Professor Martin Curley

Martin Curley is Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University. Most recently, Martin was Director of the Digital Transformation and Open Innovation at the Health Service Executive (HSE), helping enable the digital transformation of Ireland’s health service and also served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the HSE. Prior to joining the HSE Martin was Senior Vice President and group head for Global Digital Practice at Mastercard. Previously Martin was vice president at Intel Corporation and Director/GM of Intel Labs Europe, Intel’s network of more than 50 research labs which he helped grow across the European region. He also served as a senior principal engineer at Intel Labs Europe leading Intel’s research and innovation engagement with the European Commission and the broader European Union research ecosystem. Prior to this Curley was Global Director of IT Innovation and Director of IT Strategy and Technology at Intel. Earlier in his Intel career, he held a number of senior positions for Intel in the United States and Europe. He also worked in research and management positions at GE in Ireland and Philips in the Netherlands.

Martin has a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and a master’s degree in business studies, both from University College Dublin, Ireland. He received his Ph.D. in information systems from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Curley is the author of eight books on technology management for value, innovation and entrepreneurship. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, the British Computer Society and, the Irish Computer Society. Martin is co-founder of the Innovation Value Institute at Maynooth University, a unique industry-academia collaboration driving research and development of advanced IT and Digital maturity frameworks. He was previously a visiting scholar at MIT Sloan Centre for Information Systems Research and a visiting research fellow at the CERN Open Lab in Geneva. He was the inaugural winner of the Engineers Ireland Innovation engineer of the year in 2006 and was jointly awarded European Chief Technology Officer of the year for 2015-2016.

Professor Eeva Leinonen

Professor Eeva Leinonen joined Maynooth University as President in October 2021, after five years of service as Vice Chancellor and President at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia.

Professor Leinonen was born and raised in Finland, where she completed her schooling. She and her two brothers were the first in their family to attend university. Her own experience has cemented her belief in the role of education as a social equaliser, with the power to transform for the better the lives of individuals, families and whole communities.

As part of her education in Finland Professor Leinonen spent a year as an exchange student in Michigan, USA, prior to entering university in England, where she studied linguistics and psychology. She obtained a BSc (Hons) in Linguistics and Psychology (First Class) from Aston University, UK; MPhil in Text Linguistics from Exeter University, UK: PhD in Clinical Linguistics from De Montfort University, UK; Docent (Higher Doctorate) from her hometown university, University of Oulu, Finland; and DSc (Honoris Causa) from Aston University, UK.

Professor Leinonen’s academic research focuses on pragmatic language processing deficits in children and young adults with autistic spectrum disorders. She collaborates with colleagues in Finland and Italy, including recent work on cross-cultural comparison of pragmatic development in typically developing children in these two cultural contexts. She also speaks and writes about higher education topics, including institutional leadership, curriculum and technology enhanced learning.

Professor Leinonen has extensive experience in higher education in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and internationally. Prior to joining Maynooth University, she spent over eight years in Australia, where she first held the position of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Education) at the University of Wollongong and then Vice Chancellor of Murdoch University.

Dr John Sheehan

John is deeply engaged in healthcare technology, with a focus on emerging innovations like cloud computing, AI, Augmented Reality, Robotics and Quantum Computing. His work revolves around bridging the clinical, digital, and industrial realms to advance technology policy.

John’s journey in Radiology commenced in 2005 when he embarked on fellowships in MRI (Body, Neuro & MSK) and Cardiovascular Imaging at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. His dedication led him to become the Chief of Cardiovascular Imaging at NorthShore University Health System by 2009.

Currently, John serves as a Consultant Radiologist at Blackrock Health (Hermitage & Blackrock Clinics) and Mobile Medical Diagnostics, specialising in Diagnostic to Interventional Radiology. His expertise shines in Cardiovascular, Hepatobiliary, Prostate, MSK, and Colonography, where he continues to set new standards.

John also holds the role of Clinical Director at Hermitage Clinic and Mobile Medical Diagnostics, while providing valuable advice to xWave Technologies. In this capacity, he brings his clinical insights to inform administrative decision-making.

As the Vice Chair of Ireland’s Digital Health Association, John plays a role in shaping Ireland’s Digital Health Strategy.

Known for his calm diligence and solution-focused approach, John balances his professional life with diverse hobbies like music, gardening, and photography.

Join John on his journey to drive healthcare technology and innovation for a brighter future.

