Deloitte strengthens leadership team with 14 new partners appointed across its business

Deloitte Ireland has appointed 14 new partners across its business following strong growth in all service lines throughout 2021.

Michelle Byrne, Karen Goggin and Jim Meegan have been appointed partners in Audit & Assurance; Seamus Kennedy, Geraldine McCann, John Perry, Ian Prenty and Conor Walsh have been appointed partners in Tax & Legal; Anlo Taylor has been appointed partner in Risk Advisory; and Kieran O’Neill, Martin Mannion and Claire Dowling have been appointed in Consulting. In addition to these internal promotions, Emmanuel Adeleke joins as partner in Consulting and Ian Whitefoot joins as partner in the Audit & Assurance team.

The appointment of five female partners brings the proportion of female partners in the firm to 28 per cent, and puts Deloitte on track to achieve 35 per cent female partnership by 2025.

Commenting on the new appointments, Harry Goddard, chief executive of Deloitte Ireland, says: “I’m delighted to congratulate our new partners today, on what is a significant milestone for both them and our business. Core to our business strategy is a growth mindset and having a strong leadership team to support our clients and our people as we continue our growth in Ireland is essential.

“I’m particularly proud that 12 of our new partners have spent a significant number of years at Deloitte, showing a track record for client service excellence, as well as championing and supporting the growth and wellbeing of their respective teams. I’m also pleased to welcome two external recruits, who bring a wealth of invaluable market knowledge to our business. I wish them all every success in their new roles.”

The new partners at Deloitte:

Emmanuel Adeleke

Emmanuel (Manny) Adeleke is a partner in Consulting, leading the delivery of AI and Data services across Ireland. In this role he is responsible for leading, scaling and delivering Deloitte’s offerings and services to drive impact for our clients across all sectors and industries. Emmanuel is highly experienced in the end-to-end delivery of insights-led change and transformation programmes, having played a lead role across some of Ireland’s most high-profile programmes over the last few years. His experiences span strategy development, delivery of digital and data analytics solutions/programmes, operating model and change management.

He is a Business Information Systems graduate from University College Cork and holds a number of industry accreditations across data, cloud and technology domains. He is also a board member of the Analytics Institute Ireland. Emmanuel is very passionate about diversity, inclusion and equity, having sponsored and led a number of initiatives both in the workplace and wider society.

Michelle Byrne

Michelle is a partner in Audit & Assurance, leading our Financial Reporting Advisory team. She currently advises clients on key accounting matters and has significant experience managing specialist advisory projects under IFRS, Irish GAAP and US GAAP. She supports clients to stay ahead of financial reporting requirements and challenges faced by businesses today. Recently, these financial reporting challenges have arisen due to the increased complexity in financial reporting standards (including IFRS-IC/IASB updates); the increased focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG); and the related impact on financial reporting; and the financial reporting challenges due to acquisitions, mergers or divestitures.

Michelle serves a broad range of clients, both multinationals and Irish indigenous in the technology, telecommunications and consumer business sectors. Michelle holds a bachelor’s in commerce and a master’s in accounting from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Claire Dowling

Claire is a partner in Consulting with Deloitte Digital. With 17 years’ experience as an experience designer and design strategist, Claire leads the Design and Experience teams at Deloitte Digital, Dublin. With a focus on customer-led digital transformations, she supports clients to develop a razor-sharp focus on their customers, generating insights and experiences that fuel market performance. A multi-award-winning expert, Claire has deep domain and industry experience that she leverages to join the dots between business, technology and design.

Claire has previously led digital transformations for clients including Kingspan, Google, Bank of Ireland, the Department of Social Protection, the Courts Service and the Revenue Commissioners. Claire currently sits on the board of directors of the National College of Art and Design, guest lectures in the UK and Ireland, and speaks at conferences both locally and internationally.

Karen Goggin

Karen is a partner in Audit & Assurance. She works primarily with large corporate, multinational, public interest entities and PCAOB clients. She has wide range of experience in external audit across a variety of industries. During her time with Deloitte, Karen has gained knowledge through providing assistance to clients in relation to audit, internal control and assurance assignments. She has extensive experience in FRS 101, FRS 102, IFRS, US GAAP and Sarbanes Oxley. She works with a range of clients, including clients in the food and beverage, educational and technology sectors.

Karen holds a first-class honours bachelor’s in commerce from University College Cork and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Séamus Kennedy

Séamus is a partner in Tax & Legal. He has more than 15 years’ experience in practice advising top global investment managers, banks and structured finance promoters. Séamus advises clients on the international tax considerations relevant to the establishment and ongoing maintenance of Irish financial services companies and investment funds, including corporate tax, treaty access, European tax reporting, FATCA/CRS and withholding taxes.

Séamus is chair of the Irish Funds Domestic Tax Working Group and sits on the Irish Funds Tax Steering Group. He has lectured with the Institute of Bankers on international tax matters for investment funds, and has been published in the Irish Tax Review.

