Springboard+ and HCI Pillar 1 are co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union.
As Global Head of Market Intelligence, Adrian Whelan is passionate about helping clients identify and interpret regulatory, distribution and product change in the asset management space. He is focused on articulating the impacts to clients and their businesses and highlighting the opportunities they can create.
Through active industry engagement, Adrian acts as an advocate for our clients’ interests. He is the lead contributor to BBH’s On The Regs blog, and regularly shares insights on global regulatory topics there and across social media. Adrian is also a regular conference speaker and contributor to trade media on all aspects of asset management.
Alan Barry founded Fund Elements in 2015. Fund Elements is focused on enabling the next generation of Apps for Investment Funds by breaking through the current operating silo’s. Fund Element’s App provides a transparent view of requirements by documenting the end to end Investment Fund Operating Model in the cloud where is it accessible to all. Fund Elements is about collaboration between solution providers, enabling the Investment Fund Knowledge and Digital Skills required to build future Apps
Michelle is an experienced risk and compliance professional with more than 15 years' experience in senior positions in various financial services industries including banking and fund administration. During her time in industry, Michelle was a member of Industry working groups in AML, Data Protection and Regulation. Michelle holds the relevant compliance, risk and legal qualifications and professional body memberships, complementing strong business commercial knowledge. Most recently, Michelle has worked in the ever-growing Fintech industry in senior leadership roles.
As Head of Risk and Compliance for valid8Me, Michelle's remit covers all aspects of Risk and Compliance for the business, and given her experience in the financial services industry, is able to fully appreciate valid8Me's clients pain points and frustrations in relation to client onboarding.
Michelle has an active role in the start-up and Fintech communities, both as an advisory council member of the Fintech and Payments Association and an advisory board member for the Fintech Corridor.
Ciara is an experienced Director in the Risk & Regulatory Practice of Deloitte, specialising in FinTech & Markets Risk and Regulation.
Ciara has experience working with growing and scaled FinTechs in Ireland and overseas including E-money Institutions, Payment firms, Insurtechs and Investment Platforms on designing, embedding and analysing the effectiveness of their Risk and Regulatory Management Frameworks. Ciara also has 13 years’ experience supporting traditional Banks, Insurance companies and Investment Firms in meeting their regulatory compliance obligations and designing and executing Regulatory & Risk strategies.
PhD Financial (Risk) Management and Services (FMUK, Bratislava)
MSc Treasury, Investment and Banking (DCU)
Dr Monika Smatralova is a senior practitioner covering a financial services area. Her current role is an Internal Audit Director at Barclays Europe. Her academic background is in 'Financial (Risk) Management’ and ‘Banking, Treasury and Investments’. She has been working in risk functions of major high street and captive banks over 13 years focusing mainly on Credit and Operational Risk Management and Measurement; Capital, Liquidity and Funding Risk and Enterprise Risk Management.
Pete Townsend is an early-stage startup advisor and investor, non-executive director, and podcaster. He is the founding partner of Norio Ventures based in Dublin, and he is currently investing in and accelerating web3 startups as a Managing Director with Techstars.
Pete has nearly 30 years of global experience at the startup and enterprise level with companies such as Coinbase, BNP Paribas, Fidelity Investments and 30+ startups around the world.
Pete is also the co-host of MoneyNeverSleeps, an Ireland top 20 weekly podcast that looks inside the minds of entrepreneurs and at the crossover of startups, enterprise, technology, finance and life as we know it.
Rachel co-founded O’Dwyer Power Accountants in 2018 and since then, in her role as a Consultant, she advises organisations regarding their compliance with current data protection and anti-money laundering legislation. Her client list incorporates a wide range of clients from a cross sector of industries but with particular emphasis on the Credit Union sector. Prior to that, Rachel held roles in financial management for over 10 years, including working in the education sector and in industry.
Rachel Woolley is the Head of Financial Crime Regulation for Palantir Technologies. Rachel focuses on evolving legislation, financial crime typologies, and anti-financial crime deployments. Working for some of the world’s largest institutions across various divisions and product lines, Rachel began her career as a compliance officer focusing on anti-money laundering and broader risk management. Prior to Palantir, Rachel was the Global Director of Financial Crime at a regulatory technology vendor where she researched financial crime trends, legislation, and identified product enhancements and technology-driven solutions. Rachel is CAMS, LCOI, CFCPP, and CDPO certified.