Dr Donal Bailey

Dr Donal Bailey has been a medical practitioner since 2009 and working in Centric Health since 2016, most recently as Director of Clinical Innovation. He is now the CEO of Care-Connect, our new care management business between Centric Health and Irish Life Health. He is a medical graduate of Trinity College Dublin, MSc Sports and Exercise Medicine 2011 from Queen Mary University London, MICGP since 2016, and Executive MBA 2017 from University College Dublin

Dr Monika Suryavanshi

With over two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, Dr Monika developed a deep understanding of health and care systems, bringing both clinical and managerial expertise from different markets and cultures. As an expert on a wide range of strategic, operational and compliance projects, ranging from developing new business and care models to improving processes and workflows in hospitals, she worked with various stakeholders in different countries such as USA, Spain, Kazakhstan, Georgia, China, and Kenya.
Amongst others, Dr Monika worked as Executive Director of Helios Healthcare Architects, a consulting business unit of Fresenius Helios, one of the largest healthcare groups in Europe. Before joining Helios group, Dr. Monika has worked in clinical and management capacities as an emergency physician and hospital manager for 15 years in India. She headed her own hospital and a clinic in Pune, a first-tier city in India.
She was also a faculty member and trainer in Emergency Medicine and American Heart Association courses at Symbiosis International University, Pune, India.
Dr Monika’s academic background includes Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan, USA and International University, Germany.

Prof Mark Lawler

Prof Patrizia Paterlini-Brécho

Emeritus Professor of Cell biology and Oncology, former Director at INSERM, Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot is Rarecells’ Founder and President. In addition to fundamental research studies on liver carcinogenesis early in her career, she focused on applied research. Her research led to the discovery and development of the patented ISET® technique for isolation and characterization of circulating tumor and fetal cells permitting innovative advances in non-invasive predictive oncology and prenatal diagnosis. Prof Paterlini Bréchot oversees the continuing development of Rarecells and its ISET® technology. Her work was acknowledged by 13 prestigious awards and led to 120+ high level scientific publications.

Professor Ray O’Sullivan

Ray is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with an interest in simulation and innovation in healthcare, especially women’s health. He is now the Chief Executive Officer/Founder of Vox-AI. He also is an associate professor in Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI). 

Ray used to be the Director of Womens Health Group Ireland. He was Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in Health Services Executi, St.Luke’s Hospital for 17 years. He was also a Consultant Gynaecologist in UPMC.

Professor Piero Formica

Professor Formica has published extensively on knowledge economics, entrepreneurship and innovation. Ideators: Their Words and Voices (2022),

One Health: Transformative Enterprises, Wellbeing and Education in the Knowledge Economy (2023), Sciencepreneurship: Science, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Economic Growth (2023), published by Emerald Publishing Group, and Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence: Exhibition at the Mind Gallery (2024, Edizioni Pendragon) are his most recent books.

For his contribution to modern innovation policy, he received the 2017 Innovation Luminary Award from the Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group under the aegis of the European Union and the 2023 Magister Peloritanus Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti of the University of Messina, Italy.

Dr John Sheehan

John is deeply engaged in healthcare technology, with a focus on emerging innovations like cloud computing, AI, Augmented Reality, Robotics and Quantum Computing. His work revolves around bridging the clinical, digital, and industrial realms to advance technology policy.

John’s journey in Radiology commenced in 2005 when he embarked on fellowships in MRI (Body, Neuro & MSK) and Cardiovascular Imaging at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago. His dedication led him to become the Chief of Cardiovascular Imaging at NorthShore University Health System by 2009.

Currently, John serves as a Consultant Radiologist at Blackrock Health (Hermitage & Blackrock Clinics) and Mobile Medical Diagnostics, specialising in Diagnostic to Interventional Radiology. His expertise shines in Cardiovascular, Hepatobiliary, Prostate, MSK, and Colonography, where he continues to set new standards.

John also holds the role of Clinical Director at Hermitage Clinic and Mobile Medical Diagnostics, while providing valuable advice to xWave Technologies. In this capacity, he brings his clinical insights to inform administrative decision-making.

As the Vice Chair of Ireland’s Digital Health Association, John plays a role in shaping Ireland’s Digital Health Strategy.

Known for his calm diligence and solution-focused approach, John balances his professional life with diverse hobbies like music, gardening, and photography.

Join John on his journey to drive healthcare technology and innovation for a brighter future.

Professor Ciara Heavin

Ciara Heavin is a Professor in Business Information Systems at Cork University Business School, University College Cork, Ireland. Her research focuses on opportunities for using information systems (IS) in the global healthcare ecosystem and in digital transformation. As Co-Director of the Health Information Systems Research Centre (HIRSC), Ciara has directed funded research in the investigation, development, and implementation of innovative technology solutions in the health/healthcare domain. She has published articles in several top international IS journals and conference proceedings. She has co-authored three books with Daniel J. Power: Decision Support, Analytics, and Business Intelligence, Data-Based Decision Making and Digital Transformation and On Becoming Agile. She earned a PhD from University College Cork.

