Deirdre Mortell

Deirdre Mortell is a serial social entrepreneur. She is busy building the Ireland and world that she wants to live, work and thrive in. She is founding CEO of Rethink Ireland. She believes in the power of philanthropy, collaboration and the ordinary person to change the world one step at a time. Deirdre is a thought leader, and strategic communicator, with a wide and diverse network across business, public sector and civil society leaders. She loves to bring together impact leaders from all sectors to work together and collaborate. She has worked in senior roles with Oxfam, Barnardos, and ONE Foundation, and served as a Board member for Women for Election, Jigsaw, Uplift, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, Philanthropy Ireland and European Venture Philanthropy Association.

She is also a Cork woman living in Dublin, with her spirit in west Cork and her eyes on the world.

Deirdre's LinkedIn profile can be viewed here. 

Donal Daly

With over 35 years of experience as a founder, CEO, and executive chairman of various technology and consulting companies, Donal Daly am passionate about leveraging AI to help businesses tackle climate change and achieve their sustainability goals. I am currently the founder and executive chairman of Future Planet (founded 2021), the world's first AI-based sustainability transformation platform that enables companies to map and deliver their sustainability ambitions.

Donal's LinkedIn profile can be viewed here. 

Liz Shanahan

Liz Shanahan, who gives advice to CEOs to some of the world’s leading healthcare organisations, has more than 25 years’ experience in health and life science communications. Her clients have included the World Health Organisation, World Economic Forum, Pfizer, Boots and the NHS.

Liz began her career at Merck & Co before setting up her own specialist communications consultancy. She sold that business to the NYSE listed management consultancy, FTI Consulting, where she then became Global Head of Healthcare & Lifesciences for several years. She is a serial investor and entrepreneur with a long list of accolades to her name including being co-chair of the Irish International Business Network, executive chair of the Reconfiguration and Engagement Partners. Chair of Akusus Group (Waterford based) which includes companies RelateCare and Rigneydolphin. Both companies deliver value-adding consulting and outsourcing services with RelateCare specialising in the healthcare sector.

Most recently, Ms Shanahan was on the board of UDG PLC until its recent acquisition by the private equity group, CD&R.  She is a board member of two UK listed businesses, a trustee of the charitable arm of one of the UK’s leading hospitals and a board member of two privately owned companies.

Liz's LinkedIn profile can be viewed here. 

Ray Alcorn

Ray Alcorn is a Renewable Energy Business Specialist, with 20 years experience in renewables in the areas of Innovation, Research, Development, Commercialisation and management.

Ray is currently the CEO of the UCC spin-out company, Exceedence Ltd, which provides financial planning and optimisation in renewables. Their software platform, exfin, is a renewable energy financial modelling software which provides an easy like-for-like comparison across devices, projects and locations with the bottom line being financial viability LCOE, NPV, IRR etc. 

Previously Ray was the Executive Director of the Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre at University College Cork. He is also the Secretary of the Marine Renewables Industry Association of Ireland.

Ray's LinkedIn profile can be viewed here. 

Rick Livesey

Rick Livesey is Scientific Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Talisman Therapeutics. He is responsible for the scientific vision of Talisman. With twenty years of experience in neuroscience and stem cell biology, Rick's research group has pioneered methods to model human brain development and disease from pluripotent stem cells. They have successfully used this approach to recreate dementia pathogenesis in the lab, using genetic forms of disease.

Rick is a Professor of Stem Cell Biology at University College London. He was previously a Senior Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. Prior to this, he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Rick obtained his medical degree and PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Rick's LinkedIn profile can be viewed here.