Ian Drennan is Chief Executive Officer and the sole appointed member of the Corporate Enforcement Authority. He has extensive experience in the areas of investigation, regulation, and civil and criminal enforcement and of leading entities having a public interest mandate, having previously held the positions of Director of Corporate Enforcement and Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Auditing & Accounting Supervisory Authority. He is a member of the Advisory Council on Economic Crime & Corruption, the Anti-money Laundering Steering Committee, and the Company Law Review Group. He is also a member of the Medical Council, the statutory regulator of medical doctors in Ireland, where he is Chairman of the Audit Committee and a member of the Fitness to Practice Committee. An accountant by profession, he also holds qualifications from University College Dublin, the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and the Honorable Society of King’s Inns.

Dara Calleary TD is the current Minister of State for Trade Promotion and Digital Transformation.

As a Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Minister Calleary is responsible for promoting responsible and sustainable trade, ensuring fair and better regulation for all businesses, and that markets work effectively for consumers and for the economy as a whole. He also has a specific focus in the continued digital transformation of enterprise and ensuring Ireland maintains or improves its position of 5th in the DESI, and remains a digital frontrunner at the heart of Europe.

He represents the Irish Government at the EU Competitiveness Council which works to enhance competitiveness and increase growth in the EU, as well as the D9+ forum and OECD Digital for SMEs Global Initiative.

A native of Ballina, Dara Calleary has been a TD for Mayo since first being elected at the 2007 General Election.

He was previously Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Labour Affairs from 2009-2011 and Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Finance with responsibility for Public Service Transformation from 2019-2011. He served as Minister for Agriculture and as Government Chief Whip in 2020.

Dara served as Deputy Leader of Fianna Fáil from 2018-2020 and has also served as Spokesperson on Justice, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Public Expenditure and Reform and Social Protection portfolio.

Prior to entering politics Dara was involved in the banking and business sectors. Dara studied Business and Politics at Trinity College Dublin and attended St Muredach’s College Ballina and St Oliver Plunkett National School.

Declan Hughes, Secretary General, Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment

As Secretary General of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Declan Hughes advises Government and leads the Department and its offices and agencies in promoting the creation of high-quality and sustainable full employment; by championing enterprise, supporting and incentivising a competitive and innovative research and enterprise base, negotiating international trade agreements, and promoting fair and competitive employment and markets.

Declan is a member of the Civil Service Management Board and the Public Service Leadership Board. He has served as a Board member of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and SFI. He served as Chair of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund Advisory Committee, and as a member of National Competitiveness Council, the Interim Public Procurement Reform Board and Food Wise Implementation Committee.  He has served on EU and OECD research and digital policy committees.

Clíona Kimber SC is a barrister at the Bar of Ireland with over 20 years experience in complex litigation in employment, climate and EU  law. She is author of several books, including the award winning Employment Equality Law, (2024.  She is former chair of the Employment Bar Association and current chair of Comhshaol, the Climate Bar Association.

James Dwyer is a senior counsel and member of the Inner Bar. He has practised law since 2001. He practises primarily in criminal law, public law and constitutional law. He appears for both State bodies and private citizens in court at all levels from the District Court to the Supreme Court. He speaks frequently at conferences and is co-author of the textbook ‘Discovery and Disclosure’ which is now in its third edition.

Henry Matthews, Head of Special Financial Crime Unit (ODPP)

Henry is a qualified solicitor and joined the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) in 2001. He was assigned in 2003 to the newly formed Anti-Corruption Unit after gaining two years’ experience prosecuting general crime. In 2009 Henry was tasked with assessing the feasibility of setting up a specialised unit to deal with financial crime. The Special Financial Crime Team was set up in 2011 and he was appointed its manager. In 2015 this Team’s remit was widened to include money laundering and it became the Special Financial Crime Unit (SFCU). In 2016 the Unit together with members of the Garda National Economic Bureau (GNECB) ran a very successful training and awareness programme which led to a greatly increased number of successful prosecutions. In 2019 assets was added to the Unit’s portfolio and the sums recovered under the Director’s powers have doubled. 

In 2024 the Unit’s remit was again widened and the Unit now has three Teams within its structure whose areas of responsibility are, Serious Fraud, Assets/Money Laundering and Corporate/Regulatory. 