Martin Mannion

Martin is a partner in Consulting, in the Artificial Intelligence & Data team. He has more than 14 years’ experience in advising on and managing end-to-end data and analytics engagements. His focus is on enabling clients to exploit data to deliver insight through strategy development, defining the data and technology landscape and leading delivery teams in execution. His clients include major public and private sector organisations.

Martin holds a bachelor’s in commerce from University College Dublin and MMS from Michael Smurfit School of Business.

Geraldine McCann

Geraldine is partner in Tax & Legal. She has more than 18 years of corporate and international tax experience, including significant experience managing and leading a number of large and complex corporate tax advisory assignments.

Her areas of expertise include advising corporate clients (both international and Irish-based groups) on tax planning and compliance issues across a range of industry sectors. She has significant experience advising on international tax issues, structuring inbound and outbound investments as well as advising on tax-efficient Intellectual Property structures. She also has significant tax audit expertise leading the tax audit of a FTSE 500 company.

Geraldine has strong international experience, having been seconded to the international tax team of Deloitte Canada for two years.

Jim Meegan

Jim is a partner in Audit & Assurance, in the Financial Services group. Jim brings 12 years’ experience specialising in the provision of assurance and advisory services to clients in the investment management industry. He has extensive experience in numerous areas, including risk, accounting, advisory and audit services, and provides advice to investment management funds and their service providers.

Jim holds a master’s in accounting from DCU and is a member of Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Kieran O’Neill

Kieran is a partner in Consulting, in the Enterprise Technology and Performance Portfolio, with 18 years’ experience in public sector transformation. His career has focused on leading complex, digitally enabled business transformation across public services, with a specific emphasis on policing, security, justice and sefence sectors in Ireland and the UK.

Kieran holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science & information technology and holds a number of industry qualifications and memberships.

John Perry

John is a partner in Tax & Legal and is Head of Business Process Solutions (BPS) for Deloitte Ireland LLP, a member of Deloitte’s EMEA BPS executive and a member of the Global BPS Client and Industries group. He is also a member of Deloitte’s global aviation group. With more than 20 years of experience, he has participated in the committees of numerous industry bodies, including Irish Funds and the Irish Debt Securities Association and he is a member of ISTAT.

John is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, a chartered tax adviser and has been awarded a MSc in aviation finance from University College Dublin’s Graduate Business School. He has been an assistant professor at Dublin City University and a member of the adjunct faculty at University College Dublin.

Ian Prenty

Ian is a partner in Tax & Legal, in the Global Employer Services (GES) division. He has more than 16 years’ experience in advising clients on tax issues arising in respect of globally mobile employees, domestic employment tax issues, and compensation and benefits issues. He has advised multinational and indigenous Irish companies across a wide range of industries, with a particular focus on consumer business and technology, media and telecoms.

Ian is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and an associate of the Irish Tax Institute.

Anlo Taylor

Anlo is a partner in Risk Advisory. She has more than 15 years’ experience of the financial services sector in internal auditing, controls assurance and external auditing gained through her time in industry and practice. Anlo leads out on our internal audit and controls assurance offering to the insurance and investment management sectors. She also holds the role of Head of Internal Audit (PCF-13) for a number of insurance undertakings.

Anlo is a chartered accountant (SA), an associate member of the Institute of Internal Auditors for Ireland and the UK, and holds a master’s in accounting.

Conor Walsh

Conor is a partner in Tax & Legal, and is also engaged by the Irish Tax Institute as an independent contractor. He specialises in the provision of indirect tax services to domestic and multinational organisations, delivering advice to clients on complex indirect tax matters, particularly in the areas of tax audits, tax disputes and tax litigation.

Conor represents the Irish geography of Deloitte North and South Europe in the area of indirect tax litigation and dispute resolution, and has been involved in instructing legal counsel to represent taxpayers’ interests at all levels of the Irish tax appeals system.

He is a member of the Irish Tax Institute and Chartered Institute of Taxation (UK), having completed the Chartered Tax Adviser qualification in both jurisdictions. Conor is also an associate chartered accountant and holds the Advanced Diploma in International Taxation awarded by the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the UK VAT Compliance Diploma awarded by the Association of Taxation Technicians (UK), and a certificate in customs and trade awarded by Chartered Accountants Ireland.

Ian Whitefoot

Ian is a partner in Audit & Assurance and is the Disruptive Events Leader for Deloitte’s North South Europe business. He has 18 years’ experience providing hands-on support to finance organisations, helping them to manage disruption and deliver on priorities derived from M&A or other transformation events. In particular he supports CFOs and their teams to prepare for and execute transactions. In addition, he provides support in addressing the critical integration and separation finance priorities post-deal.

Ian has experience across corporate and private equity M&A deals, private-to-public IPOs and international capital market transactions. Particular areas of capability include the preparation and audit of IFRS financial information, preparation of complex carve-out financials and finance function assessments and improvement activities.

To find out more about opportunities at Deloitte, please visit https://www2.deloitte.com/ie/en.html