IVI Staff

Professor Markus Helfert

Markus Helfert is the Director of IVI and Professor of Digital Service Innovation at Maynooth University. He is also Director of the Business Informatics Group at Maynooth University. He is a Principle Investigator at Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre and at the Adapt Research Centre. His research is centred on Digital Service Innovation, Smart Cities and IoT based Smart Environments and includes research areas such as Service Innovation, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Smart Services, Building Information Management, FinTech, Data Value, Enterprise Architecture, Technology Adoption, Analytics, Business Process Managem ent. Prof. Helfert is an expert in Data Governance Standards and is involved in European Standardisation initiatives. Markus Helfert has authored more than 200+ academic articles, journal and book contributions and has presented his work at international conferences. Helfert has received national and international grants from agencies such as European Union (FP7; H2020), Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, was project coordinator on EU projects, and is the Project coordinator of the H2020 Projects: PERFORM on Digital Retail.

Paul Heynen

Paul has been working with IVI as operations manager since its formation in 2006. Paul is responsible for the non-research business operations functions in IVI including community, member and partner engement, financial administration, liaison with central university administrative functions, and on-going management and development of IVI-specific IT systems and platforms. Prior to joining IVI, Paul worked in the semiconductor industry for 11 years in various engineering and management roles, most recently as a product manager for an advanced process control software and analytics start-up.

Carol Connolly

Carol is a Senior Executive Assistant with IVI coordinating event and outreach management, workshop coordination, digital media communication and day-to-day operations.

Professor Jan vom Brocke

Professor Jan vom Brocke is a Distinguished Professor of Process Science at Maynooth University in Ireland. He is the Director of the European Research Center for Information Systems (ERCIS) and holds the Chair of Information Systems & Business Process Management at the University of Münster in Germany.

Jan has published among others in Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and MIT Sloan Management Review.

Jan’s research has been pioneering in many areas, especially in the fields of business process management, design science research, digital nudging and green information systems. He is considered one of the co-founders of ‘process science’, an interdisciplinary field that analyses socio-technical change from different disciplinary perspectives. In particular, digital trace data is analyzed to capture and explain change, and to intervene in change to advance businesses and sustainable societies.

Professor vom Brocke’s work has been recognised with numerous international awards. He has been named a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), a Schoeller Senior Fellow of Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) in Germany, a Fellow of the ESCP Centre for Design Science in Entrepreneurship, and a Digital Leader in his home country Liechtenstein. International rankings consistently place Jan among the top 50 in the world and the top 10 in Europe. In the current Stanford List of World`s Top 2% Scientists, Jan is ranked in the top 0.5% (in the career-accompanying database) and the top 0.1% (in last year`s data set) across all scientific fields.

Jan brings teaching experience from 26 universities in 13 countries on Executive, PhD-, Master and Bachelor-level, incl. many of the FT50 Top Business Schools, such as the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland, the Vlerick Business School in Belgium, the University of Warwick in the UK, Aarhus University in Denmark, and the Smurfit School of Business in Ireland. His students won international prizes like the Accenture Campus Challenge or the SAP DemoJam, and they received prestigious recognitions like the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting Young Researcher Invitation.

Professor vom Brocke has a track record of building impactful academic institutions. At the University of Liechtenstein, he established the Institute for Information Systems, which has become one of the top 40 worldwide with his leadership, the top 5 in Europe and 1^st in the competitive Germany-Austria-Switzerland region. He is also the founder and president of the Liechtenstein chapter of the AIS, which has been honored with the ‘AIS Outstanding Chapter Award’ ten years in a row since its establishment in 2014.

Jan served as Vice President for Research at the University of Liechtenstein for two consecutive terms and is currently Vice Dean for Internationalization at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Münster. He has chaired many international conferences, such as the European Conference on Information Systems in Münster, and is a member of the editorial board of numerous high-ranking journals in the field of information systems and management.

Professor vom Brocke has secured over €50 million in competitive research funding as for example from the European Union (EU), the Liechtenstein Research Foundation, the Swiss Research Foundation, the German Research Foundation, the local government, and industry.

Jan vom Brocke is an invited speaker and trusted advisor to many DAX 30 and Fortune 500 companies as well as Start-ups and supports governments across Europe on their digital transformation journey.

Dr Mansoor Ahmed

Dr. Mansoor Ahmed is a distinguished Research Fellow and Principal Investigator at Maynooth University’s Innovation Value Institute, where he leads nationally and EU-funded projects on AI ethics, GDPR-compliant data protection, and responsible data sharing in health and public services. With a PhD in Computer Science and Technology from Vienna University of Technology and over 10 years of academic excellence, Dr. Ahmed specializes in cybersecurity, blockchain technologies, data governance, AI ethics, and regulatory compliance.

