Governance Ireland Conference 2025

Claire is a solicitor with Mason Hayes & Curran’s Charity and Not-for-Profit Team. Claire works with a wide range of charities and not-for profits including religious organisations, educational institutions, healthcare providers and public bodies.

Claire advises clients on a range of issues which arise during the life cycle of charities and not-for-profits, including incorporating and registering as a charity; the statutory and governance obligations of charities and their trustees under the Charities Act 2009 (as and to the extent amended by the Charities (Amendment) Act 2024), the Companies Act 2014 and the Charities Governance Code; and options in relation to restructuring and winding down. In addition to her legal expertise, Claire has personal, practical experience of charity governance, having previously held several governance and oversight related roles for Irish and international charities. Claire is also qualified as a solicitor in England & Wales.

Ciaran is Head of Governance and Consulting Services, including Arthur Cox’s Governance, Risk and Compliance Consulting team. He has over 20 years’ experience in professional and consulting services.

His areas of expertise include risk transformation, governance reviews, regulatory implementation and data governance across a wide range of industries, primarily within the financial services sector.

Ciaran works with a multi-disciplinary team to support clients in areas such as regulatory implementation, governance, risk and regulatory reporting and risk transformation.

Previously, Ciaran spent eight years in a senior leadership position in the Risk Consulting team of a professional services firm.

Gerry Hussey is a number one best selling author, speaker, executive coach, and facilitator in the field of human health performance, team development and corporate leadership.

Gerry has been at the forefront of building high performance teams and individuals in Olympic and Professional, sport and corporate organisations. His vast experience has seen him prepare and lead teams for success at Olympic Games, Heineken cups, World cups, and World and European championships.

Niall Jones is the Head of Listing for Ireland and the UK for Euronext, with over 20 years’ experience in the financial advisory and Exchange industry. He joined Euronext Dublin in 2019, having previously worked as a Director of Corporate Broking at Davy and before that with ABN AMRO and Morgan Stanley in London in their corporate and investment banking teams.

Niall manages the relationships with all companies listed on Euronext Dublin and represents the pan-European stock exchange to companies looking to list on any of Euronext’s seven markets. He leads IPOready Ireland, a strategic financing programme providing executives in high-growth companies with the required skillset for raising strategic finance and accessing the capital markets. Niall works with the domestic equity capital markets’ ecosystem to advocate for a strong funding environment at all stages of a company lifecycle.  His role broadly focuses on connecting local companies to global capital markets in order to fund and accelerate innovation and growth.

Aisling McArdle is a finance professional with over twenty five years of experience in the financial and regulatory industries. Currently, she serves as the Group Head of Primary Market Admissions, overseeing the admission to listing and trading of financial instruments on Euronext markets for Equity, Debt and Funds asset classes.

Aisling joined Euronext Dublin in 2002 and has held a variety of roles within the company.  She became Head of Admissions in January 2021, having previously held the role of Head of Regulation, Dublin & London. Prior to this, Aisling held a number of positions in Primary Markets handling a wide range of regulatory, managerial, and operational responsibilities.

Aisling is a Licentiate of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland.  She also serves as a non executive director on the Board of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority, and the Board of Euronext Securities, Copenhagen. In addition she is a member of the Risk & Compliance Committee of the Board of Euronext Dublin and is also a member of the ESMA’s Consultative Working Group on Corporate Finance.

Jon manages the governance and compliance function at The Wheel, Ireland’s national association of charities, community organisations and social enterprises. He is responsible for ensuring the organisation’s governance functions effectively and fulfils statutory requirements while striving for best practice. He also supports members of The Wheel in their own governance journeys, working to ensure an effective and transparent nonprofit sector.

Lorraine is a Managing Director in the Sustainable Futures team, and ESG Reporting Lead for KPMG Ireland. She brings over 15 years global experience in the provision of sustainability advisory and assurance services to clients across both the public and private sector. She has supported over 100+ clients in addressing sustainability challenges across all sectors. Most recently, she has been working with clients on navigating the complexities of ESG regulations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Susanne is a Corporate partner at Matheson LLP and leads the firms Public Company Advisory & Corporate Governance Group. 

Susanne has particular expertise in corporate governance and compliance matters and in securities regulation. Susanne advises boards and executive teams of listed companies, state bodies and large domestic companies on ongoing governance and compliance as well as in the management of crisis or reputational matters.

As a member of Matheson’s ESG Advisory Group, Susanne leads the firms ESG advisory mandates on corporate sustainability reporting and sustainability due diligence.

Susanne lectures on Corporate Governance and ESG topics at the Law Society of Ireland and Ireland's Institute of Directors Chartered Director Programme.

Susanne was winner of Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year at the IFLR EMEA Women in Business Law Awards 2024 and nominated as ESG Leader of the Year at Ireland's Climate Change Leadership Awards. 

Tim Nelson is co-founder and CEO of Hope for Justice and Slave-Free Alliance. Hope for Justice is an international charity working to bring freedom from human trafficking and modern slavery with an effective and proven multi-disciplinary model. Its programmes and training initiatives in the UK, USA, Ethiopia and Uganda reach approximately 150,000 adults and children each year. Its anti-trafficking initiatives are based around community engagement and outreach; investigation and victim identification; survivor support and advocacy; community prevention and anti-trafficking education; residential and non-residential aftercare and transitional care; family reintegration; training; campaigning; and policy work.

Tim also created and launched Slave-Free Alliance, which partners with more than 100 businesses (including 15 current or recent FTSE 100 companies) to protect their supply chains against modern slavery and labour exploitation, with all profits reinvested into Hope for Justice. Tim has a background in Banking, Finance and Technology.