Sustainability Conference (ROI/NI)

Barry Dempsey

Barry Dempsey – Chief Executive, Chartered Accountants Ireland. Barry is also a Member of the Irish Takeover Panel, Board Member of Chartered Accountants Worldwide and Board Member of the Global Accounting Alliance. Previously, Barry was CEO of the Irish Heart Foundation, Peter Mark and the Irish Cancer Society. He is committed to the benefits sustainability initiatives offer businesses, the accountancy profession, communities and the economy.

Sue Lloyd

Sue Lloyd’s appointment as Vice-Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), effective 1 March 2022, was announced in January 2022.
She served as a member of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) from 2014 and as IASB Vice-Chair from 2016. She also served as Chair of the IFRS Interpretations Committee from 2017.
In addition to her IASB responsibilities, she played a leading role in the establishment of the ISSB from 2020, including as a member of the Technical Readiness Working Group, which was created by the Trustees to give the ISSB a running start.
Prior to becoming an IASB member, Ms Lloyd worked for the IFRS Foundation as a senior technical director, leading the development of new IFRS Accounting Standards, and as director of capital markets with responsibility for the IASB’s reform of accounting for financial instruments. She also worked for the IFRS Foundation from 2002 to 2004 as a technical project manager.
Ms Lloyd has held various positions in investment banking both in the UK and in Australia and has served as a member of the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB). She has a Master’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Susan Rossney 

Susan Rossney – Sustainability Officer with Chartered Accountants Ireland, Chair of the Institute’s Expert Working Group on Sustainability and Chair of the Sustainability Taskforce of Chartered Accountants Worldwide. She is also author of Sustainability for Accountants and Climate Essentials for Accountants and Sustainability for Small Businesses (forthcoming).

Fiona Smiddy

Fiona Smiddy – Green entrepreneur Fiona Smiddy is a Chartered Accountant, and founder and owner of Green Outlook, a one-stop shop for eco-friendly products with a focus on Irish made. The website now has 250 sustainable products and has over 260 5-star reviews on Google and Facebook. Before starting her own business, Fiona worked as Senior Accountant with a renewable energy company in Dublin. She is now Secretary for Network Ireland Kildare Branch 2021 and co-lead of the Climate Action workstream within the Irish FinBiz2030 Taskforce. The goal of the Taskforce is to establish an active and engaged finance and business community that is dedicated to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGDSs) by 2030. In April 2022 Fiona became the Chartered Accountants Ireland Chartered Star, and will represent Chartered Accountants Ireland and Chartered Accountants Worldwide in September 2022.

Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (Deloitte) – Partner – Corporate Finance – Global Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Government Leader for Deloitte. In this role he leads the global teams focused on public sector investment in Infrastructure, Transport & Mobility, Regional & Local Government (including cities) and Climate & Environment. Michael is also the Global Financial Advisory Government & Public Services Leader with a particular focus on funding/financing public infrastructure and EMEA Infrastructure & Capital Projects Leader. He has advised across a variety of sectors including energy, renewables (wind, biomass, solar and storage), education, healthcare, transport, water, waste & energy, regeneration, smart cities and real estate. Michael is a member of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) PPP Business Advisory Board and an elected Irish council member of the International Project Finance Association.

Derarca Dennis

Derarca Dennis (EY) – Partner and Lead for Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) for EY Ireland. With over 20 years of professional experience in financial and non-financial reporting, including six years based in Brussels and Finland, Derarca leads a team of climate change and sustainability specialists who focus on advising private and listed companies on climate and sustainability business solutions. She also leads the Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) team that advise on a range of technical financial and non-financial reporting issues. A graduate of University College Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland, Derarca also holds a degree in Psychology.

Russell Smyth

Russell Smyth (KPMG) – Partner – Russell leads KPMG’s Sustainable Futures team. He has over 15 years’ experience in renewable energy, low carbon fundraising and project finance transactions, as well as corporate strategy and M&A advisory services.

Fiona Gaskin

Fiona Gaskin (PwC) – Partner – Fiona is PwC Ireland Trust and Transparency Leader. With over 18 years’ experience working across a range of risk management and non-financial reporting areas, Fiona has assisted clients with controls reporting (ISAE3402/Soc 1 and Soc 2) and/or communicating key areas of focus with their stakeholders (e.g. sustainability information). She has also helped clients improve their own risk management practices, and has significant experience across all financial services. This includes helping clients respond to regulator recommendations, or prepare for an inspection.