Currently holding a prestigious Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Fellowship, Dr. Ahmed investigates privacy implications of AI in public services while developing comprehensive data protection guidelines. His expertise spans data governance, AI ethics and regulatory compliance, information security, and privacy-preserving systems. He has successfully secured competitive research funding, including awards from SFI, MSCA European Commission, and industry partnerships with META.

Dr. Ahmed’s research impact is evidenced by over 75 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals. He has supervised multiple PhD dissertations and serves on editorial boards of international journals while maintaining active memberships in ISO/IEC technical committees.

His collaborative work with industry giants like META, regulatory bodies including NSAI and CEN, and contributions to European Health Data Space (EHDS) initiatives demonstrate his commitment to translating cutting-edge research into real-world solutions. He is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies for ethical and sustainable development, He thrives at the intersection of innovation, education, and policy. Whether collaborating on cutting-edge research, shaping academic programs, or driving policy change, he is committed to creating systems prioritizing societal well-being and trust.

Dr Claudia Roessing

Claudia Roessing has completed her PhD at Maynooth University, where she investigated the variations of data lifecycles based on data requirements in the Smart City scenario. She has years of experience in the software development industry with a background in Business Analysis and Consulting and Computer Science. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the VISION project, which is financed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and focuses on reducing the use of virgin materials in the Irish building sector.

Dr Nada Elnahla

Nada Elnahla is a Lecturer/Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Maynooth University School of Business. She holds a PhD in Management/Marketing from Carleton University, Canada, and a PhD in Comparative Literature from Cairo University, Egypt.

Nada’s current research explores the impact of traditional and smart surveillance in the retail sector on the different stakeholders and its ethical implications, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retailing, specifically on retail workers, loyalty programs, and consumer behaviour. She has presented her work at international conferences and has published research in peer-reviewed academic journals and conference proceedings.

Her teaching experience includes undergraduate and postgraduate education programs in the fields of marketing, digital marketing communications, consumer behaviour, and literature.

Dr Rajibul Hasan

Dr Rajibul Hasan is an assistant professor of marketing and programme director of MSc Marketing at Maynooth University, Ireland. At Maynooth, he teaches Digital Marketing, Social Media, Contemporary Issues in Marketing (e.g., AI in Business and Marketing, AR/VR Marketing). He is the founder of a global research and methodology platform: https://scales4research.com. He also manages an Artificial intelligence and Digital Marketing Platform Website-http://upnotion.com, where he aims to disseminate digital marketing and artificial intelligence knowledge among the members of different societies. Previously, he worked as an Assistant Professor at Rennes School of Business, France. In Rennes, he was a principal investigator of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) consumer behaviour research centre. He completed his PhD from the University of Kent, UK, in the area of marketing. He specializes in understanding digital transformation, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, consumer behaviour and innovation adoption. He has published in academic journals including Tourism Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Computer in Human Behaviour, and Journal of Marketing Management and Strategic Change.

Stephanie Lewellen

Stephanie Lewellen is a part-time and remote PhD student at Maynooth University and a Product Manager in the software industry.

Dr Shane McLoughlin

Dr Shane McLoughlin is an SFI & Dell EMC funded Post-Doctoral Researcher at LERO, NUI Maynooth. Shane examines innovation, adoption and scaling of disruptive social innovations, e.g. urban IoT, smart farming, and AVs. Shane’s completed his PhD in UCD where he examined the emerging role of ICT in social aspects to human information behaviour, in Ireland’s first eco-community. This work drew on social capital theory and found that affordances of ICT’s helped augment community member’s access and use of social capital. His current research in collaboration with Dell Technologies investigates how digital transformation of the agri-food chain can help achieve Climate Smart Agriculture in order to meet UN SDG goals. Shane is furthermore a collaborator on the SFI SPRING project concerning grant funding (award: ‘17/SPR/5319’) of industry-academic collaborations. He employs a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods in his research and has lectured on socio-cultural and economic aspects of ICT, Human Information Behaviour, HCI, Social Computing & more recently Innovation theory and methodologies.

Dr Ali Nazarpour

Dr. Ali Nazarpour is Assistant Professor in Management at Maynooth University School of Business. Ali has been awarded PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from University College Dublin, Smurfit School of Business. He earned his BSc degree in Industrial Engineering and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Iran University of Science and Technology. Prior to his PhD studies, he worked for two years in the construction sector and seven years in the automotive industry where he served as Sales Supervisor, Marketing and Sales Planning Chief, and Inventory Management Project Manager. Parallel to working in industry Ali was also engaged in teaching and research activities. His dual interests in industry and academia lead to undertaking his PhD and subsequent career as a researcher and lecturer.