Professor Paolo Benanti

Born in Rome in 1973, Paolo Benanti is a Franciscan of the Third Order Regular – TOR – and deals with ethics, bioethics and ethics of technologies. In particular, his studies focus on innovation management: the internet and the impact of the Digital Age, biotechnologies for human enhancement and biosecurity, neuroscience and neurotechnology.

As he himself writes, “I try to focus on the ethical and anthropological significance of technology for Homo sapiens: we are a species that has been inhabiting the world for 70,000 years, transforming it, the human condition is a techno-human condition…”

He obtained a licentiate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2008 and a doctorate in moral theology in 2012. The doctoral dissertation entitled “The Cyborg. Body and corporeality in the age of the posthuman” won the Belarmino – Vedovato.

Since 2008 he has been a lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Theological Institute of Assisi and the Pontifical Leonian College in Anagni. In addition to institutional courses in sexual morality and bioethics, he deals with neuroethics, ethics of technologies, artificial intelligence and posthuman. He was part of the Artificial Intelligence Task Force to assist the Agency for Digital Italy. He is a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life with a particular mandate for the world of artificial intelligence. At the end of 2018 he was selected by the Ministry of Economic Development as a member of the group of thirty experts who at national level have the task of developing the national strategy on artificial intelligence and the national strategy on technologies based on shared ledgers and blockchain.

Richard Egan

Miriam Roche

Miriam is responsible for leading on the procurement and implementation of the EHR Programme at the Mater Hospital. She is an experienced healthcare leader with a proven track record of successfully delivering complex projects, including St. James’s Hospital EPR and e-Prescribing implementation where she held roles such as Engagement & Delivery Lead and Interim CIO.

Miriam’s expertise lies in transformation project delivery, problem solving and managing diverse teams. Her strong clinical knowledge means that she understands the value proposition of digital projects for both patients and healthcare practitioners.

She is passionate about improving patient care through access to information and digital insights. Miriam holds an MSc. in Digital Health Transformation, a Professional Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership and a Diploma in Leadership in Quality and Safety

Susan Treacy

Bror Salmelin

Currently Bror Salmelin continues his work on modern innovation approaches as independent thought leader, but also as member of the board for Industry Commons Foundation, an actor and think-tank for value creation in industry and society by open innovation approaches.

He is former Advisor for Innovation Systems at the European Commission, Directorate General for Communications, Network, content, and Technology (DG CONNECT) where he was responsible for Open innovation and Modern innovation systems. He was actively contributing to innovation policies related to new instruments, entrepreneurship and SME. He was heading the units Integration in Manufacturing, Electronic Commerce and Collaborative Working Environments before becoming Advisor of the Directorate General of the European Commission.

He is also creator of the Open Innovation Strategy and Policy Group (OISPG), an industry-led group advising on strategic priorities for open and service innovation which operated as think-tank for the digital transformations. He, together with Martin Curley created the concept of Open Innovation 2.0, and organised several top level conferences including Innovation Luminary Award ceremonies for the leading open innovation thinkers and doers.

He developed the concept of European Network of Living Labs in 2002, which is grown through EU presidencies to a 450+ sites innovation network for collaborative innovation.

Before joining the European Commission in 1998 he held the position of Deputy of the ICT Section in Technology Development Centre and served as the Finnish representative at ESPRIT/IST programme of the EU. He lived in Los Angeles and worked as vice consul establishing business and research contacts between Californian and Finnish IT and Media companies.

Bror Salmelin is a member of New Club of Paris, and Member of the Advisory Board for Innovation Value Institute, Ireland. He has an expertise in intangible economy and value creation, related to policies like innovation policy, productivity and creativity focused on new service innovation. His recent focus is in industry and societal commons, being a founding member of the Industry Commons Foundation.

Jobs transformation together with the societal transformation is one of his expertise areas, related to open innovation ecosystems in particular.

After retirement he remains active in speaking and writing on open innovation, creative, industrial and societal commons and the transformation of the society. He is member of the Board for Industry Commons Foundation and advisor for other activities, projects and entities.

His main interest areas include Industrial and Societal Commons, Open Innovation 2.0 and its derivatives, insights in modern innovation practises , innovation ecosystem creation and strategic development on organisational and methodological levels.

He is based in Kouvola, Finland and Laurabuc, France.

Richard Wyatt-Haines

Richard Wyatt-Haines is the founder of Health and Care Innovations. HCI is a groundbreaking digital health company that enables health systems to adopt new and sustainable ways of delivering health and care for patients, and all their treatments and their conditions as close to home as possible and doing that across the whole health system.

Dr.Ciara McCormack

Nollag Conneely

Nollag Conneely is a highly experienced Data Protection Officer with an MSc in Cybersecurity Management, an MSc in Human Resource Management, and an MA in Leadership, Management and Defence. A Privacy and Cybersecurity SME. He is a co-author of the NATO Hybrid and Cybersecurity Threats Curriculum. Nollag is Course Co-ordinator and lecturer for the Information Governance course at European Security and Defence College, Brussels. He is also a member of the CEDPO DPO Working Group. He is a speaker and contributor for the Irish Computer Society and ADPO

Andy Webber

Andy has 30 years’ experience in the medical technology development, marketing and distribution environments. Working primarily with cardiac function and cardiovascular screening products, he has spent the past two decades launching new disruptive technologies around the world.

Having built a career focused on how the integration of novel technologies can improve patient outcomes, he was instrumental in the widespread introduction of a new clinical pathway to health providers including both the NHS and Canadian Health Care Systems. Creating a multi-faceted program has enabled change to the care of thousands of surgical patients and made them an invested component in their own recovery. Now a globally accepted and used pathway, it has proven to lower rates of post operative complications, reduce in hospital length of stay and overall health administration costs.

Currently, Andy is part of the small team at HeartSciences Inc who are leading the AI revolution by applying it to the most used cardiac testing device, the 12 lead ECG. With unique product offerings, they have proven to be at the forefront of change and expect to close the diagnostic gap by enabling better screening of patients, allowing quicker access to care, and assisting health structures overcome waitlist and cost burdens.

Fintan Foy

Over a 35-year Fintan’s career has been spent in medical education and training in both Ireland and overseas. He worked from 1993 – 2011 in RCSI in a number of senior posts including Project Lead for a overseas projects in the Gulf and Malaysia.
From 2011 to 2017, he was CEO of the College of Anaesthetists in Ireland. This was a young organsiation and within which he put in place a strong governance structure, a clear identity and established a strong overseas base.
For the last 8 years he has been CEO of the Irish College of General Practitioners with the College seeing growth across all its key areas in Ireland and overseas.
Fintan has completed an MBA from Smurfit Business School in addition to a primary degree and postgraduate qualifications in HR, Accountancy, Teaching, etc.
Fintan has served on the Board of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland for 8 years and is also Company Secretary of Polio Survivors Ireland. In June 2023, he was appointed to the Board of the Dublin Dental University Hospital.
Fintan’s areas of professional interest are in Business Growth Strategies, Corporate governance and developing and empowering senior members of staff.

Aislinn Gannon

Maxine Radcliffe

Prof Sean Gaine

Prof Sean Gaine is Consultant Respiratory Physician at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin and director of the National Pulmonary Hypertension Unit. Prof Gaine completed his medical education at Trinity College Dublin and his medical residency and fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. During his Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship Prof Gaine obtained his PhD for work exploring the control of pulmonary vasculature function. He subsequently held faculty positions at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine. He established the Pulmonary Hypertension Center at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1999 and subsequently the National Pulmonary Hypertension Unit upon his return to Dublin. His research interests include novel biomarkers and new therapeutic agents in pulmonary vascular diseases. Prof Gaine has been a working member of the European Society of Cardiology and European Respiratory Society guidelines committee on Pulmonary Hypertension in the past and a task force member of the WHO World PH symposiums since 2003. Professor Gaine is a member of numerous international associations, and is a Fellow of the College of Chest Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine. He is Chief Medical Officer of the Olympic Council of Ireland and led the medical team at the Olympic Games in Athens, Beijing and London.

Prof Michael Kerin

Prof. Michael J. Kerin (MB, MCH, FRCSI, FRCS.Ed.,FRCS) is Vice President of RCSI and a Consultant General and Breast Surgeon at Galway University Hospital.
Prof. Kerin the Chair of Surgery and Vice Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and is also the Chair of Surgery and Director of the HSE West and Northwest Cancer Network.

Richard Jones

Strategist and tech entrepreneur.  Led, founded and helped others build businesses across four continents and held every main C-suite position.

13 startups founded/co-founded.  4 successful exits, 2 failures, 1 failure to launch – remaining companies still in play.

Sweat equity support/refounding of 5 startups.  1 successful exit, 1 upcoming and 3 still in play.

Invited speaker at UN General Assembly 77 Science Symposium and member of team looking to deliver 10x improvements into healthcare globally.