Eoin Fitzgerald is currently working with the Central Bank of Ireland as a Senior Innovation Engagement Specialist. Eoin has 15 years experience in Financial Services, working across a number of domestic and international banks such as AIB, Barclays, Deutsche Bank as well as working with scaling startup, Future Finance. Eoin was a Senior Development Adviser in Fintech for Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is the largest seed stage investor in Europe. Eoin invests in early stage fintech startups and works with them to scale internationally.
Russell Burke is an independent payments consultant with a unique combination of extensive regulatory and strategic payments experience Russell advises payments and electronic money firms seeking authorisation and is one of Ireland’s leading payments specialists with over forty years’ experience with the Central Bank of Ireland, the Irish Payments Services Organisation (IPSO) and Bank of Ireland. Russell is also a non executive board member and head of the audit committee for myPOS Limited.
Dermot is an experienced Director, having gained significant experience in Compliance, Risk and Fraud, Operations, Engineering and Customer Services management primarily in the Information Technology and Fintech areas.
Dermot was most recently CS Director Ireland at Remitly, who are a global cross-border digital remittance provider and led the launch of Remitly’s European operation in Cork, growing the site to 270 team members in just 2 years while ensuring that the activities of REL’s align with regulatory requirements, compliance, local laws, and business requirements.
Hesus is a seasoned Financial Services, FinTech & Tech Strategist, combining expertise in value creation, value preservation, growth optimisation and ecosystem strategy in advising Financial Services firms, Startups and Scaleups and Governments. Hesus has deep expertise, gained across multiple organisations, in identifying and working closing with High-Potential Tech companies, supporting Founders, CEOs and Boards in building strategies to realise their growth opportunities, operationalising scaling their businesses and raising captial. Hesus has held numerous Senior roles in the top Management Consulting Brands in Ireland with a focus on Digital and Tech Strategies.
Clare is an experienced compliance professional with 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry with her focus being in Insurance. Clare holds the relevant compliance, risk and professional body memberships, supporting her strong business & commercial knowledge. Clare’s current remit covers all aspects of Compliance , including analysis of regulation across varying jurisdictions , impact assessment of that new regulation, building the culture of compliance in the business, provide training on core policies and procedures while formulating & executing the compliance and conduct reviews of branches, processes or business functions to test for regulatory control weakness.
Over 20 years UK Public Sector delivering holistic Security and Counter Intelligence support in high-threat high-risk environments. Subsequently a CESG Listed Advisor providing Security Information Risk Advisor to both Public and Private Sector organisations. Specialist in Data Centre (DC) security & compliance, formerly responsible for multiple territories and developed UK Government guidance for DC Security. Roles have also included vCISO whilst concurrently serving as information & cyber maturation program manager for global organisation. Currently Cloud Compliance & bespoke speciality Program Manager for global SAAS entity. Additionally have simultaneously founded own company to provide market-disrupting personal threat awareness and security education web-app, empowering everyone and anyone to be safer online.
Dáire Lawlor has over 30 years’ experience and a strong background in IT, Operations and the Business in the IT and Financial Services sectors where he has built up significant depth of knowledge in assimilating and exploiting emerging technologies to transform businesses, create new products, introduce efficiencies, manage risk, and deliver benefits.
Dáire’s experience has been gained through a long and varied career in senior management roles successfully servicing blue chip clients; most recently as the head of State Street Ireland’s Consulting Services Group, where he was responsible for product development, transformation, innovation, onboarding and professional services servicing some of the world’s biggest asset managers while also liaising with emerging technology and fintech firms.
Tracy has over 25 years global regulatory, compliance, governance and risk management experience, having worked as a senior practitioner, primarily within financial services and regulatory sectors since 1998. Areas of expertise include Data Protection, Digital Services Regulation, IAF, AML, Enterprise Risk Management, Internal Audit, Regulatory Policy, Management, Leadership, ESG and Corporate Governance. Regulatory approvals and registrations to date include CBI (Ireland) - PCFs 12, 13, 14 and 15 and equivalent registrations in the UK, Bermuda and Cayman Islands as Head of Risk and Compliance, AMLCO and MLRO. Tracy currently provides governance, advisory, training and consultancy services to businesses and organisations across a number of sectors.
Technological University Dublin Collaborative Partner Faculty
Mark is our TU Dublin Programme Coordinator for our Fintech Programmes. Mark qualified as a professional accountant following training JPMorgan Bank Ireland, and has 19 years’ experience in the financial services sector, mostly working with JPMorgan and prior to that as a fund accountant with Bisys Fund Services.
Mark's time in JPMorgan has been primarily within the Trust & Fiduciary department, working in project roles through to leading the site visit team within the trustee group, responsible for due diligence visits and oversight of multiple fund administrators, until moving into Finance & Business Management.