Paul O’Riordan

Paul O’Riordan – Group Financial Performance & Governance Manager, ESB A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, Paul has almost 20 years’ experience working in both practice and industry including over 10 years of financial reporting experience in ESB. Paul is currently responsible for the production of ESB’s award winning Annual Report and is leading on the annual reporting aspects of ESB’s Net-Zero by 2040 strategy and ESB’s compliance with various ESG reporting standards, including the EU Taxonomy.

Caoimhe Donnelly

Chief Sustainability Officer at CIÉ Group since April 2020, Caoimhe Donnelly is responsible for delivering sustainability strategy across the group. With over 20 years’ experience in senior management roles in competition and regulation, strategy and sustainable development, Caoimhe has advised and led the delivery of regulatory strategy in the communications markets and in sustainable development. Her experience includes senior management roles in ComReg, as Head of Market Intelligence and Market Analysis Manager and in strategy development in AXA Ireland. Caoimhe is also Chair of Global Action Plan, Ireland, a not for profit organisation driving sustainability initiatives across Ireland.

Nicola Woods

Nicola Woods joined An Post in 2020 as Chief Transformation Officer. As well as driving strategy development and organisational transformation in the business, she is also leading An Post’s sustainability strategy. Following her training as a Management Consultant, Nicola has worked across a variety of industries (fintech, banking, technology) as well as company sizes (from start-up to multinational) in both the UK and Ireland.

Laura Heuston

Laura Heuston – FCA, Co-Founder SustainabilityWorks, a boutique sustainability consulting firm that offers a unique blend of skills and experience across sustainability strategy, finance, policy and communications. An FCA and a CTA, Laura has over 20 years professional experience across industry and practice, with KPMG and Airtricity. She now lectures on sustainable finance with the UCD Smurfit Graduate School and the Institute of Banking in Ireland and her consulting work covers a broad range of sustainable finance topics.

Dr Brian Keegan

Dr Brian Keegan is Director of Advocacy and Voice with Chartered Accountants Ireland, and drives the advocacy agenda of the Institute through influence and thought leadership. Brian previously worked both in large, multi-national firms and medium-sized practice, and for several years was Director of Research with the Irish Taxation Institute. A regular contributor to media discussions on tax, public policy and Brexit matters through his standing columns in leading Irish newspapers, he also holds a Ph.D. in Taxation at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and is a Fellow of the Irish Taxation Institute. He serves as a Technical Advisor at the Board of the International Federation of Accountants, is the Institute’s legal representative at Accountancy Europe and chairs the Tax Working Party of the Global Accounting Alliance.

Dr Aideen O’Dochartaigh

Dr Aideen O’Dochartaigh – Assistant Professor in Accounting with DCU Business School. Prior to her role in DCU, Aideen was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the UCD College of Business and the BiOrbic Bioeconomy Centre, specialising in sustainability accounting and responsible business, following completion of a PhD on sustainability accounting at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. A qualified Chartered Accountant, Aideen trained in practice with Deloitte Ireland, and her research projects include ongoing interdisciplinary work on sustainability networks and sustainability accounting at a multiple organisation level. She has received research funding from the Irish Research Council (2015 GOI Postdoctoral Fellowship) and Chartered Accountants Ireland Educational Trust (CAIET) as co-PI on the project “Accounting and Reporting for Origin Green”, and is currently co-PI with colleagues in the School of Engineering, DCU, Paul Price and Prof. Barry McMullin, on the project “Carbon budgets to inform climate action: A society-wide, integrated GHG quota and accounting perspective”, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sandy Boundy

Sandy Boundy – Director of Strategy and Insight With over 23 years’ experience working in blue chip multinational corporations, Sandy has worked on domestic and global brands in a career encompassing marketing management, innovation and strategic planning. As Head of Communications and Sustainability she was responsible for corporate reputation management, internal and external corporate communications and driving sustainability with all key stakeholders. Sandy holds an MBS in International Business from UCD and lectured on a part time basis on Sustainability and Marketing in MTU. She is a member of the PRII and is also an active member of Purpose Disruptors whose mission is to reshape the industry to tackle climate change.

Alan Nash

Head of Corporate Financial Sustainability Reporting and Enterprise Performance Management for CRH. Alan was appointed in January 2022 having previously worked in senior operating finance roles in North America and Asia for CRH. Corporate Financial Sustainability Reporting is a complex new regulatory area for CRH with a multitude of rapidly evolving requirements. Alan is responsible for developing and implementing CRH’s systems and approach for compliance with its non-financial reporting and disclosure requirements including the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the EU taxonomy for sustainable activities. CRH is the leading building materials business in the world and ranked among sector leaders by Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating agencies. CRH’s materials, value-added products and integrated building solutions play an important role in shaping a more sustainable built environment