Audit Conference 2024

Conal is Head of Practice Consulting in Chartered Accountants Ireland. He and his team provide advice and support to practices throughout Ireland, and publish a range of practice toolkits covering audit, accounting and compliance. Over a 16 year period in Practice Consulting, Conal has coached and advised many practices through major change events such as mergers, acquisitions and retirements. He has also advised on practice development and marketing.

Martin is a senior inspector within IAASA’s Audit Quality Unit (AQU) which conducts quality assurance reviews of audit firms that carry out statutory audits of public-interest entities.  He has been with the Authority since 2016 and is responsible for leading audit inspections and engaging with audit firms on audit quality matters. He also is actively engaged with other stakeholders, such as audit committees to promote audit quality within the market.  Martin both sits on and chairs a number of European groups within the Committee of European Auditing Oversight Bodies (CEAOB) whose primary role is to strengthen EU-wide audit oversight.

Maeve joined Grant Thornton in 2016 in the corporate audit department, having trained in a mid-tier practice.  She works on a broad spectrum of growing entrepreneurial clients in corporate audit and has experience working for private equity funded groups. She has significant experience dealing with a range of large privately held and investor led businesses, to include IT software development, hospitality, manufacturing, and construction, both in Ireland and the United Kingdom.   She also has extensive project management experience, having led large teams on numerous time sensitive assignments.  Maeve is former chair of Chartered accountants Ireland Ulster Society and a current council member of Chartered Accountants Ireland.  Maeve currently chairs the Members in Practice Board of Chartered Accounts Ireland.

Elaine Brady is Managing Partner of Barden Leinster. She holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from Trinity College Dublin, and since graduation has worked nationally and internationally with some of the world’s leading recruitment companies. Throughout her career Elaine has specialised in accounting and tax talent advisory and recruitment and is an expert in qualified accounting careers across practice and industry.

In 2014 Elaine founded Barden talent advisory & recruitment, with Ed Heffernan and since then it has grown organically into a thriving team of talent advisory & recruitment experts in Dublin and Cork. Barden was founded by people passionate about recruitment and its impact on people’s lives. We are a partner led talent advisory and recruitment firm consumed with supporting professionals on their chosen career journey. Our expertise covers accounting & tax, business support, financial services, legal, life sciences, supply chain and technology.

She is an active contributor and regular panellist on talent advisory, recruitment, accounting and tax, and diversity and inclusion, and advises Boards on how to build world class leadership teams. In 2021/2022 Elaine also completed the KPMG/Enterprise Ireland Going for Growth programme. Elaine has also recently been selected for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women EMEIA Class of 2023.

Sarah is a seasoned HR professional with around 20 years of experience in various roles.  Currently, she is the Senior Manager of Early Careers at PwC in Belfast, leading teams across Consulting, Operate and Northern Ireland, delivering early careers recruitment strategies. Previously, she was the Head of Talent Acquisition at Camlin Group, where she developed and implemented strategies to attract diverse candidates internationally.  She has also held several positions at EY, including Senior Manager of Talent Attraction and Acquisition and HR Business Partner. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Manager within the People and Change Consulting team at PwC and as an HR Advisor at Caterpillar Logistics Services UK.

Yvonne is a Director in Deloitte’s Audit Technical department.  Yvonne is one of the firm’s key technical leads in responding to changes in the auditing, legislative and regulatory frameworks. Yvonne has extensive experience on a range of technical matters pertinent to the audit profession.  On a daily basis, she supports and advises audit practitioners on audit technical matters and complex auditing issues. Yvonne also lectures on behalf of the Institute.

Dr Seán O’Reilly is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at University College Dublin and is the Academic Director of the Masters of Accounting programme at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.  Seán is a Chartered Accountant having trained and qualified at PwC.  Seán also lectures on the FAE programme at Chartered Accountants Ireland. Seán completed his PhD on Entrepreneurial and Green Finance and has research interested in sustainability reporting for SMEs with a focus on the role of the accountant.

Patrick is a banking and capital markets partner in the audit and assurance division of Mazars in Ireland with 16 years of audit experience with the firm.  His experience includes leading domestic and international financial institution audit mandates and providing audit and assurance services to leasing and structured finance firms.  Patrick is the lead of the Mazars in Ireland Audit Quality Team which is responsible for in-house technical training, support and methodology development.  He is a member of the Mazars Group IFRS doctrine team and a fellow member of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Aisling graduated from DIT in 2015 and then went on to complete her training contract with Deloitte becoming a member of Chartered Accountants.  She continued her career with Deloitte to become an Audit Assistant Manager. After gaining vast experience working on audits of large multinationals and PLC’s, Aisling joined Evelyn Partners (formally Smith & Williamson) at the height of 2020 COVID lock downs.  She was promoted to an Audit Senior Manager with Evelyn Partners and continues to work with a diverse range of clients across sectors.

Evelyn is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, and she specialises in audit and business advisory services for not-for-profits, semi-state bodies, SMEs, large groups and subsidiaries of multinational corporations.  Evelyn joined RBK in 2019 as an Audit Senior Manager, after spending five years with JPA Brenson Lawlor in Dublin and prior to that, seven years with HSOC Financial & Business Advisors.  Evelyn holds an honours degree in Maths & Economics from Maynooth University, is a Qualified Financial Advisor and holds a Diploma in Taxation from Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Brian is a Partner within Deloitte Ireland’s Consumer & Technology Business (CTB) Audit & Assurance department.  He has over 15 years audit and general business advisory experience, specialising in external statutory audits under IFRS, US and local GAAP, internal audits (including systems reviews and “value for money” audits), due diligence and forensic accounting investigations (for both private and public sector organisations).   Brian lectures and presents extensively on a range of topics including audit, financial accounting/reporting and finance on behalf of Chartered Accountants Ireland. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (FCA), holds a Diploma in IFRS, Certificate in FRS 102 and Bachelor of Business & Legal Studies (UCD).