IIBN London members were enthralled by keynote speaker Niall Dunne, Global Chief Sustainability Officer with BT and Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum.
Before Niall began his keynote IIBN Members Tamara Gervasconi GOAL UK, Edward Horgan Goumas Royal Bank Canada and Michael Feeney of London Irish Graduate Network gave three very different and interesting 3 minute pitches.
Held on May 1st as our second annual joint event with the London Irish Graduate Network at Cass Business School IIBN members were given a wonderful insight into the dynamic and varied background of Niall’s roots in Dublin before he moved to New York in the 1990’s. With a foundation as a world class athlete Niall described how he carried his commitment and belief from athletics with him to open up new opportunities to establish Climate Change & Sustainability practice at Accenture and later on as Managing Director with Accenture and Saatchi & Saatchi. Niall also founded Bluvolution, a niche sustainability consultancy which he was a Director of until January 2012.
Niall is committed to change strategy and transformation and as a recently announced Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum Niall has been recognised for his business leadership and revolutionary approach to marketing and sustainability with his firm held belief that big business and sustainability can coexist and flourish!
As CSO with BT since July 2011, Niall is now committed to doing more with less to ensure that the planets resources are not depleted beyond salvation over the coming decade. His focus is on tapping into new models and relationships where supplies, innovation, value chain, consistent standards, sustainable economic business modelling, social currency and ‘net good’ working with customers to have a positive impact on carbon footprint in delivering new technology are at the centre of how businesses operate.
To paraphrase IIBN Co-chair Eugene Forde – Niall is nothing short of a ‘tour de force’.

IIBN held an extremely interesting and interactive workshop, led by Alan Gleeson General Manager, Palo Alto Software and Board Member of IIBN on April 25th last.

Alan prepared an extremely comprehensive overview of various types of social media and how it can possible help your business, networking, profitability, innovation and future product/ service development.
With a mixture of social media experts and IIBN Members looking to develop a greater understanding and awareness of social media there was no shortage of discussion ranging from the basics of what social media members might want to use to potential problems coming down the line for various industry sectors in managing and developing policy for social media usage.

There was such positive feedback from this event that IIBN is considering holding a couple of regular calendared social media workshops each year.
With thanks to FTI Consulting who kindly hosted the event and they social media experts on hand to add to the discussion on the night.

Manhattan law firm Hughes, Hubbard & Reed played host to this joint event with IN-NYC.

Members and guests heard Brendan P. Farrell Jr.’s keynote of his enthralling career trajectory from Longford to CEO of Wall St firm XSP & 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist.

The theme of the evening was Mentoring, as IIBN & IN-NYC prepare to launch collaborative Irish Executive Mentorship Program, to seed the next generation of successful IIBN members.

For more information on the Mentoring Program click here

The brilliant entrepreneur Oliver Hughes was the keynote speaker for IIBN London on Thursday March 29th.   Amongst many achievements Oliver is the Founder of the Porter House Group with hugely popular pubs and clubs in London, New York and Dublin.

The event was opened by IIBN London Co-Chair Andy Rogers who first introduced our three 3 minute pitches from Aoife O’Sullivan of Zartis, John Hayes of Irwin Mitchell LLP and Will Norton of Sonas Recruitment.

Oliver was born in Dublin, Drumcondra and his parents moved frequently around the world. Following in his fathers footsteps, Oliver obtained a Law degree from University of Hertfordshire and during this time he found a keen love for local ales and brewery’s. He came back to Ireland and opened Hartey’s Brewery with his cousin Liam LaHart. Oliver explained that this first venture went bust after approximately three years but in the meantime he had gone back to study law at Kings Inns. Oliver practiced as a criminal barrister from 1989 to 1999 but knew that his heart wasn’t in it and that to be really successful he had to work in an environment he loved.

