Associate Faculty

Adrian Whelan

Senior Vice President, Brown Brothers Harriman

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.

Prior to joining BBH in 2011, Adrian worked in a number of global custody banks as well as running a regulatory consulting firm. Adrian is active with many asset management industry advocacy groups including the Investment Company Institute, Irish Funds and the Investment Association. He is a member of BBH’s Executive Sustainability Council, as well as several industry groups focused on ESG. Adrian is also a very active and vocal contributor to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including BBH BANC Networks and several external campaigns. Adrian holds a degree in Business Studies from Dublin City University

Alan Barry

Founder & CEO, Fund Elements

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

Prior to founding Fund Elements, Alan held a global role with CITCO where he worked since 2002. Alan was initially responsible for the setup of CITCO European Middle Office business. He has gained more than 30 years’ experience in the Investment Fund and Banking industry and has worked in Dublin, London and New York with leading businesses including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS and Irish Life.

Michelle McGuire

Chief Executive Officer, GECKO Governance

Michelle is an experienced compliance and risk professional with 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.

Having worked in the Funds industry and understanding the intricacies of the work involved, Michelle is able to fully appreciate the pain points and frustrations of GECKO Governance’s clients and how the software can alleviate these pain points and streamline clients’ work flows and business processes. Active in the start-up and Fintech communities, Michelle is a member of the Fintech and Payments Association, and a brand ambassador for The Fintech Corridor.

Ciara O'Grady

Director - Risk Advisory, Deloitte

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.

Most recently Ciara held the roles of Head of Compliance & MLRO and Chief Risk Officer of Revolut’s securities business in Ireland where she built the Risk and Regulatory functions for the Irish business and supported the groups Risk and Regulatory global functions. Ciara has also led large Brexit contingency engagements for firms seeking to redomicile their EU HQs to Ireland, supporting on applications to the Central Bank of Ireland for authorisation in Ireland.

Dr. Monika Smatralova

Director of Internal Audit at Barclay's Europe

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.

Monika is actively involved in the senior leadership at the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA), successfully leading the Irish Chapter since 2013. In 2014 she was elected as the EMEA Regional Directors Committee Co Chair and in 2020 as a member of PRMIA Global Council. She is lecturing at various universities in Ireland and abroad and published articles in technical magazines and journals. Monika is also an active international speaker covering Risk Management topics.

Pete Townsend

Norio Venture

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 27 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.

Prior to his life in the wild, Pete was the chief operating officer and global head of product development for a division of BNP Paribas and a director on the board of its Irish franchise for ten years. Prior to BNP Paribas, Pete worked in leadership roles in client service, operations and technology with Fidelity Investments in Boston and in the Bermuda hedge fund servicing sector. Originally from Massachusetts, Pete graduated cum laude from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a BSc in Finance & Operations Management and went on to earn an MBA from Boston University.

Rachel Power

Data Privacy / AML Compliance

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’s experience has allowed her to develop a unique perspective, bringing together industry expertise, understanding of technology solutions and ability to translate legislative requirements into conditionally driven rules.Rachel is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals having achieved both the CIPP/E and CIPM certifications and would describe herself as a privacy enthusiast. As a data privacy consultant, Rachel carries out training for a large variety of organisations regarding their obligations under the GDPR. Having completed her Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering, Rachel was awarded the honorary gold medal for her final submission and her knowledge of, and interest in this topic is evident in her training sessions. Due to her experience in the Credit Union sector she works closely with relevant IT providers in ensuring that Fintech solutions incorporate both privacy by design and default as well as assisting organisations with their AML compliance obligations. Rachel is a graduate of University College Cork, The Honorable Society of King's Inns, City Colleges and Waterford Institute of Technology.

Rachel Woolley

Global Director of Financial Crime at Fenergo

Rachel Woolley is the Director of Financial Crime at Fenergo and is based out of the firm’s headquarters in Dublin. Rachel has over 12 years’ experience in the Financial Services industry, having worked primarily in the funds industry and retail banking.

