Speakers
Lord David Puttnam
British film producer and Educator
Lord David Puttnam is a British film-maker, educator and member of the British House of Lords. He is best known in the film world for working on such pictures as Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express and Chariots of Fire. He has previously served as the Chancellor of the University of Sunderland and currently serves as Chancellor of the Open University. Lord Puttnam is also Ireland’s Digital Champion.
Patricia O’Brien
Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel
Patricia O’Brien is an Irish barrister who served as United Nations Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs from 2008-2013. She is a world-renowned expert on legal issues pertaining to foreign policy, having gained extensive experience in the area serving as Legal Advisor to the Office of the Irish Attorney General, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish Permanent Mission to the European Union. She is currently the Irish Ambassador to the United Nations and other International Organisations at Geneva.
Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Space Scientist & Founder of Science Innovation Ltd.
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock studied at Imperial College London where she obtained her degree in Physics and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Since then she has spent her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation in both the industrial and academic environments. Until recently Maggie worked at Astrium Ltd. where she led the optical instrumentation group. Here she managed a range of projects, making satellite sub-systems designed to monitor variables in the Earth’s atmosphere. Maggie has since set up her own company, Science Innovation Ltd., through which she conducts “Tours of the Universe” and other public engagement activities, showing school children and adults the wonders of space. To date, she has given these talks to 150,000 people across the globe.
Kyle Abraham
2013 MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham is a 2012 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award recipient and 2012 USA Ford Fellow. In 2010, he received a prestigious Bessie Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance for his work in The Radio Show and a 2010 Princess Grace Award for Choreography. In 2009 he was selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 To Watch. OUT Magazine labelled Abraham as the “best and brightest creative talent to emerge in New York City in the age of Obama”.
Ariane Koek
Ariane Koek is a renowned cultural producer and strategist. She is currently head of International Arts Development at CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, located outside Geneva. She created and implemented the laboratory’s first arts policy. She has previously worked as a producer and director for BBC Radio and TV, as well as the CEO of the Arvon Foundation for Creative Writing.
Ingrid Vanderveldt
Ingrid Vanderveldt is the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell, where she created and manages Dell’s $100 million credit fund. Ms Vanderveldt is also a member of the UN Global Entrepreneurship Council and is the leading person behind “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020.”
Prof Joseph Roche
Prof Joseph Roche is an astrophysicist at Trinity College Dublin. He has worked at NASA and used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe symbiotic stars. While at Trinity’s School of Physics he helped bring the European Space Expo to Dublin and has also served as Education and Learning Manager for Science Gallery Dublin. He has just taken up a lectureship in Trinity’s School of Education and his research now includes citizen science and STEM education. He is a candidate for the Mars One mission that aims to establish the first human settlement on Mars in 2024
Helen Shenton
As the former Executive Director of Harvard Library in the US and the current Librarian and Archivist at Trinity College Dublin, Helen Shenton is passionate about the power of collections and the role of information in people’s lives in this new digital landscape.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
1976 Nobel Peace Laureate
Mairead was awarded the l976 Nobel Peace Prize for her extraordinary actions to end the deep ethnic/political conflict in her native Northern Ireland. She co-founded & currently serves as Hon. President of the Peace People, a movement committed to building a nonviolent society in Northern Ireland. The author of ‘The Vision of Peace: Faith & Hope in Northern Ireland’, Patron of the Methodist Theological College & Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, Mairead has worked extensively in the Middle East believing we can all do something to bring about peace & justice.
Dr Ruth Freeman
Dr Freeman is Director of Programmes, Enterprise and International Affairs at Science Foundation Ireland. She holds a PhD in population genetics in hybrid zones from TCD & ILRI, Nairobi, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust. During her time there as a student, she was awarded a Trinity scholarship, the Eli Lilly Chemistry Prize and the Roberts Prize for Biology. She was a founding member of the Trinity Research Staff Association, the first Irish association representing contract researchers.
John Egan
John Egan is an economist, anthropologist, and “Futurebank” expert. He is the CEO of Archipelago and sits on UCD Innovation Academy board of studies. He has worked in finance in the US and Europe and has previously started and sold businesses in the engineering sector. He is the Dublin ambassador of Sandbox, the Irish ambassador to ICUE and the Dublin curator of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers.
Erin Fornoff
Venture Manager at Ashoka Ireland
Erin has worked at Ashoka in various capacities and locations, currently managing Venture among other responsibilities at Ashoka Ireland/Scandinavia. She served as a Field Organiser for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign in Georgia and North Carolina, founded a community teaching garden, won a social entrepreneurship fellowship, and runs a rooftop garden at a homeless shelter in Dublin.
Jane Murphy
Jane manages Google’s University Programs team in EMEA, who deliver innovative and creative student programs to potential future Googlers while developing relationships with universities and diversity organisations throughout the region. Jane joined Google in 2011 having worked previously in business development for one of Ireland’s professional accountancy bodies.
Dan Hayden
Dan Hayden is an entrepreneurial specialist at the UCD Innovation Academy. He is currently completing a PhD in European Law and Governance at University College Dublin and is a Government of Ireland Scholar. His field of research is regulation, specialising in competition and advertising. He was a presidential rapporteur during the term of President Mary McAleese and continues to act as a consultant to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland.
Enda Kenny
An Taoiseach
Enda Kenny was first elected to the Irish Parliament (Dáil Éireann) in 1975, where he has held a seat since. As such, he is the longest continuously serving TD in the current Dáil and therefore enjoys the informal title of ‘Father of the Dáil’. In 2011 Kenny led the Fine Gael party to election success, in coalition with Labour, and became Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister).
Lucy Masterson
Lucy Masterson is Head of Development in Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. In fact, she is a previous Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awardee as head of Hireland, the national movement. Lucy lectures on social and not-for-profit marketing and is an in-house entrepreneur with the UCD Innovation Academy. She has a track record of engaging communities around a big idea, building support and getting people on board.
Rahaf Harfoush
Digital Strategist & Co-Founder of Red Thread
Rahaf is a Global Ambassador for Sandbox, a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, and a member of the Summit Series Network. She writes about technology and innovation at The Mark News, Techonomy and The Next Web. Rahaf is a Digital Foresight Strategist and Author who has a deep passion for exploring how technology is affecting the way we communicate, work and play. She is the co-founder of Red Thread, a consulting agency that provides clients with out-of-the-box thinking to tackle strategic challenges.
Paul Adams
Paul is the Vice President of Product and Design at Intercom. He previously worked as Global Head of Brand Design for Facebook. Paul is internationally recognised as one of leading thinkers in social design and technology. His work on social networks and brand design has been widely published and cited.
Dr Rachel Armstrong
Dr Armstrong is an Applied Scientist and Sustainability Innovator, who creates new materials that possess some of the properties of living systems. She is a huge advocate of inter-disciplinary cooperation – both within the sciences, but also across the arts and humanities. Dr Armstrong is a TED Fellow.