In 1989 Oliver opened his first pub in Bray, followed over the next 20 years by Temple Bar, Porterhouse Covent Garden, London, Porterhouse North, purchased Judge Roy Beans – now Porterhouse Central and Lillie’s Bordello,  Porter House South William Street, Bar Pintxo, Temple Bar and Port House Ibericos Dundrum branching out into tapas style venues.   His challenge and his success was to continue to invest in the business and develop his sites into welcoming, popular and authentic pubs.

In 2010 Porterhouse went to the Shanghai Expo for 6 months which proved to be a challenging experience and a learning curve in operating in a different country and culture.  Hughes followed this by opening Porterhouse New York at Fraunces Tavern in 2011.

Not one to take it easy, Hughes has now embarked on a very innovative and personal project with the Dingle Whiskey Distillery.  With 16 companies under his belt Hughes wanted to focus on a thoroughly Irish, local, organic distillery in the heart of Dingle producing Gin and whiskey of the highest  calibre.  Founding Fathers Whiskey will appeal to both whiskey lovers and those with an eye for something different and unique to invest in with 500 Founding Fathers bespoke Whiskey casks available to invest in or nuture for five years until the whiskey is ready to be bottled.

Hughes appeal and his success is obviously in his love and commitment to the original Porterhouse ethos - First things first – we are passionate about beer!

For photographs from the event click here

Pictured Minister Bruton with Eugene Forde Irish Embassy  London, Conor Foley CEO Worldspreads and our IIBN Dublin sponsors, John White Managing Partner Beauchamps, and Richard Eardley MD Hays.

Minister for Jobs Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton was guest speaker at IIBN Dublin on 14 February.

The event was held at the offices of Beauchamps Solicitors on the South Quays. Over 100 members attended.

Speaking the day after the Government had announced its 270-point action plan to generate 100,000 jobs over the coming years, Minister Bruton spoke about how Irish business groups such as IIBN can play their part.

The Minister highlighted the new ‘keeper’s fee’ (in the region of €4,000 per job) to be paid to individuals who persuade new entrepreneurial start ups from around the world to locate in Ireland. Details will be announced next month.

The Minister said “The key to recovery in Ireland will be encouraging the creation and growth of small firms with a greater proportion of them being export led. Irish business people abroad can help by acting, for example, as mentors or experts in their sectors and markets and working with the Government’s business development agencies.”
Members were invited to pose questions to the Minister to garner a greater understanding of the Action Plan for Jobs which resulted in a lively discussion both with the Minister and at the networking event that followed.

Over 80 IIBN members and guests attended the first IIBN New York event of the year at Facebook on Madison Avenue on November 9th.  With two main speakers from Facebook – Trevor Madigan Global Business Manager and Adam Benjamin Global Business Solutions giving fantastic insight into the social media world and that of Facebook.

Trevor Madigan – Global Business Manager talked about how communications have changed from long distance voice communications that relied on operators connecting from one to the other across the globe to now being able to talk or share any type of content seamlessly at a moment’s notice.  However with only 2.2 billion connections for a world population of nearly 7 billion there are many challenges ahead.  Trevor spoke of how consumers are not looking at how to consume products anymore, they’re looking at how products enable them, looking at products and brands they like and how communities online tend to still operate on old ‘village’ mentality of 100-130 connections before disruption comes into play.  However it is word of mouth via these networks that brings in scale such as is done on Facebook where members decide what is ‘news’, what they like and want to consume.

Adam Benjamin – Global Marketing Solutions has worked with some of Facebook’s largest B2C clients – P&G, Unilever, Diageo.  Speaking of ‘social by design’ consumers are at the core using simple and actionable design.  With over 400 million mobile Facebook users new applications and consumer driven companies are integrating into the facebook model.  Sticking to its 3 business tools – pages, ads and technology Adam’s tip for Facebook users is to add photos, videos and links to your Facebook page, always give people a call to action!

IIBN would like to thank Facebook for their generosity in hosting this event.