Sana Kiran

Sana Kiran is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University, Ireland. Her academic trajectory commenced with the acquisition of a bachelor’s degree in information technology from Pakistan, followed by a master’s in software engineering from China. Sana’s areas of research encompass data quality, open data, smart mobility, smart cities, and data governance.

Her current research project, generously funded by Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, represents a significant contribution to the field. Lero, globally recognised, holds the distinguished second position among software research centres worldwide for citations. Through her work, she aspires to contribute to the ongoing evolution of software excellence and play a pivotal role in shaping smarter, more connected cities.

Andrea Paola

Andrea Paola is currently studying a PH.D. In Innovation Value Institute (IVI) at the Business School in Maynooth University, Ireland. Andrea began her academic career with double background in international business and marketing, followed by a master’s degree in advertising and public relations at RUDN University in Moscow, Russia. Andrea is the author of a scientific paper related to the marketing strategies that influence in the decision making in digital stores. Andrea’s current areas of the research are ethical data governance in artificial intelligence.

Maryam Nawaz

Maryam is a full-time healthcare Ph.D. researcher at IVI, affiliated with the School of Computing at Maynooth University. With a background in Computer Science, she is dedicated to a project on person empowerment in health within the Digital Health Cluster. Maryam’s research emphasizes using conversational agents to facilitate individual health empowerment, additionally brings valuable expertise from her background in software testing within the tech industry.

Leidiane da Silva

Received the B.Sc. degree in business administration from the Universidade Paulista (UNIP), Brazil, and the M.Sc. degree in business analytics from the National University Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), in 2023. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in business with the National University Ireland, Maynooth.

She is a part of the EnTrust Ph.D program and works in the education and research office at Airfield Estate. Her work and interests include data quality and trustworthiness assessment, machine learning techniques, agri-data and business analytics.

Fjolla Berisha

Fjolla Berisha holds an MSc in Computer Engineering and is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Maynooth University as part of the ENTRUST Doctoral Network. Her work centres on data sovereignty in agriculture: she designs and tests usage-control mechanisms that let farmers set and technically enforce policies regarding who can use their data, for what purpose, and for how long. By turning these policy-enforcement ideas into practical, easy-to-deploy software, she helps farming communities to be sovereigns of their information while still benefiting from digital technologies.

Erica Tegolo

Erica Tegolo owns Bachelor in Administration and Organisation Science and Labor Consultancy at the University of Palermo. She has received the MBA degree from IAE, University of Bordeaux. She’s currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the School of Business, National University Ireland Maynooth (NUIM), representing the awarding institution.

The Ph.D. is part of the EnTrust Doctoral Network, Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship, which aim is to train a cohort of 11 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) to establish a new generation of Data Executives. She is representing DC09 and the objective is represented by the development of a Fair data exploitation principles and framework. The host organisation is Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Authority in Ireland and I am currently based at the department of Rural Economy and Development Program (REDP).

Rozita Hashemi

Rozita is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Maynooth University, Ireland, supported by the ADAPT Centre. She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science, an MBA, and an MSc in strategic management. With over a decade of professional experience in data management, she brings a strong industry perspective to her academic work. Her research on data value in the construction industry represents a timely and significant contribution to advancing data-driven practices in the built environment sector.

Dr. Ciara McCormack

Dr Ciara McCormack is an Assistant Professor in Sport Science and Health at Maynooth University and a Clinical Exercise Physiologist. Her research focuses on the role of exercise and digital health in the primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. She is passionate about designing, delivering, and evaluating patient-centred, technology-enabled interventions that use physical activity to improve long-term health outcomes and healthcare delivery.

Ciara is currently embedded in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, where she is leading a national programme to transform pulmonary hypertension (PH) research and rehabilitation services in Ireland. She is the lead researcher on an SFI CONNECT collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, delivered through the Innovation Value Institute (IVI), which is focused on digitising pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) pathways. This project is exploring how digital technologies can be integrated into routine clinical care to enhance patient monitoring, engagement, and access to exercise-based rehabilitation.

Her broader research spans hospital, home, and community settings, leveraging both quantitative and qualitative methodologies to examine how lifestyle and physical activity interventions—supported by digital tools—can impact disease progression, symptom management, and healthcare utilisation. She is particularly interested in creating scalable, technology-enabled models of exercise delivery for adults aged 40+ and people living with chronic diseases, with an emphasis on addressing health inequalities.

