Prof. Rachel Msetfi

Prof. Rachel Msetfi is a higher education leader and an experimental psychologist. She joined Maynooth University in 2023 as Vice President for Research and Innovation, where she oversees research and development, technology transfer, graduate research, and strategy implementation. Her leadership includes chairing key committees such as the Research, Ethics, and Risk Management Committees, contributing to the university’s vision and governance.

Rachel’s research lies in the interdisciplinary space, integrating experimental psychology with applied fields, especially focusing on mental health and wellbeing. She has an international track record of peer-reviewed publications and research partnerships, combining psychology, computational science, and machine learning to understand psychopathology, particularly depression.

Previously, Rachel held leadership roles at the University of Limerick, where as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences, she lead strategic initiatives, expanded research capacity, and championed flexible, inclusive education. Under her leadership, the faculty received recognition for gender equality and achieved significant growth in student and research outputs.

Rachel remains passionate about advancing research, education, and innovation while fostering an inclusive environment where colleagues and students alike can thrive.

Professor Markus Helfert

Markus Helfert is the Director of IVI and Director of Empower – the SFI funded Programme on Data Governance. He is also Professor of Digital Service Innovation and 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.

Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan

Details to be confirmed shortly

Expert speaker to be confirmed

Further details will be confirmed soon

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Padraig O’Neill

Padraig is MD and VP of Unum Ireland and is primarily responsible for Unum’s award winning Technology Centre in Carlow. Unum Carlow is at the centre of Digital Transformation within Unum Group, a Fortune 500 US Insurer, access to talent, leading methods and experience has seen this centre nearly double over the last three years. Unum covers nearly 45 million people globally and its mission is to help the working world thrive throughout life’s moments.  Previously Padraig held similar global commercial and technology leadership positions for J2 Global [Nasdaq], Sage [FTSE], Datalex and others.

Billy Hann

Billy Hann is Chief Executive Officer of Bus Átha Cliath (Dublin Bus). Dublin born and raised, he began his career at the Irish Aviation Authority in 1994, progressing to Director of ATM Operations and Strategy, where he led a multi-disciplinary team in delivering a safe and efficient air traffic management service. Since joining Bus Átha Cliath in 2022, Billy has led the company through a period of growth and transformation. Focused on connecting more people to more places, he is committed to driving the organisation towards service excellence, delivering high-quality, sustainable bus services that keep Dublin moving.

Geraldine Heavey

Geraldine Heavey is the Executive Director of the Enterprise Services Business Unit at ESB Group (the Electricity Supply Board). Enterprise Services is a centre of excellence, delivering a broad range of essential business processes and services that are critical to both day-to-day operations and the successful delivery of ESB’s strategic objectives.

In her role, Geraldine manages key professional service areas such as Procurement, Insurance, and IT, with a strong focus on strategic alignment and value creation. She also oversees the delivery of business-critical services that drive operational efficiency and effectiveness across the organisation, including People and Finance Operations. In addition, she leads ESB’s digital transformation agenda, harnessing the power of technology and data to modernise and future-proof the business. Before taking on her current role, Geraldine held a variety of finance and managerial positions within ESB. She is a qualified accountant and holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from Dublin City University (DCU).

Alistair Russell

Alistair is CEO of the management consultancy, Laing Russell. Laing Russell was established in 2018 as Alistair concluded the sale of his previous organisation, CIO Connect. Alistair and his colleagues work with organisations to develop their digital capability. At CIO Connect, Alistair was SVP, Advisory Services for over 15 years, leading the business and their work with Chief Information Officers and teams across Europe, Asia Pacific and North America. Laing Russell’s clients span all sectors.

Prior to CIO Connect, Alistair was Director for Executive Education at Durham University Business School. Alistair was with PA Consulting Group for 12 years. At PA, alongside practice leadership, he led consulting projects focused on organisational, systems and cultural change. Alistair qualified as a chartered engineer and started his career with ICI, holding a number of project and engineering management positions.

Alistair is business mentor to the CEO and Founder of a manufacturing sector tech. start-up, Business Growth Mentor to the CEO of a regional professional services firm, mentor to charity leaders through the Cranfield Trust and leadership mentor to students through the Durham Leadership Academy.

Dr. Christoph F. Strnadl

Dr. Christoph F. Strnadl is CTO and a Secretary General of the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL, an international Brussels-based organization defining and implementing standards to enable federated and trusted data and digital service ecosystems.

Educated as a research scientist in Theoretical Physics he has been working as strategy consultant and business manager at Atos for 10 years. He then joined Software AG in 2005 where he held various technical leadership positions in central and eastern Europe, and at the global level, finally as Deputy CTO, playing a key role in global technology strategy development, cross-product innovation, and thought leadership. There Christoph contributed to large-scale, high-impact initiatives, including Gaia-X, Mobility Data Space (MDS), and various IoT and data space projects. Before joining the Gaia-X AISBL in 2024, he led the efforts of the IOTA Foundation, a Berlin blockchain/DLT association, of defining and implementing a technology adoption department.

An Austrian citizen, he holds a summa cum laude Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Technical University of Vienna and a post-graduate certificate in management science from the University of Huddersfield, UK. He is a recognized public speaker with over 300 appearances and co-author of or contributor to several books on the cloud-to-edge (C2E) continuum and its monetarization, data and service platform concepts and implementations, business process management, and IT law.

Professor Markus Helfert

Markus Helfert is the Director of IVI and Director of Empower – the SFI funded Programme on Data Governance. He is also Professor of Digital Service Innovation and 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.

Ben Evans

Biography to follow

Brian McGeough

Brian has been in the tech sector for over 30 years. Prior to joining Creditsafe, he worked with Intel, Activision and Amazon Web Services. In his role as CIO at Creditsafe, Brian runs all technology across the business including internal IT Business Apps, Security and Customer Product development. The Technology organisation consists of approximately 450 highly technical engineers, mainly across Ireland, the UK and Hyderabad in India.

Brian was involved in the development of IVI’s ITCMF.

His current focus in on AI integration across the business, all about doing things responsibly at scale, hardening the governance model and security practices. Other priorities include targeted efficiencies for key business-driven workflows and processes, mostly around data transformation, admin functions, and sales enablement.

Lorraine Smyth

Lorraine is a senior digital leader within the Irish health service, with more than 23 years’ experience across the HSE spanning Procurement, National HR, and Digital Transformation. She is recognised for her leadership in health technology and currently works in partnership with multiple National Clinical Programmes to redesign care pathways, embedding digital solutions and eHealth enablers to improve patient outcomes and service delivery.

A passionate advocate for innovation in healthcare, Lorraine co-founded the HSE Digital Academy and the HSE Digital Transformation Team alongside Professor Martin Curley. Throughout her career, she has led and delivered a number of nationally significant digital initiatives, including the Covid Patient Monitoring App, which also formed the basis of her MSc research at the University of Limerick and was awarded Best Student Project at the Irish Healthcare Awards 2021.

Lorraine’s contribution to digital healthcare innovation has been widely recognised through multiple national awards, including Women in IT Digital Transformation Leader of the Year and Innovator of the Year (2021), the Women in STEM Award for Health Technology (2023), and Businesswoman of the Year (STEM), Professional Network Ireland Wexford (2023).

She is deeply committed to patient-centred healthcare and believes strongly in harnessing technology to deliver meaningful, sustainable improvements in health and care services.

Dr Michael Hanley

Michael Hanley leads educational innovation initiatives, curriculum development, and strategic academic programmes at IVI. He is recognised for integrating research-based frameworks and data-informed processes into institutional practice. He is a specialist in digital and AI transformation in complex public and private sector organisations, with a track record of aligning organisational strategy with national and regional policy.