Henry has acted as an examiner/evaluator for the Council of Europe, the OECD and the UN and has been part of Ireland’s delegation to the OECD’s Working Group on Bribery. Henry was part of the Review Group set up by government to consider structures and strategies to prevent, investigate and penalise economic crime and corruption and is a member of the Advisory Council on Fraud and Corruption.

Emma Luxton-Interim Chief Operating Officer, Serious Fraud Office (SFO)

Emma is Interim Chief Operating Officer, Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and has prosecuted a number of high profile fraud and bribery cases including Smith & Ouzman that saw the first post-trial conviction for a corporate for overseas bribery and led to a novel compensation arrangement with the victim state. 

Emma co-drafted the CPS and SFO’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement Code of Practice that sits alongside the DPA legislation. She secured the UK’s second DPA, Sarclad Ltd and then the sixth DPA, Guralp Ltd. Emma has worked with the OECD Working Group on Bribery including drafting the UK contribution to the 2019 study “Resolving foreign bribery cases with non-trial resolutions” and has recently edited the SFO DPA guidance.

Dean Beale: Inspector General and Chief Executive – The Insolvency Service of England and Wales

Dean has worked in the insolvency sector for over 25 years. At the height of the global financial crisis, Dean was an Official Receiver, acting as a trustee in bankruptcy and a liquidator of companies. Prior to being appointed as CEO of the Insolvency Service in 2019, Dean was its Director of Strategy and Change, overseeing policy development, regulation of the insolvency sector and leading the agency’s transformation programme. In his policy role, Dean contributed to the development of EU insolvency law and the UNCITRAL Model Laws on cross-border insolvency. As CEO, Dean has overseen some of the largest and most complex insolvency cases dealt with in the UK including British Steel and Thomas Cook, and high-profile enforcement actions against the directors of Carillion and the prosecution of Boris Becker for bankruptcy offences. In 2020 Dean was responsible for the legislation which introduced the Part 26A Restructuring Plan into the UK’s insolvency framework.

Dave Magrath, Director of Investigation and Enforcement Services, UK Insolvency Service .

Dave joined The Insolvency Service in March 2022 to take up the role of Director of Investigation and Enforcement Services where he leads teams who utilise civil and criminal powers to tackle financial wrongdoing. He has overseen significant action against Covid Loan abuse, developed new anti-money laundering capability and currently implementing major organisational growth to respond to Companies House reforms. 

Dave previously spent 20 years working for Immigration Enforcement leading teams disrupting organised immigration crime. He developed experience of specialist areas including Intelligence, Proceeds of Crime and Digital Forensics and worked closely with international partners including Garda National Immigration Bureau where collaboration was focused on protecting the Common Travel Area. 

Sinead is the Chairperson of Grant Thornton Ireland and head of Development and Growth in the firm which is a wide brief encompassing people development and business development. 

She has been a client facing partner in the firm for 20 years holding positions as an audit partner, servicing the firms largest and public clients since 2005.  In 2013, Sinead co-founded an innovative business unit in the firm which specialized in servicing the multi-national market and offered a global solution to their compliance and reporting needs.  From a standing start in 2013 this team grew to over 500 in 10 years, services some of the largest global companies and became one of the leading international teams in the Grant Thornton International network.  

Sinead is a passionate chartered accountant and believes that values need to be at the heart of everything we do. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is one part of that value chain and Sinead is a strong believer that this needs to be front and centre of business strategy and part of the environment of a company. 

Sinead is the immediate past President of Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI), having been President from May 2023 to May 2024 and in her year she brought forward the successful merger of CPA Ireland into CAI, ensuring CAI became the largest professional body in Ireland.  

Derarca Dennis, EY Sustainability Services Partner 

Derarca is the Partner responsible for Climate Change and Sustainability Services for EY Ireland. 

She has over 25  years of professional experience including six years based in Brussels and Finland, and leads a team of Sustainability  specialists who focus on advising private and listed companies on Sustainability strategy , Sustainability reporting  and Assurance. 

Derarca advises across a number of areas of reporting including the TCFD Reporting ,  the Corporate Reporting Sustainability Directive (CSRD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)  reporting standards.

Derarca has been responsible for leading a range of sustainability assurance and advisory projects for clients across the in the food, telecommunications, healthcare, technology and retail sectors. 

She specialises in advising clients in the course of implementing new non- financial reporting standards and sustainability strategies across their organisations on the impact of these changes may have  across Finance , Operations , HR and other key organisational functions .

Derarca is a graduate of University College Dublin holding a degree in Psychology and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland.