Aoife O’Sullivan, Partner, Gates & Partners
Aoife O’Sullivan is a partner in the commercial/private equity department of Gates and Partners in London. She has extensive experience in corporate, asset finance and commercial law. Before joining Gates and Partners, Aoife was a senior associate at Clifford Chance LLP in London in their corporate finance department. She then joined a leading offshore firm in the Cayman Islands where she advised on structuring and implementing local and international securitisations, asset financings, mutual fund and unit trust schemes, and assisted in establishing complex corporate structures with worldwide tax effective outcomes. Aoife provides advice on all aspects of private equity including transactional MBO’s, venture capital investments, start-ups, early stage financings, strategic minority interests, restructurings, exit strategies, debt finance and fund establishment and structuring. Aoife also advises clients in aircraft finance and regulatory issues including acquisitions and disposals, financings, airline start-ups, licensing applications and ancillary issues. She has written many articles and spoken publicly on corporate and private jets in the UK and Europe.
Fionuala Pender, Executive Director, IIBN
Prior to joining IIBN in September 2007, Fionuala was the Executive Director of the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE UK), a global not for profit networking organisation which spans 45 cities in 11 countries. Fionuala headed up two TiE offices in London and Manchester and worked closely with the Board to help drive strategy. During her 4 years with TiE, Fionuala delivered a technology focused tour in India which showcased over 100 technology start up companies in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. In the UK, Fionuala saw the group triple in membership and corporate sponsorship was gained from 4 key industry sectors. Fionuala also helped to build and deliver a mentoring programme to the growing membership who required business guidance and advice. Fionuala has also worked for Lehman Brothers Investment Bank within its IBD Technology division. Fionuala is a graduate from the London School of Economics, and her first job after graduating was for a London based charity which focused on alleviating poverty in the UK working closely with the European Union.
Damon Oldcorn, Founder, WildIrish Guy Productions
Damon Oldcorn has over twenty years experience on the boards of companies in the emerging technology and digital media markets. He had an outstanding corporate career in telecommunications, data communications and microcomputers at ITT, STC, Chernikeeff, Norbain Micro and Tandon. In the early 90s following the completion of his Masters Degree in International Business at Bristol University, he returned from study periods at Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley to found and drive his own companies as the CEO. These include Interim Edge the UK’s first virtual management company focussed on technology, PhoneMe that launched, led and created a successful Silicon Valley exit in the web call back market in the dotcom years, NicheGnat that pioneered browser based web conferencing in Europe and recently the award winning Zebtab that created the first aggregated widget for sports and news media. He is also a Non – Exec on the boards of CaptivesGlobal, BookingBug and the Irish International Business Network.
Jonathan Grey, Owner, Ovation Incentives
A native of Cork city, Jonathan Grey is heavily involved in the online gift voucher and corporate business incentive markets in Europe and currently runs Ovation Incentives, an award winning developer and integrator of corporate incentive, rewards and motivation systems. Previously, he founded and directed GreatDaysOut.ie, an Irish gift experience company, until its sale in February 2009. Prior to starting his own businesses in 1999, Jonathan Grey was a public relations and online marketing specialist practising in San Francisco and London for Information Technology companies specialising in technologies surrounding payment systems, encryption and smart cards. Graduating from University in 1993, Jonathan holds an honours bachelor’s degree in economics and computer science from University College Cork, Ireland. He also holds a post graduate diploma in Public Relations from the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland.
Andy Rogers, Co-Chair, IIBN and Director, Global Shares PLC
Andy Rogers is Chairman of The European Marketing Group and principal of Rogers Associates Ltd, a consultancy providing both strategic advice and mentoring support at board level to many European companies. He is an Associate Director of Elior UK. Andy worked for Bank of Ireland for 38 years, a career equally divided between Ireland and the UK, and was a Director of many Bank subsidiaries and an executive of Bank of Ireland UK. He was a member of the Foundation Board of IMD, Lausanne until last year; is Chairman of The London Committee of Help the Aged; a director of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland; a Council Member of The Ireland Fund of Great Britain; a Patron of SafeStart; a member of the London 2012 Forum and many other organisations. He holds a first class honours degree in Business Studies and a Masters degree from Trinity College Dublin and in recent years attended the Managing Corporate Resources (MCR) programme at IMD, Lausanne. Andy is married with three daughters and enjoys all sports, especially golf and tennis.
Stephen O’Connor, Chairman, The Underwriting Exchange
Stephen O’Connor is the Executive Chairman of the Underwriting Exchange Limited, with offices in London and Dublin. The Underwriting Exchange was established in 2007 to primarily specialise in servicing the London Market for Irish Brokers. The team at The Underwriting Exchange have ambitions to develop the business in a number of areas. Stephen was educated at St Gerrard’s School, Bray, Co. Wicklow and Trinity College Dublin and completed his education in 1985. Prior to moving to London he travelled to Australia before starting his career as a Trainee Lloyds Broker, at the age of 20. In 1993, in association with Chris McHale, he formed Connor, Hale, Kerslake Ltd., which was sold ten years later in 2003. Stephen remained with the company for a further three years, after taking a year out, he was involved in the purchase of a dormant Lloyds Brokers, which was the beginning of his current venture the Underwriting Exchange Limited.