As well as his experience in higher education, he has worked previously as as Director of Online Learning at Cúram Software (an IBM Company), and Digital Media Manager at the Educational Multimedia Group. He is Course Director for the “Leading Digital Transformation in Organisations” micro-credential at Maynooth University and co-creator and lecturer on the MSc in Healthcare Transformation at the University of Limerick. He has directed multiple large-scale academic and industry collaborative projects, such as Grad2Work, the Tech Industry Alliance Sustainable Software Development Toolkit, and the DIGIFABS EU project.

Michael is a member of the Maynooth University Social Science Institute (MUSSI), serves on the Steering Board of the Irish Local Government Cybersecurity CORE programme (LG-CORE), and a Irish Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Steering Group member. He is also a Fellow of the Learning & Development Institute. He has contributed to national and international academic and professional conferences, including addresses at the Maynooth University DEARS Symposium and workshop facilitation at the IVI Summit, and has been published in the International Journal for Digital Society and other journals.

Michael holds a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Maynooth University, and an MSc (Hons) in Education Technology from the National College of Ireland.

Research Interests:

• · Digital transformation in higher education
• · Academic–industry partnership and innovation
• · Organisational capability and change management
• · Post-digital education futures
• · Data-informed leadership, strategy, and governance in complex organisations
• · Sustainable digital & AI skills in professional education
• · Human capital policy development
• · Flexible pathways to education for adults

Dr Helena Lim

Dr Helena Lim  is a higher education leader with 25 years’ experience spanning institutional research, teaching excellence, quality enhancement, and commercial partnership. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA). Currently Educational Excellence Lead at Queen Mary University of London, where she advises on institutional transformation and teaching excellence, and Academic Lead at evasys, supporting 60+ UK and Irish universities on student feedback strategy and institutional enhancement.

Earlier in her career, Helena served as Assistant Director at the Higher Education Academy where she shaped national policy on learning and teaching in Wales and Northern Ireland. She also founded the UK and Ireland Higher Education Institutional Research (HEIR) Network in 2009, growing it from inception to 500+ members before successfully transitioning its leadership. An established thought leader with publications across Wonkhe, HEPI, and peer-reviewed books, Helena has delivered keynotes and strategic workshops internationally. She brings to the GoGreenNext Advisory Board a career built on evidence-led change, cross-sector partnership, and a sustained commitment to equitable and sustainable futures.

Prof. Craig Mahoney

Professor Craig Mahoney currently works in London with The Education Group London (TEG) on a range of projects including launching an Ed Tech startup designed to make learning English language simple.  He has been a twice-serving university President, at the University of the West of Scotland from 2013 – 2021 and the University of Law during 2022.  Previously he was CEO at the Higher Education Academy, a UK national agency overseeing the enhancement of pedagogy and the delivery of modern learning, teaching and assessment in universities.A dynamic public advocate of higher education, Craig is a research-active academic with a strong interest in topics covering differentiated student-centred learning, research informed teaching, e-learning; widespread use of open educational resources, teaching excellence and global engagement.  He is a passionate supporter of equality, diversity and inclusion and has developed many programmes, initiatives and change plans to remove discrimination and enable fairness by allowing every student and member of staff to be their true selves.

As a chartered psychologist, Professor Mahoney has been an internationally recognised performance psychologist for more than 30 years and is chairperson of the Advisory Board for GoGreen Next.

Craig is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. He has been a Board member on the UK Quality Assurance Agency, a Board member for Glasgow City of Sciences, a Trustee on the Carnegie Trust for Universities of Scotland, Convener of Universities Scotland Climate Emergency and Efficiency Committee, a Board member for SportScotland, Chair of British Universities and Colleges Sport and a Board member of Converge Challenge.  He is currently Chair of Brooklands FE College Board in London and an adviser to several commercial bodies.

