ICBE Annual Conference Speakers 2025
Damian Hughes - Liquid Thinker
Damian Hughes is a bestselling author who combines his practical and academic background within sport, organisational development and change psychology, to help organisations and
teams to create a high performing culture.
He is the author of eight best-selling business books, including Liquid Thinking, Liquid Leadership, How to Change Absolutely Anything, How to Think Like Sir Alex Ferguson and The Five STEPS to a Winning Mindset.
His latest books, High Performance: Lessons from the Best on Becoming Your Best and How to Change Your Life, have both been number one Sunday Times best sellers. His work has been translated into twelve languages.
He has also been nominated for the 2007 William Hill Sports book of the year award for Peerless, his biography of boxing great Sugar Ray Robinson. He co-authored a critically acclaimed biography of boxing legend, Thomas Hearns and in 2013, his book, Marvelous Marvin Hagler became the UK’s best-selling sports biography.
He was appointed as a visiting Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Change for Manchester Metropolitan University in September 2010.
He is the co-host of The High Performance Podcast, an acclaimed series of interviews with elite performers from business, sport and the arts, exploring the psychology behind sustained high performance. The podcast has over 250 million downloads.
He has served as a member of the coaching team for England Rugby League, England Roses, Scotland Rugby Union and a wide range of international and national sporting teams.
He is also the founder of The School Coat Charity, a charity which addresses the challenges of children living in poverty, by providing coats for those most in need.
Micheál Geraghty - Vice President of Operations EMEA & Site Lead Coca - Cola Ballina
He has more than 30-year experience across engineering and manufacturing in industries ranging from semiconductor test to the non-alcohol beverage industries. Micheál has worked in Ireland, the US, Singapore and Africa.
Micheál is currently General manager of Coca-Cola Ballina the first Beverage company globally to attain accreditation from the World Economic Forum for its digital transformation journey. Coca-Cola Ballina is a company lighthouse where many of the transformation use cases are first tested prior to rollout across the company network.
Brian Holliday is Managing Director for Siemens Digital Industries and Chairman of Siemens Digital Industries Software, a technology company serving the UK and Ireland’s manufacturing and industrial-infrastructure sectors.
He is co-chair of the UK Government Made Smarter Commission and Industry/AI Innovation Accelerator. He is the incoming chair of Make UK, The Manufacturers’ Organisation’s Strategic Policy Group, having been a board member since 2015. He has formerly been a board member of the UK High Value Manufacturing Catapult, Chair of the CBI’s Manufacturing Council and member of the Royal Society’s Science Industry and Translation Committee.
He is a keen advocate for engineering, innovation, skills and advanced technology deployment, contributing regularly to media, policy forums and peer networks.
A 2022 Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Brian started his career as an apprentice with Texas Instruments and has degrees from Cardiff and Manchester University in addition to an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University.
Mary Ann Fleming - President - PennEngineering
Mary Ann is the current President of PEM® Europe, which involves the management of the PEM® business in Europe across the 27 EU countries as well as the global Haeger® Machine group, with facilities in Oakdale California, Oldenzaal Holland, and Galway.
In addition, Mary Ann sits on PennEngineering®’s global executive leadership team.
Laurent Blanchet - Director of Business Excellence - EssilorLuxottica
Title now includes - Commercial and Operational Excellence
Laurent Blanchet is an accomplished expert in business excellence with over two decades of experience across multiple B2B sectors. A certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean Black Belt, he has led numerous process improvement initiatives globally. Over the past seven years, Laurent has focused on leveraging AI technologies, including advanced analytics models and robotic process automation, to transform business processes and drive commercial effectiveness and operational efficiency. His expertise lies in combining data-driven strategies with practical process improvements, making him a key player in the digital transformation space.
Eoin O'Reilly - Head of AI & Data - EY Ireland
Eoin O’Reilly is the Head of AI and Data at EY Ireland. In his role, Eoin helps organisations design and deliver data-driven strategies to help grow revenues, optimise cost and manage risk. Eoin has deep experience delivering analytics and AI projects including reporting and visualisation, predictive analytics, simulation modelling, machine learning and text/image processing. Eoin has a BA in Management Science and Information Systems from Trinity College Dublin, an MSc in Security and Forensic Computing from Dublin City University and is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Kieran Noonan
Chair and Director of the ICBE
Executive Board Member of the Shingo Institute
Kieran is an accomplished leader in the global Life Science and MedTech industries, with many years of experience in leading Site Operations and Business Excellence for corporations, as well as Board Directorships, (NED’s) . Kieran’s also has a proven track record in strategy development, accelerating profitable growth, and enabling digital transformations.
He has held senior positions at renowned companies including Site Director of Operations and Global Lens Enterprise Excellence for Bausch + Lomb, one of the world’s largest suppliers of contact lenses and eye-care products.
Also, Previously;
- Senior Global Leader with Boston Scientific Corporation for Business Excellence and Operations.
- Senior Director of Business Excellence at Merit Medical.
- COO for Atlantic Aviation the largest independent MRO in Europe.
Anton Savage - Compére
MC, Chair, Communications Trainer, Broadcaster and Journalist.
Director of the Communications Clinic.
Board Member ICBE.
Anton is a broadcaster, journalist and communications advisor. He has presented numerous Current Affairs and Magazine TV and Radio Programmes, including The Sunday Business Show, Ireland AM, The Tonight Show, The Last Word and Savage Sunday. He currently presents the PPI Gold-Medal winning Anton Savage Show, a lively, current affairs show, on Newstalk. He also writes a column for The Business Post.
Anton is a regular MC at AGM’s, award ceremonies and conferences throughout Ireland and has facilitated a number of ICBE's conferences. Conference participants and speakers alike enjoy his easy presenting style and wonderful ability to inform and communicate important conference messages to an audience.
Aisling Ryan
Global Strategist, Sustainability and Public Affairs Consultant
An award-winning global strategist, sustainability and public affairs consultant, Aisling has almost 30 years’ experience in sustainability strategy, stakeholder management and communications for international blue-chip clients including GSK, Merck MSD, Nestlé, P&G, Unilever, OGCI and Octopus Energy.
As a trusted board and executive adviser, she helps to future-proof organisations by creating and embedding innovative strategies, differentiated positioning and effective communications. Specialising in complex stakeholder management, she facilitates the creation of shared sustainability agendas and brokers industry-leading public-private partnerships.
She was previously Global Managing Partner of The Sustainability Practice at Ogilvy Consulting, where she advised Nestlé on its global sustainability strategy, developed United Nations’ ACT NOW climate action campaign, and pioneered The People’s Seat for UNFCCC with Sir David Attenborough at COP24. She led WPP’s partnership with United Nations and created #JoinTheHerd, a mass global lobby movement to stop the ivory trade.
She is an established speaker at Davos, UNGA, COP and Cannes. Awards include UN SDG Impact Award, Gold Cannes Lions, D&AD, Marketing Society Grand Prix, Campaign Big Grand Prix and WARC Effectiveness. She was recognised in ‘HERoes INvolve Women Role Model Awards’ Global Top 100 List of Senior Executives for DE&I in 2019 and 2021.
She is a member of the EPA’s Advisory Committee and non-executive director at CSL in Zambia. She served on BITC’s Place Leadership Taskforce in the UK. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and has a certificate in Business Sustainability Management from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership.
Dr. Elena Montiel-Ponsoda
Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics to Science and Technology
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain)
Dr. Elena Montiel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics to Science and Technology at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). She is also a member of the Ontology Engineering Group, a renowned research group at the same institution. Her research interests lie at the intersection of translation, terminology and knowledge representation. She has participated in numerous international research projects and has coordinated the Lynx Innovation Action (2017-2021), funded by the European Commission, on Knowledge Graphs and Natural Language Processing (NLP) services for the legal domain. Currently, she is coordinating the Spanish national project INESData on Data Spaces. She is involved in the TeresIA project, a project on linked terminologies and AI services to create, manage and validate terminologies, and is participating in the AI4LABOUR project, analysing the impact of AI in the labour market. She has authored the monograph Multilingualism in Ontologies: Building Patterns and Representation Models and has published numerous articles in prestigious journals such as Language Resources and Evaluation, Journal of Web Semantics, Natural Language Engineering or Terminology.
Luis Gasco
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Avature
Luis Gasco is a Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Avature, where he leverages cutting-edge language technologies and artificial intelligence to optimize recruitment processes. Previously, he was a Research Engineer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. His research interests lie at the intersection of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs), with applications in multiple scenarios, including human resources, healthcare, and environmental studies.
Luis holds a PhD from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the EIT Digital Doctoral School, where he received specialized training in innovation management and technology transfer. His doctoral work earned the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award, along with several distinctions recognizing his contributions as a young researcher. Throughout his career, Luis has collaborated with prestigious institutions, including Nokia Bell Labs in Cambridge (UK) and Telecom Paris (France), where he contributed to advancing innovative AI research. He has also been actively involved in large-scale research projects, including the Horizon Europe project DataTools4Heart, AI4HF, BiomatDB, and PlanTL, driving the development and application of NLP technologies to solve real-world challenges.
James Atherton
Sustainability and Utility Director
WuXi Biologic
James is an accomplished Engineering Leader with extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biologics industries. His expertise includes GMP-compliant utilities, Energy Management, Change Management, Audits, Continuous Improvement, and Sterile Manufacturing. He is committed to advancing sustainability within organisations by implementing innovative engineering designs that enhance operational efficiency and promote environmental stewardship. With a proven track record of delivering excellence in program and project management, he combines technical expertise with strategic leadership.
Mairéad Divilly
Consultant
Forvis Mazars - Ireland
Mairead was an Audit and Assurance Partner of Forvis Mazars for 20 years and was a member of the Forvis Mazars executive leadership team. She also established and was lead partner of the Outsourcing , Financial Reporting and Compliance Services Division specialising in supporting foreign corporates establishing their operations in both Ireland and other overseas jurisdictions. She has significant experience supporting the multinational and large corporate sector as well as small and emerging businesses, not for profit organisations and public sector bodies.
A fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland , her professional experience spans audit and assurance , business advisory, compliance, reporting and financial management services, across a wide range of industries and sectors including technology, retail, distribution, professional services, public sector and not for profit.
Mairead is a non-executive director of Skillnet Ireland, the national talent development agency of Ireland. She is Chair of both the Audit and Risk Committee and the Finance and General-Purpose Committee. She is also Vice Chair of The Swedish Chamber of Commerce Ireland. Mairead won the Women in Finance Award 2020 and was also the recipient of a Special Contribution Award from Skillnet Ireland in 2019.
Laura Kennedy
Head of Sustainability (Retail)
Musgrave
Laura is the newly appointed Head of Sustainability for the Musgrave Retail Division, a newly created role to support the delivery of the company’s sustainability strategy ‘Growing Sustainably Everyday’.
With a career spanning almost twenty years with the company, Laura has gained extensive insight, knowledge, and experience in her role as a Trading Manager across a range of commodity categories, and more recently as a Category Manager for Dairy, Frozen and Cooked Meats, managing a breadth of topics including strategy, sales, profitability, as well as supporting sustainability initiatives.
Alongside this, Laura has spent a number of years working on a range of strategic project roles including sustainability, food and health across the SuperValu and Centra brands.