Ciara completed her PhD in Clinical Exercise Physiology at Dublin City University, where she developed, delivered, and evaluated a home-based physical activity intervention for PH patients, co-designed with patients and underpinned by behavioural science. This work, conducted in collaboration with respiratory consultants at the Mater Hospital, has informed similar programmes internationally.

She is currently involved in multiple national and international projects on exercise and rehabilitation for people living with pulmonary hypertension, heart failure, and vascular disease, and serves on the GoGreenNext Advisory Board, contributing expertise on inclusive methodologies and the integration of digital and lifestyle interventions into sustainable healthcare initiatives.

Beyond her academic and clinical roles, Ciara is committed to public engagement and health advocacy. She works closely with the HSE on Ireland’s Physical Activity Guidelines and contributes to national efforts to embed rehabilitation and physical activity pathways into chronic disease management. She also represents Ireland on the global Exercise is Medicine Emerging Leadership Programme, supporting the implementation of physical activity as a standard in clinical care.

Her work has been recognised through multiple awards from organisations such as the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, and DCU Invent. Ciara regularly contributes to national health campaigns, appears on RTÉ Radio 1 as an expert on physical activity and health, and provides consultancy to healthcare, community, and corporate groups seeking to implement evidence-based, digitally supported physical activity programmes.

Dr Joanna McHugh Power

Dr Joanna McHugh Power is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Maynooth University. She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience in 2010 and gained postdoctoral experience on projects concerning social engagement in later life. In 2014 she received a Leadership in Ageing Research Fellowship from the Institute of Public Health, in which she focused on social factors determining cognitive decline in later life, gaining experience in the Irish and Northern Irish cohorts for the longitudinal study of ageing (TILDA and NICOLA). Joanna joined Maynooth University in 2019. Joanna has received over 3 million euro as PI or co-PI on projects concerning social functioning and most particularly loneliness in later life. Currently she is a co-investigator on the Canadian Institute of Health Research funded project “Intersectional and life course approaches to loneliness”; on the Dutch government funded project “Interventions in the built environment targeting loneliness in young adults”, and she is leading the HRB-funded project “Housing and health in older adults”. Joanna has authored more than 80 publications in the field of gerontology and most commonly loneliness. As current Chair of the Loneliness Taskforce Research Network and member of the government-facing Loneliness Taskforce (lonelinessresearch.org) Joanna is committed to influencing policy on loneliness and ageing. Joanna is collaborating with Professor Markus Helfert in the IVI on the LERO/SFI funded project “Data governance and evidence-based policy making – partnership for research on ageing and older people”.

Niamh Petrie

Niamh Petrie is a PhD student conducting research at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University. With a background in Psychology (BSc Psychology, 2024), she is committed to advancing scholarly understanding and informing policy on age-friendly communities.

Niamh’s current doctoral research investigates the impact of age-friendly housing on social connection and social participation, with particular attention to the ways in which the built environment and community design can foster inclusion, civic engagement, and wellbeing among older populations.

This project is funded and supported by Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, in partnership with Age Friendly Ireland (AFI), and seeks to contribute to policy and practice in advancing sustainable, inclusive models of housing and community development.

Previous publications include:

· Older Adults Who Receive Care Coordination from the Third Sector in Ireland: Who Are They, and What Do They Need? Journal of Social Service Research (2025) https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2025.2487546

· Amplify and Advocate: Implementing a Youth Mental Health Advocacy Project, a Collaborative Rights-Based Approach Using COM-B, APEASE, and the Lundy Model. Journal of Community Psychology (2025) https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.70009

Dr Viviana Bastidas

Dr Marija Bezbradica

Prior to coming to DCU, I obtained a BSc and MSc at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF), Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. My research areas are interdisciplinary and include complex system modelling, specifically Cellular Automata (CA) and Agent Based Models (ABM), data analytics, applied mathematics, statistics as well as high performance computing (HPC) and distributed systems.

My past research includes building stochastic models of in vitro drug delivery systems (DDS) by using CA and ABM, in collaboration with Sigmoid Pharma Ltd. My interests also cover HPC optimisations of large-scale models in collaboration with the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC). Since I became a member of DCU, I was involved in lecturing and tutoring of a number of courses for undergraduate and postgraduate students covering statistical data analysis, quantitative methods, probability and statistics, and operating systems.

Douglas Cirqueira, MSc

Douglas is a Data Scientist at the Global Strategic Pricing team at RHI Magnesita and a Ph.D. candidate and researcher in Data Analytics at Dublin City University. Douglas has a bachelor’s in Computer Engineering and a master’s in Artificial Intelligence, and he was involved in AI and Data Science projects in universities and companies in Brazil, the USA, and Germany.