Mentor on the GE Edison Accelerator / Wayra programme. Supporting AI companies in digital health.

Guest lecturer at University College London and honorary lecturer at School of Medicine, UCLAN – on masters level, digital health courses.

On Academic Advisory Board of the College of Contemporary Healthcare

COGX Keynote speaker in Global Leadership – Winner of Health Tech 4 Covid19 innovation award and overall Tech 4 Covid19 Award at COGX 2020 (C2-AI)

Interviewed on BBC News and BBC 5Live and chair at 50+ tech events on five continents

Only private sector expert on national medical device regulator’s project using AI to develop synthetic data sets and develop methodologies for verifying AI software in healthcare.

AI lead for Patient Safety Learning organisation

Mentor on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur programme

Author of “Project Management Survival” (Kogan Page – English,  Mandarin, Polish and Latvian), “The One Day MBA” (ICSA) and “Strategy Genius” (Hodder – English and Arabic).

Alex Wilkes

Alex Wilkes is the Country President for AstraZeneca Ireland. He has been with AstraZeneca since 2019, most recently serving as Regional Commercial Director for Respiratory and Immunology within the company’s EUCAN market team.

Before joining AstraZeneca, Alex spent over 18 years in senior leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry across the UK and Switzerland, including positions at Hoffmann-La Roche, Eli Lilly, and Merck.

Alex holds an undergraduate degree in Anatomy and Physiology from the University of Leeds and an MBA from Manchester Business School.

Patricia McAuliffe

Donal Morris

Donal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering from Dublin City University.

David Trevitt

Prof Mark Lawler

James Louttit

Based in Dublin, James Louttit runs Impactful Project Management, which provides training based on 20 years’ experience delivering projects and coaching others. He has taught project management principles to hundreds of people from all backgrounds and levels of experience. His training is used by companies like Accenture, AIB and Deloitte as well as people who have found themselves having to manage projects as part of their normal jobs. His innovative, human style using stories, cartoons, vlogs, games and discussion to explain complex ideas is popular in conferences, corporate events and across a range of social media and traditional media formats.

James also offers a consultancy service and bespoke training sessions. His career as a Consultant, IT Leader and CIO has helped him become a world-class expert in Agile Transformation and all aspects of Leadership and Project Management. He has been a guest lecturer and run sessions at Manchester University and Maynooth University, speaks at conferences, podcasts and corporate events and is a regular vlogger. He was a featured speaker at the 2022 CIO/CISO Ireland Summit on the subject “Agile Project Management: What can I do as a CIO to help my team succeed”. He was a speaker at the 2022 Tech Connect Live: Dublin with “10 tips from Agile Transformation to help your team become a little better tomorrow”. James was named one of the top 100 CIOs in Ireland in both 2021 and 2022 and led the team that won the 2020 “TIARA” Award for technology transformation.

Karen Kelly

Prior to nursing Karen had a career in International corporate finance, internet banking during the dotcom era followed by a few years where she stepped into the entrepreneurial world.
Karen has been fortunate to work with a lot of innovative people throughout her career, both before and during my nursing career, who are not afraid to bend the curve and go against the norm. She has met and worked alongside some fantastic leaders and mentors, which has made her very open minded, empathetic, innovative and someone who thinks of ‘the big picture’ as well as the small challenges.
Karen’s nursing career, spanning across 16 years, mainly focused on cardiology, started in pediatric intensive care, moved into acute adult’s coronary care, then to clinical nurse specialist in heart failure and brought her to Advanced Nurse Practitioner in a regional hospital.
During COVID she brought together a collaborative chronic illness team of ANPs and cardiac diagnostics that worked to improve patient outcomes, reduce patients visit to OPD and readmissions to hospital. She introduced a remote monitoring program for acute heart failure in Ireland and used POCUS to access volume status in HF patients both resulted in reduced readmission and increased patient empowerment.
Karen is passionate about empowering people with the knowledge, tools and support they need to manage their health and wellness at home and in the community and to provide timely access to all relevant services and diagnostics if, and when, required.
Advocate of shifting the conversation from patient to person, illness to wellness, hospital to home, physician to person led health journey and from disease management to early diagnoses and prevention.li

Richard Malone

Richard Malone, based in Galway, IE, is currently a Associate Lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. Richard Malone brings experience from previous roles at Health Service Executive, Galway University Hospitals, Irish Hockey Association and Nortel Networks. Richard Malone holds a 2012 – 2013 The Horizon Program in High Performance Sports Environments & Professional Development @ Irish Institute of Sport. Richard Malone has 3 emails on RocketReach.