Stephen splits his time between London and Dublin and his main passion in life other than his family and business are horses. He has a number of successful race horses and an investment with a couple of very good Show Jumpers with Cian O’Connor, one of which ‘Complete’ was the reserve horse for the Irish Individual for the Beijing Games. In addition to The Underwriting Exchange, Stephen has a number of business interests and Directorships.
Gerry Collins, Partner, Wingrave Yeats
Gerry is a partner in the financial outsourcing department of Wingrave Yeats, an award winning accountancy and business advisory firm. Wingrave Yeats prides itself on being a very different accounting firm, set up by the two founding partners after they had spent over 10 years working in industry. This commercial focus is central to what makes the firm different. Gerry qualified in Dublin having gained experience in the corporate recovery and taxation departments of Robson Rhodes associate office. Gerry went on to spend 10 years working with BDO gaining further experience in the audit and more recently the business advisory departments. Gerry specialises in providing outsourced financial solutions to a wide range of clients including subsidiaries of multinational organisations. Clients include some household names, financial service businesses including hedge funds and property funds. Gerry is also the firm’s financial services specialist. Gerry holds a BComm honours degree from University College Galway, is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and is a member of the Securities Institute.
Ross Finegan, Partner, Lonsdale Capital
Ross is a Partner at Lonsdale Capital, a private equity investment vehicle incorporated in 2005 to invest in UK small to mid-market enterprises, with a particular focus on cash generating businesses and strong management teams. Prior to Lonsdale Capital, Ross was a director of JPMorgan Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan, where he concentrated on investments in the telecoms/media, business services and retail sectors. Prior to JPMP, Ross worked for the Corporate Finance arm of Deloitte in London advising on management buy-outs. Ross is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Chartered Accountants and has a Batchelor of Commerce degree from University College, Dublin.
Eugene Forde, Co-Chair, IIBN and Economic, Commercial and Finance, Embassy of Ireland
Eugene Forde is Head of the Economic Section at the Irish Embassy. He has been at the Embassy since September 2008. The main aspects of the job are analysing the UK economy, messaging about the Irish economy and promoting bilateral economic relations. Eugene has worked in many areas of economic policy for the Irish Government over the past thirty years, including trade, labour market and R&D policy.
Eugene has also represented the Government at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva and on trade matters at the Irish Representation to the EU in Brussels.
Liz Shanahan, Senior Managing Director and Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences, FD
Liz is a Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences. Liz has nearly two decades of experience in healthcare communications and is recognised as one of the sector’s leading counsels, advising many of the world’s most significant healthcare companies and providers. Liz’s boardroom to brand expertise covers reputation management, brand communications, medical education, CSR, issues management and public affairs and policy. Liz has been responsible for numerous global programs and worked with clients from Pfizer to Actellion, the UK NHS to the World Health Organisation. As Global Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences, Liz works closely with the FD’s regional heads and FD’s heads of Healthcare & Life Sciences in individual countries. Her focus is leveraging new opportunities across the group, developing FD’s health and life science’s offerings in new global markets and identifying ways of adding value for existing clients. Liz has exceptional knowledge and a deep understanding of healthcare providers, pharmaceutical & health technology companies, from the biggest multi-national to the smallest start-up. Prior to joining FD, Liz had established Santé Communications, one of the first specialist health PR consultancies. In 2007, Santé joined FD. Liz began her career at Merck &Co Inc and then worked for a number of agencies specialising in healthcare, including Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Ketchum PR, where she managed the European Healthcare Unit. Liz is a Bachelor in Computer Science and Maths from University College Cork in Ireland.
Alan Gleeson, General Manager of Palo Alto Sofware Inc (UK & Ireland)
Alan Gleeson has managed Palo Alto Software Inc’s UK division since 2004, overseeing it’s growth in the UK and Europe. Palo Alto Software make Business Plan Pro a best selling business planning software product, and Liveplan.com a software-as-a-service (SAAS) based business plan offering.
Prior to joining Palo Alto Software Inc, Alan was a Business Development Manager at Barclays Plc a leading global financial services provider. He joined Barclays Plc on their Graduate programmeme in 1998 from University College Cork, Ireland and spent 5 years at Barclays in various divisions in both the business and retail banking sectors. He has also worked in a range of different short term roles around the world including engagements in Ireland, UK, USA, Australia and Canada.
Alan has an MBA from Oxford University, an MSc and B.Comm from University College Cork, Ireland and a Post Grad Diploma in eCommerce from Birkbeck College, University of London
Sinead Crowley, Executive Director (Acting) IIBN
Conor Foley, IIBN Founder
Conor has taken a temporary leave of absence from the Board of IIBN to focus on pressing business issues and we look forward to welcoming him back when these have been resolved.
To connect with a Board Member in London, contact Sinead Crowley sinead@iibn.com