Donal Fitzpatrick

Michael Hanley

Michael is involved in IVI’s academic education and professional training & certification programmes. Since 2011, IVI has trained more than 8000 professionals globally, helping organisations digitally transform using IVI’s Capability Maturity Framework. More recently he co-created the MSc in Digital Healthcare Transformation hosted in UL, and ReThink|ReDesign – Maynooth University’s SME digital transformation initiative, supported by Enterprise Ireland’s innovation voucher scheme. In early 2022 he successfully completed a pilot Future Workforce Skills Development Programme for a large public sector organisation. He created the course using an innovative approach he calls Design Thinking for Teaching & Development (DT4TD).

Michael has an MSc in Education & Technology, and he is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Training and Development.

He will complete his Doctorate in Education Leadership in 2023. His doctoral thesis concerns the impact of digital transformation and disruptive innovation on Irish higher education institutions’ future strategy, business models, and value propositions.

Dr Beatrice Heneghan

Dr Beatrice Heneghan is Director of ICT at NUI Galway with responsibility for delivering transformative ICT for the enablement of impactful research, innovation and teaching in an enhanced student learning environment. In her prior role Beatrice served as Head of Information Systems and Innovation at Mayo County Council. Previously, she held posts in ICT and Digital Transformation in Laois and Limerick local authorities.

Beatrice served as Chair of the local government sectoral Architecture and Standards Group (ASG) and on the national ePlanning and Central Data Unit boards. She is a member of Lero – the Science Foundation Ireland Software Research Centre, the Maynooth University Business Informatics Research Group and the Innovation Value Institute (IVI). She is also a member of the International Advisory Board for the Professional Doctorate in Engineering programme at the University of Limerick and contributes as a guest lecturer to the programme. In 2021 Beatrice received the IVI Leadership in Digital Transformation in the Public Sector award.

While having wide experience in the Information Systems (IS) field her particular expertise is in the area of data governance and enterprise architecture with a focus on business/IT alignment in the design and delivery of strategy. Beatrice holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Limerick and master’s in software engineering from NUI Galway. Beatrice has presented at national and international academic and practitioner conferences and continues to collaborate on research in IS.

Gabriel Hogan

Gabriel Hogan is an IP Manager at the Science Foundation Ireland and a part-time PhD candidate.

Fiona Lynch

Dr Adegboyega Ojo

Adegboyega Ojo is Full Professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University, Canada. Prof. Ojo is also Canada Research Chair in Governance and Artificial Intelligence. His research is primarily in the area of digital government. He studies how digital and data technologies can be used to support innovation in government institutions and address societal challenges. Prof. Ojo is keen on understanding the conditions and technical design requirements for the beneficial and ethical use of data-driven innovation, advanced analytics, and artificial intelligence-based solutions in different public service and policy contexts.

Before joining Carleton University, he was a faculty at Maynooth University School of Business and earlier a Senior Research Fellow & Head of the E-Government Unit at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, University of Galway, Republic of Ireland. He also worked at the Centre for Electronic Governance, United Nations University in Macao SAR, China, where he supported governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America in developing digital government strategies. Adegboyega is Associate Editor of the Government Information Quarterly Journal (Elsevier), Digital Government: Research and Practice journal (ACM) and also the Information Polity Journal (IOS Press). He holds a PhD in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Priyanka Singh

Priyanka Singh is a PhD student in the Business School at Maynooth University.

Dr Gültekin Cakir

Dr Gültekin Cakir is a lecturer and academic programme coordinator at the Faculty of Business, Technological University Dublin, and a member of the Strategy & Leadership Group in the School of Management, People and Organisations. He holds a PhD in Business and Management from Maynooth University and a Master’s degree in General Management from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, Germany. He teaches modules on undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels in Strategy and Digital Innovation & Emerging Technologies. Before joining TU Dublin, Gültekin was a Research Fellow at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth, where he worked with companies, start-ups, other institutes and collaborators on diverse research projects centred around digital innovation and organisational digital maturity. Gültekin is a member of the Digital Retail Research Cluster at IVI and was a recipient of the EU Horizon Europe Marie Curie Skłodowska scholarship award within “PERFORM”, a European training project focusing on the digital transformation of the retailing industry, where he was also chair of the ESR Committee.

Dr Rehan Iftikhar

Rehan Iftikhar is a Research Fellow at Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University and a part of the EU Innovative Training Network, PERFORM. His main research interests include digital retail, digital transformation and technology management. His research has appeared in various journals and conference proceedings including Journal of Global Information Management, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization and Journal of General Management.