Fenergo is a leading provider of Client Lifecycle Management, AML/KYC Compliance and Client Data Management solutions for investment, corporate, commercial, and private banks. Rachel’s current remit covers all aspects of financial crime, including ongoing monitoring and analysis of evolving legislation and trends to assess product impact. Rachel’s function works alongside the product and technical teams, combining subject matter expertise with technology to deliver effective solutions.

Prior to joining Fenergo, Rachel held several AML/Compliance roles throughout her career and has developed a strong perspective on aspects of financial crime – from transaction monitoring, client onboarding, compliance monitoring, and as a Central Bank of Ireland approved head of compliance in a regulated entity.

Eoin Fitzgerald

Senior Development Adviser in Fintech for Enterprise Ireland

Eoin Fitzgerald is a Senior Development Adviser in Fintech for Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is the largest seed stage investor in Europe and Eoin invests in early stage fintech startups and works with them to scale internationally. 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.

Russell Burke

Independent Payments Consultant at Juristic Ltd.

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.

Russell has been a speaker at a number of major domestic and international events and, more recently, has spoken on behalf of the Central Bank of Ireland at several industry events on the application and authorisation processes for payments and electronic money institutions in Ireland. Russell has an MBA from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, is a qualified financial adviser and a licentiate of the Institute of Banking in Ireland.

Dermot Kennedy

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.

Prior to joining Remitly, Dermot gained 20 years of senior leadership experience at multinational companies including Amazon, Dell, and Sanmina. While at Amazon Dermot led the Global outsourcing network supporting the UK and Ireland. Dermot is passionate about the development of highly scalable standards, policies, procedures, repeatable processes, and methodologies to enable best practices to be standardized across organizations. Qualifications: Masters in Business Administration Bachelor of Science Diploma in Fintech, Risk and Compliance Six Sigma Black (American Society of Quality)

Hesus Inoma

Head of Strategy & Innovation

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.

At Grant Thornton, Hesus led the establishment of the Open Finance Hub whose goal is to enable clients to research, innovate, test, implement and optimise tech solutions to address business problems in a safe and secure environment. At EY Parthenon, Hesus built the Technology and FinTech strategy arm in Ireland. EY Parthenon is one of the Top 5 Management Consulting Strategy Firms in the world. Hesus is a proven Entrepreneur and a well-recognised Leader within the Irish and European FinTech ecosystem. He is also a recognised Speaker and Thought-Leader across Europe and US having spoken and published on numerous FinTech and Tech topics. Hesus is passionate about the digitalisation of Financial Services and the collaboration between the financial services and technology sectors with an excellent understanding of financial products and smart technologies underpinning emerging FinTech and Web3 solutions. Qualifications: Chartered Banker, Chartered Insurer (ACII), Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA), Certified Agile Coach, Certified Agile Facilitator, Post Grad in Financial Services from University College Dublin, BA Honours Degree in International Insurance & European Studies from University of Limerick

Paul O'Loughlin

Head of Financial Services Compliance and MLRO at An Post.

Paul O'Loughlin is an experienced Regulatory Compliance, AML and Risk professional with significant experience influencing and developing strategies and solutions to address complex operational and regulatory challenges. Paul has performed various AML, Compliance and Regulatory roles across both the public and private sector representing the Irish Stock Exchange, the Central Bank of Ireland, State Street (IFS), AIB Merchant Services and is currently Head of Financial Services Compliance and MLRO at An Post.

Paul holds a Degree and Masters in Law from Trinity College, Dublin; a Professional Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from Manchester University Business School, and is a Licentiate of the Compliance Institute and a fellow of the ICA.

Lorraine Lyons

Enterprise Technology Senior Sales Executive

Lorraine Lyons is an enterprise technology senior sales executive with a demonstrated history working with Fund Administrators, Investments Managers, Global Fund Services providers and Hedge funds globally to provide regulatory technology platform solutions. Lorraine is responsible for new business sales in Ireland and North America and works with large clients who will use AQMetrics regulatory risk and reporting platform to help their customers to scale. Prior to her position at AQMetrics, she worked at IBM’s European Digital Sales Centre as part of the Operations team in the Inside Sales software group.

Clare Stephenson

Senior Compliance Officer at AXA Partners

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.

Associate Faculty

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