Dr Carla Mateus

Carla Mateus PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Geography Department at Maynooth  University. Her research interests mainly focus on climate science, namely climate change, extreme weather events and impacts, historical climatology and environmental history. A member of the ICARUS institute she is also interested in climate action, climate adaptation and climate mitigation topics. Passionate about teaching, outreach, public engagement and science communication Carla has contributed to RTÉ Brainstorm features and disseminated research to the public at science communication events (e.g. Pint of Science Ireland; Soapbox Science Dublin). Awarded a Public Engagement Grant from the European Geosciences Union to carry out the project ‘Prison talks: bringing climate change conversations into the Irish prisons’, Carla has also been awarded a Teaching and Learning Fellowship from the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Maynooth University. A native of Portugal she is  am interested in Portuguese current affairs and strengthening collaborations between Portugal and Ireland.

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. Matthew Mullarkey

Matthew T. Mullarkey is the Director of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Program for the USF Muma College of Business and an Instructor in the School of Information Systems and Management (SISM). Mullarkey received a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems from the University of South Florida, an MBA from the University of South Carolina, an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, and a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy (West Point).

Mullarkey’s areas of research interest include design science research and action research in the evaluation and creation of information systems, smart cities, IoT, healthcare, social networking, and data science. Mullarkey teaches using case based discussions that engage Doctoral, MBA and MIS undergraduates in complex business decisions that typically involve a technology component. His case study based capstone courses emphasize critical thinking, business analysis, and the impact of information technology and systems on real‐world, business decision‐making. Mullarkey is the Editor‐in‐Chief of the USF Muma Case Review and an editor and reviewer for a number of academic journals.

Mullarkey is a 2019-2020 recipient of the Fulbright Scholar Award, 2018 recipient of the USF Faculty Externship Award, 2017 recipient of the USF Muma College of Business Outstanding Faculty Community Engagement Award, and 2015-2016 ISDS Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award. Mullarkey was named a 2019-2021 Extraordinary Research Scientist at North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Prof. Rossano Schifanella

Prof. Rossano Schifanella is a researcher in computer science at the University of Turin and a researcher at ISI Foundation, where he is a member of the Data Science for Social Impact and Sustainability group. His research is highly impactful with a h-index of 34 and  embraces the creative energy of a range of disciplines across machine learning, urban science, computational social science, complex systems, and data visualization. He leverages data-driven approaches to model the behavior of (groups of) individuals and their interactions in space and time, aiming at understanding the interplay between online and offline social behavior. He is passionate about understanding the dynamics of complex phenomena in modern cities and building interactive web interfaces to explore urban spaces and access human knowledge through geography. Rossano is also a work-package lead in the GoGreen Routes Horison 2020 project and is an advisor on the IVI-led GoGreen Next Horizon Europe project, both of which focus on urban health.

Dr Tadhg E. MacIntyre

Tadhg E. Maclntyre PhD is an Associate Professor in Environmental Psychology at the Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University where he has a leading role in three EU funded Horizon projects. Tadhg is also a funded investigator with Research Ireland Insight Centre for Data Analytics and has been a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich (2019-2020) and Inland University of Applied Sciences (Norway) from 2022-2025. Tadhg graduated from UCD with a  PhD in psychology in 2007 focused on cognitive aspects of human movement. More recently his research has been focused on nature-based solutions and interventions for urban health. Tadhg currently coordinates the Horizon Europe GoGreen Next project (2024-2028)focused on urban health and climate change (€6 million). He recently led the Horizon 2020 project GoGreen Routes (2020-2024) which received €10.5 million  (2020-2024) directly from the EU. Since June 2025, he is a work package lead of Horizon Europe project Green Talent (2025-2029) where his work is concerned with developing a learning ecosystem for innovators in climate change and sustainability. He also is a reviewer for EU funding calls (e.g. ERC, EU Horizon proposals, and MSCA), in addition to national funding in the US, Norway, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Canada and the UK (e.g. Leverhulme Awards).

Dr. Tim Calahan

Raymond Wu

Biography to follow

Expert speaker to be confirmed

Expert speaker to be confirmed

Further details will be confirmed soon