Liam Nellis

CEO, InterTradeIreland, The Trade and Business Development Body.

Born in 1952, Liam obtained a Law Degree (LLB) from the University of London. He went on to receive an MS.c in Social Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Ulster. Having joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service in 1973, Liam established NI-Co (the public sector marketing company) in 1990. In 1997 he joined the Industrial Development Board as Executive Director, responsible for attracting foreign direct investment to Northern Ireland. After a brief period on secondment to set up the body, Liam was appointed CEO of InterTradeIreland in 2000.

Liam is an Advisor to the National Competitiveness Council Dublin, and sits on the Northern Committee for the Sales Institute of Ireland. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors.

InterTradeIreland was established in 2000 to identify, develop and deliver North / South business development and trade opportunities. Since then, more than 1300 companies across the island have participated directly in its programmes; reporting over £147m/€184m of added value.

Ivan Coulter, PhD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer and Founder Sigmoid

Prior to founding Sigmoid, Ivan set up, developed and managed the drug formulation and diagnostics groups at NTera, a nanotechnology-focused company. Ivan has an honours degree and PhD in Pharmacology from University College Dublin, held a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Institut Curie, Paris and, awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, completed an MBA at Cornell University, New York. While at Cornell, Ivan consulted to Nautilus Biotech SA, advising on its successful Series A fund raising. In addition, while completing his PhD, Ivan was awarded a Diploma in Accounting and Finance by the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (ACCA). Ivan was appointed to the board of Bord Iascaigh Mhara, headed the Seafood Innovation Council and chairs the Nutramara scientific council.

Liam Nagle

Group CEO SISK

Liam Nagle joined the Sisk Group in 2005 as head of its non-construction activities and to spearhead the development of a new strategy. Liam was appointed Sisk Group CEO in early 2008 with overall executive responsibility for the group’s activities. The group is one of the largest privately owned businesses in Ireland with a turnover in excess of €1 billion, with operations in Ireland, the UK, Belgium, Poland and the UAE. The group now comprises of 12 companies, employing over 2,000 employees, in sectors as diverse as construction, domestic appliances, healthcare, stone quarrying, architectural glazing and property.

On joining the Sisk Group in 2005, Nagle brought over 20 years international experience in finance, operations, marketing and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to his new role. He was as a senior executive at Intel from 1994 to 1997 and joined Bay Networks Europe as vice-president (1997-1998). When Nortel Networks acquired Bay Networks in 1998, he held a number of senior roles in Nortel including vice-president of operations for Europe and global vice-president for enterprise operations. In 2003, Nagle became vice-president and chief operating officer of Bookham Technology, and prior to joining the Sisk Group, he was promoted to president and chief operations officer in 2004.

Louise Phelan

Vice President of Customer Solutions and EMEA Merchant Services for PayPal

Louise Phelan is Vice President of Customer Solutions and EMEA Merchant Services for PayPal. Based in Blanchardstown Dublin, PayPal is the European Centre of Excellence and employs almost 1,850 people. Louise joined PayPal in 2006 as CS and Risk Director for the EU and was recently promoted to her current position.

Prior to joining PayPal in June 2006, Louise was a member of the Senior Management Team for GE Money, a division of General Electric (GE), which specialises in small ticket lending for a client base comprising both consumers and commercial customers.

During her 16 years with GE (formerly Woodchester Investments), Louise held a wide variety of Management & Leadership roles. From 2000- 2006 she held the position of Compliance Leader with responsibility for leading change and integrating a compliance culture across the organisation. While in this role, Louise was a member of the Business Quality Council and was Ombudsperson for the business.

Louise is on the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and CCMA Ireland.

In her spare time Louise enjoys travelling and exercising.

Barry Maloney

Prior to joining Balderton Capital, Barry spent five years as CEO of Esat Digifone, Ireland's second largest GSM mobile operator. Under Barry's leadership, Esat Di gifone expanded to a profitable company with 900 employees, more than one million customers and IR£400 million in revenues. Esat Digifone was acquired by British Telecom at a market value of IR£2 billion and is now part of the O2 Group.

Before Esat Digifone, Barry spent two years at Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, California, where as Vice President of first Business Development and then Channel Operations, he was instrumental in revolutionizing Xerox's approach to global marketing. Before this Barry enjoyed a pan-European career at Digital Equipment as European Pricing Manager, Director of Software Business Europe and Vice President of the Component and Peripheral Business Unit Europe.

Liam Kavanagh

Liam Kavanagh was appointed Managing Director of The Irish Times in March 2010 and is responsible for the strategic growth and development of the group which includes the newspaper and other print and digital assets. He joined the Irish Times in 2000 as Chief Financial Officer and was appointed to the Board in 2001 as Finance Director and Company Secretary before being appointed Deputy Managing Director in 2006. Prior to joining The Irish Times, Liam worked with KPMG and the Jefferson Smurfit Group as Finance Director for Smurfit Ireland. Liam also serves on the Council of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

Chris Horn

Chris Horn is an occasional opinion writer for The Irish Times. In 1991 he co-founded and became CEO of IONA Technologies, which went public in 1997 using Lehman in what was then the 5th largest IPO in the history of Nasdaq. He also served as the chair of various technology companies and Irish national policy groups. Chris is a former chair of UNICEF Ireland, The Irish Brain Research Foundation and the Irish Management Institute.

He is currently the chairman of: Cloudsmith which provides support for “dev-ops” and deployment to the cloud; Gridstone, an Irish storage grid company; and SophiaSearch, among others.