Barry O'Sullivan
Bio
Professor Barry O’Sullivan, FAAAI, FAAIA, FEurAI, FIAE, FICS, MRIA is a full professor at the School of Computer Science & IT at University College Cork (Ireland) and a visiting professor at Northwestern (Illinois, USA). He works on artificial intelligence, constraint programming, operations research, AI/data ethics, and public policy. He contributes to several global Track II diplomacy efforts related to geopolitical aspects of AI.
He is founding director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at UCC and the SFI Centre for Research Training in AI. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of ACM AI Letters. He served as Vice Chair of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence which formulated the EU’s ethical approach to AI. He currently represents the European Union at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence.
He conducts his diplomacy work in collaboration with INHR (Geneva, Brussels, Washington DC), the Center for New American Security (Washington DC), and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. His awards include Science Foundation Ireland Researcher of the Year (2016), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (2017), IPEC-EATCS Nerode Prize (2020), Science Foundation Ireland Best International Engagement Award (2021), and the European AI Association’s Distinguished Service Award (2023). Professor O'Sullivan has been involved in winning and overseeing over €750m in R&D funding.
Kristina Mariager-Anderson
Keynote Overview
In a context of increasing complexity and growing reliance on AI, what remains distinctly human about career guidance?
This keynote explores professional judgement, ethical agency, and relational intelligence, arguing that AI exposes rather than replaces the social and ethical core of guidance practice.
Bio
Kristina Mariager-Anderson is Associate Professor in Career Guidance at the Danish School of Education (DPU), Aarhus University, and Professor II at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
Kristina heads the research unit for professional guidance at DPU and leads Working Group 3 on Critical Practice in Career Guidance within the European COST Action ‘Critical Perspectives on Career and Career Guidance’ (2024–2028). Her research focuses on career guidance in times of uncertainty, with particular attention to youth transitions, educational participation, and the role of professional judgement in institutional contexts.
She works from a critical perspective, examining how policy frameworks shape practice and possibilities for action. Kristina is especially interested in how guidance professionals can strengthen ethical agency and relational practices to support meaningful career development in a VUCA world.
Naomi Oosman-Watts
Keynote Overview
If we were designing careers services from scratch today, would we build what we have now?
This session takes a critical look at legacy delivery models and explores how digital transformation offers an opportunity to fundamentally rethink career development learning
Bio
Naomi Oosman-Watts is Chief Education Partnership Officer at Group GTI. Naomi leads global education partnerships and public-sector engagement across the company’s employability and early-career technology portfolio. Her role focuses on scaling long-term institutional partnerships, aligning product strategy to national and international skills agendas, and supporting institutions across UK and international higher-education markets.
Naomi brings more than 17 years of senior leadership experience across higher education, public-sector organisations and national sector bodies. Prior to joining Group GTI in August 2025, she held leadership roles at Newcastle University, including Director of Student Success and Co-Director of Lifelong Learning and Apprenticeships, where she led multi-million-pound digital and capital transformation programmes.
She previously served as Director of Data & Insight at the Graduate Futures Institute (previously AGCAS), working closely with the Office for Students, Department for Education, HESA, ONS and JISC to shape national graduate outcomes and labour-market datasets. This background gives her deep expertise in data-led decision-making and regulatory environments.
Kevin Marshall
Keynote Overview
The workforce is transforming faster than our systems can keep pace.
Automation, AI, and the green transition are rewriting job requirements in real time. The old model- learn once, work for decades- no longer holds. Skill half-lives are shrinking. Technical competencies that once lasted a career now depreciate in under a decade. Meanwhile, foundational capabilities like critical thinking and adaptability have become more valuable than ever. We need to treat skills as renewable assets, not static credentials.
Bio
Dr Kevin Marshall has extensive cross-sectoral, education, and industry experience working for Microsoft Ireland for the last 20 years, with the last 10 years as the Head of Future Skilling.
He has been appointed as Adjunct Professor in the Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute in Maynooth University. He has a BA (Hons) in Psychology from University College in Dublin, an MSc in Occupational Psychology from University of Hull and a Ph.D. in Educational Measurements and Research, from Boston College.
His experience as the Head of Future Skilling in a multinational corporation, combined with a Ph.D. in education, position him as an expert in both theoretical and practical aspects of skills development. He has been involved in many projects focusing on the development and application of technologies, person-centred systems and evidence-based policies in order to empower people throughout their life course.
