Summer Mini-Blitz (ROI/NI) 2025

Joe has worked for Chartered Accountants Ireland over 15 years is currently Head of Professional Development.  He graduated from UCD with a BA Hons in Medieval and Modern History Diploma and subsequently continued his education completing a Diploma in Executive Coaching from Irish Management Institute, a MSc Education Leadership from Dublin City University, a Certificate in Adult Guidance and Counselling, Maynooth University and a HDip Education Studies, University College Dublin and a Certificate in Technology Risk and Data Incident Management.

Ann-Marie Herbert is a Fellow Chartered Accountant with over two decades of experience spanning practice and global financial services. She holds both a BA and a Master’s in Accounting from Dublin City University. Ann-Marie trained in practice before joining State Street, where she spent 16 years in a variety of roles, gaining deep expertise in financial services day-to-day business operations and professional development. Now at Chartered Accountants Ireland, she plays a key role in shaping the learning journey of accounting professionals, bringing a strategic and practitioner-informed perspective to the evolving needs of the profession.

Kate English is Deloitte Ireland’s Chief Economist. Kate and her team will conduct data-driven research across broader economic and policy areas, offering analysis and assessing macroeconomic trends within Ireland and its key trading markets.

Kate is a recognised commentator on global macroeconomic trends, fiscal policy, capital markets, demographics and employment trends. She frequently presents market updates and panel discussions across national broadcast and print media.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Kate served as an Economist with Cushman & Wakefield Ireland and held the position of Senior Economist with Sherry FitzGerald. She holds a Master’s degree in Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and French from University College Cork.

Tony is an experienced customs consultant providing advice and support to businesses in all customs-related aspects of trade, including optimum and compliant supply chain design, technical advice on customs law, and support in dealing with customs authorities. He designs and delivers training courses for several companies and educational institutions including Chartered Accountants Ireland. He is currently Chair of Customs Knowledge Institute, an international network of customs professionals.

Tony’s previous career was in the Irish Civil Service, from which he retired as head of Revenue’s Customs Division.

Lorraine, a Partner in the BDO NI Tax team is a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) in both the UK and Ireland and is a Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA). She has also completed her Advanced Diploma in International Tax (ADIT).

Lorraine has 15 years’ experience from training in general practice to becoming a corporate tax specialist in a large firm in Belfast which allows her to provide her clients with commercially driven tax advice.

She has considerable experience in providing UK tax services for global groups and liaising with decision makers based in the UK, Republic of Ireland, mainland Europe and the US. Over recent years she has led the delivery of wide-ranging tax advice including mergers and acquisitions, tax due diligence, international tax, transfer pricing, strategic global business structuring and corporate simplifications.

Lorraine regularly presents on topical tax issues to both professional bodies and local Chambers of Commerce. She also provides articles to the local media and has authored numerous pieces for leading tax publications.

Ray Goggins is a former Special Forces Operator and bestselling author – you may know him as the Chief Instructor on RTE’s hit show, Ultimate Hell Week or more recently, RTE’s Uncharted with Ray Goggins. Over the past 30 years, Ray has been building and leading teams and acquired key skills to encourage people to change their mindset. His aim is to help push them to be the very best version of themselves.

Brian is an Audit & Assurance (A & A) Partner in Deloitte Ireland. Brian leads the firms’ Deloitte Private audit and assurance offering. Brian works predominantly with the firms’ largest privately owned businesses, both private equity backed and family owned but also has experience with public interest entities including PCAOB clients. He is also Lead Partner for Ireland’s Best Managed Companies programme.

Brian is a Board Member of Council for Chartered Accountants Ireland and is the Chair of the Professional Development Committee and a member of the Education Board. Brian lectures and presents extensively on a range of topics including audit, financial accounting/reporting and finance on behalf of Chartered Accountants Ireland. Brian is past Chair of Chartered Accountants Ireland Leinster Society and past Chair of CA Support.

Mairéad Hennessy is Principal at Taxkey, a specialised tax consultancy practice that she founded in 2016. Mairéad leads a team of expert Chartered Tax Consultants to advise business owners, high net worth individuals and property investors to navigate complex tax matters. Taxkey partners with other professional advisors (namely accountants, solicitors and financial advisors) to provide a holistic service in delivering practical and proactive tax solutions to clients.

Mairéad is a Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA AITI) and Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland (FCA) with over 20 years’ experience as a tax practitioner. She regularly speaks on tax technical matters at professional conferences and is a frequent contributor of tax articles in several professional journals. She also contributes to tax policy discussions through her involvement on the Tax Administration Liaison Committee (TALC), representing the Irish accountancy bodies on relevant working groups.

Tom specialises in complex tax planning, structuring groups of companies, international tax, enquiries, providing tax efficient succession and inheritance tax planning and deals with all aspects of income tax and capital gains tax.

John Darby is a senior legal counsel with PM Group. He graduated with an Honours BCL law degree from University College Dublin in 1994 and was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 1997. John has advised both domestic and international companies in all aspects of corporate and commercial law across the full lifecycle of business and in diverse sectors including project management, construction, retail, media, hospitality, healthcare, financial services and entertainment.

John is a lecturer in Business Law at the Law Society of Ireland.

Mick was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 2015 and is currently accepting instructions in all practice areas.

His practice is largely focussed on civil litigation in the County Court and High Court. He has particular experience of commercial disputes, land and property disputes, matters relating to individual and corporate insolvency, and company and partnership disputes. He also has experience of acting in Judicial Review proceedings, and appear for both plaintiffs and defendants in personal injuries claims.

He is a member of the Government Legal Service ‘C’ Panel and the Attorney General for Northern Ireland’s Newly Qualified panel.

Outside of his practice, he has experience of tutoring commercial and company law, civil procedure, and advocacy at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.