusive AI that benefits global society) Alessandra is working with a strong community of women to foster diversity, inclusion and equality for women and minorities while encouraging a global ethical approach in AI. In an advisory capacity, Alessandra also
serves as the Governance Committee Chair at the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research Training in Machine Learning.
Among several awards, Alessandra was the 2021 winner of the XV International Prize "Le Tecnovisionarie" in the AI - Industrial Research category. In her previous role Alessandra was Head of Analytics Research at Nokia Bell Labs where she was leading research teams in several locations and developing a successful strategy for the Data Analytics division while driving changes.
Barry O’Sullivan
Based at University College Cork in Ireland, Professor O’Sullivan is an award-winning academic working on artificial intelligence for over 25 years. He contributes to several global Track II diplomacy efforts at the interface of military, defence, intelligence, and AI.
He is founding director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at UCC and the SFI Centre for Research Training in AI. He served as Vice Chair of the European Commission's High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence which formulated the EU’s ethical approach to AI. He is a Fellow and a past President of the European AI Association. He is also a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Dónal Travers
Head of Technology, Consumer and Business Services Investments at IDA Ireland, the Irish government’s Investment Development Agency. Investments from this sector include those from the world’s leading semiconductor, enterprise software, platform and consumer technology companies in Ireland, including in manufacturing, product development, core R&D and global business services.
Dónal joined IDA in 1997 from the food sector, and has worked across a number of its offices, including for five years in the Silicon Valley office in Mountain View, CA. Dónal is a member of IDA Ireland’s Executive Committee.
Ciarán O'Mara
Ciaran graduated from the University of Limerick with first-class honors in Electronic and Computer Engineering and went on to research the implementation of privacy-based computer vision technologies for two years as part of a Data Science focused PhD program. Ciarán was involved with the delivery of an online MSc. Artificial Intelligence from the University of Limerick which is becoming a talent hub for AI engineering after John Collison of Stripe recently launched the Immersive Software Engineering Masters.
Protex AI have taken advantage of this growing talent hub and located their HQ in Limerick, Ireland. Ciarán won both the ‘Best Application of AI’ in a student project at the AI Awards and All-Ireland Conference of Undergraduate Research in 2019 for his undergraduate research. He was also a national finalist at the Engineers Ireland Innovative Student of the Year 2019. Ciarán presented a computer vision research paper at the Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Sciences 2020. Ciarán was named in the Sunday Business Post 30 under 30 in 2021 & 2022 and Forbes 30 under 30 in 2023.
Eamon Ryan
Minister for Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport. He was elected to represent Dublin Bay South in the 2016 and 2020 General Elections.
He was born in Dublin and raised in Dundrum and Dartry. He studied commerce in UCD before taking a job managing a marketing course in the university’s School of Business. He went on to found a cycling tourism company, Irish Cycling Safaris, in the late 1980s and in 1996 won the Ernst & Young Tourism Enterprise Award. The business still trades successfully as Cycling Safaris.
He was the founding chairperson of the Dublin Cycling Campaign and began his political career as a Dublin City Councillor for the Rathgar – Rathmines ward. He then went on to serve both as a TD for Dublin South and as a Government Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
In recent years, Eamon has worked for E3G, a European climate organisation and chaired the digital policy group in the Institute of International and European Affairs. He is leader of the Green Party/Comhaontas Glas.
Climate and energy
Hannah Daly
Professor in Sustainable Energy at University College Cork. She leads a team of researchers within the SFI MaREI Centre whose works examines pathways for achieving rapid, sustainable greenhouse gas reductions. Her work informs policy and the public on climate change, including through her monthly column “At a Time of Climate Crisis” in the Irish Times.
She is a winner of the 2021 UCC President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2023 award for UCC Research Communicator of the Year. She previously held roles at the International Energy Agency and University College London.
Sean Atkinson
Managing Director of ESB International since 2018. Prior to this, he held the position of CEO of SIRO, the ESB and Vodafone joint venture fibre to the home company. Sean joined ESB International in 1991 and has held a number of roles across ESB, focussing primarily on engineering and large scale investment projects, both in Europe and the USA.
Sean is a mechanical engineer and holds a master’s degree in engineering from Cranfield University and an MBA from the University of Houston.
David Regan
The Chief Executive Officer of Concern Worldwide, Ireland’s largest international humanitarian and development organisation that operates in 25 of the world’s poorest countries.
David started in Concern as volunteer civil engineer in Ethiopia from 1985 to 1987, setting up and overseeing a food for work program focused on soil conservation for 10,000 people in Wolayta, as well as overseeing a WASH program in the region. Subsequent to Ethiopia, he completed an MSc in Information Technology and joined Accenture. In the course of a 34-year career at Accenture he focused primarily on serving government clients. Among other roles, he was the global lead of Accenture’s practice with Revenue agencies from 2010.
David served many roles on the board of Concern from 1990 to 2010 including that of chair and served on the Concern US board. He also acted as the sponsor of a large Accenture funded conservation agriculture program in Malawi from 2012 to 2018. David combines deep experience in strategy consulting, technology implementation and operations, with a long and passionate interest in Concern’s work and governance.
Leo Clancy
Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland, the state agency that helps Irish companies to start, grow, innovate and win export sales in global markets.
Before being appointed as CEO of Enterprise Ireland, Leo was part of the Executive team at IDA Ireland, responsible for a number of areas including Technology and Business Services markets, IT and Marketing. In that role, Leo worked extensively with global technology and services companies invested in Ireland.
Prior to his public sector career, Leo spent 17 years in the telecommunications industry, including in a number of management, technical and engineering roles. He was part of the senior leadership team at e|net, a high-growth Irish wholesale broadband provider. He spent the early part of his career at Ericsson, working as an engineer and manager in Ireland and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa within global services on deployment of telecommunications networks.
Leo is a graduate of Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Dublin Institute of Technology.
He grew up on a farm in County Tipperary and retains a strong fundamental understanding of the agricultural and food sector.
Future of Europe
Emily O’Reilly
First elected as the European Ombudsman by the European Parliament in 2013, Ms O’Reilly was then re-elected for a five- year mandate in 2014 and again in 2019. She investigates maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union. She was awarded Schwarzkopf Europe Award in 2017 in recognition of her work.
From 2003 until 2013, Ms O’Reilly was Ombudsman and Information Commissioner in Ireland. In 2008 the National University in Ireland conferred her with an Honorary Doctorate in Law and in 2014 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University College Dublin for her commitment as Irish Ombudsman.
As a former journalist Ms O’Reilly’s career attracted significant domestic and international recognition, including a Harvard University Fellowship and multiple national awards. She has written three critically acclaimed books on Irish politics and media and is a current member of the International Advisory Board of Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism.
Joe Hackett
Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs since September 2021. Joe joined the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs in 1995 and has since served in a variety of positions at HQ and abroad.
Prior to his appointment as Secretary General, Joe served as Director General of EU Division (2019-2021), Joe also served in Brussels as Deputy Permanent Representative of Ireland to
the European Union (2017-2019) and as Permanent Representative to the EU’s Political & Security Committee (2013-2017). He also has extensive experience of managing Ireland’s bilateral relationship with the United States and engaging with our global Diaspora and international business community.