IIBN New York

 Keynote, hosted by Facebook, “The Evolution of Social” – Thurs, Feb 9th @ 6:30pm – 8:30pm, New York

IIBN Members are invited to join us for a unique and exclusive event hosted by Facebook at their flagship New York office on Madison Avenue. Gain valuable insight from key Facebook executives about the evolution of “social” and how it is effecting your business. We are honored to be hosted by the world’s largest social network and a foremost global brand. This event has a capacity of 75 members plus a strictly limited number of spaces for members’ guests who may be interested in joining IIBN.

Members or interested parties can update your 2012 membership here or via www.iibn.com

Rosaleen Blair, vibrant CEO of Alexander Mann Solutions, the global talent resource firm, was IIBN’s latest guest speaker . The event took place at the offices of DAC Beachcroft Solicitors in Bouviere St. IIBN thanks Glenn Ruddy and Paul McCartney of DAC for their support.

Rosaleen displayed all the qualities – passion, teamwork and plain speaking – that have seen her progress from her first recruitment venture in Dublin to the takeover of Alexander Mann and its becoming a global player with bluechip clients such as Nike, Citi and Vodafone.   Alexander Mann Solutions employs 2,000 people working in 70 geographies and 42 languages.

Rosaleen emphasised the empowering of employees and being open to innovation and trusting your own instinct as key to her role as CEO and the rapid development of the company.

Andy Rogers co chair of IIBN London chaired the event and Liz Shanahan, (CEO) of FTI consulting introduced Rosaleen. 110 members filled the room and took full advantage of the opportunity to question Rosaleen after her keynote and to network with Irish business professionals.

Member presentations were also made by one of IIBN’s longest standing sponsors, Helen Breen of CityJet and by new member Catherine  McKenna of McKenna and Co  Fine Jewellers of Beauchamp Place.

IIBN NY will produce an iBook, for publication in March 2012.

This iBook will be distributed free of charge to IIBN Global members via the Apple iBookstore. Inclusion in this dynamic publication is free for New York members and member-owned businesses.

We will also include a small number of nominal paid advertisements to cover the cost of hardware/software required for production and publication. If interested in including your profile, or that of your business, or indeed, advertising in the publication, please contact the editorial team at newyork@iibn.com

• Keynote, hosted by Facebook, “The Evolution of Social” – Thurs, Feb 9th  New York

IIBN Members are invited to join us for a unique and exclusive event hosted by Facebook at their flagship New York office on Madison Avenue. Gain valuable insight from key Facebook executives about the evolution of “social” and how it is effecting your business. We are honored to be hosted by the world’s largest social network and a foremost global brand. This event has a capacity of 75 members plus a strictly limited number of spaces for members’ guests who may be interested in joining IIBN.

• New Senior Board Member

The IIBN is always looking to develop its board with accomplished entrepreneurs & executives, who enhance value to the network and its members. We are delighted to announce the following new board member for 2012, who has already added great value to the IIBN member experience.

A principal at the Gaffey Mellody Group at Merill Lynch, Sean Gaffey joins the 2012 board. A Financial Advisor/VP-Investments with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, Sean has been an ardent supporter of IIBN initiatives and his group has generously hosted the network on several occasions.

• Inauguration of Future Leaders Board

The inauguration of IIBN NY’s Future Leaders Board is a breakthrough initiative for the network. As we work to seed the next generation of talented Irish executives and entrepreneurs we are pleased to announce this board of recent graduates, participating in competitive internship and graduate programs in New York. The board will be chaired by Eimear Murphy, with board members Emma Swift, Adienne Dolan, Conall Burns & Anton McGonnell who will spearhead several exciting new actions for IIBN in 2012.
http://www.iibn.com/newyork/iibn-ny-future-leaders-board

• Invitation – Breakfast, hosted by Grant Thornton, Ireland as a location for global business and as a gateway to Europe – Thurs, Feb 16th @ 9:00am – 10:30am, New York

Hear Dan McCarthy, Head of Finance for Yahoo! in the EMEA and APAC region, explain why Yahoo! selected Ireland as their location of choice. They are not alone; Ireland is now home to numerous global organizations. Review complete event details and RSVP here