Keynote Speakers
Ger Deering – Ombudsman and Information Commissioner
Ger Deering was appointed Ombudsman and Information Commissioner for Ireland by President Michael D. Higgins in January 2022. Ger has established and led a number of public bodies and has considerable experience in consumer and employment rights. He was appointed Financial Services Ombudsman in 2015 and Pensions Ombudsman in 2016. He became the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman when both offices were merged in 2018. He was the founding Director of the National Employment Rights Authority (NERA) where he promoted compliance with employment rights and secured redress for employees who were denied their minimum statutory entitlements. Ger played a key role in leading the Workplace Relations Reform Programme which created a two-tier user-oriented national workplace relations service that replaced the former five bodies. He has extensive experience working across local government, community development, the civil service and the private sector.
Emma Reilly – International Human Rights Lawyer
Emma Reilly is an international human rights lawyer. She joined the UN Human Rights Office in 2012 after a decade of working with NGOs around the world. Beginning in 2013, she blew the whistle on a UN policy of secretly telling the Chinese government in advance which human rights activists planned to speak at the UN or engage with its human rights mechanisms. The policy led to severe consequences, including enforced disappearance and torture of family members of those whose names were handed over. The UN never held anyone to account for the policy, but in 2021, Emma was fired explicitly and uniquely for blowing the whistle externally when her internal reports failed.
Panellists
Andrew Harrison – Head of Internal Audit, Trócaire
Andrew has been Trócaire’s Head of Internal Audit since 2019. As part of his role, Andrew has helped develop Trócaire’s approach to whistleblowing through policy development, communication and training. Prior to joining Trócaire, Andrew was Head of Internal Audit for a large local authority in Northern Ireland, a role which also included responsibility for assisting the organisation in developing its whistleblowing policy, channels for reporting concerns at work and undertaking and managing related investigations.
Facilitator: Andrew Breakwell – Commercial Director UK/I/NL, EQS
Andrew has been supporting compliance, ethics and risk professionals internationally for over 25 years, with a particular focus on integrated risk management and compliance software solutions and associated consulting and advisory services. Prior to this, he was involved in the corporate training and educational publishing sectors.
Andy Watson – Global Head of Anti-Corruption, Oxfam
Andrew is the Global Head of Anti-Corruption for Oxfam GB where he leads a team who work to prevent and investigate incidents of corruption impacting Oxfam’s humanitarian and development work. Previously, he led Transparency International’s work to tackle corruption in the defence industry, defence ministries and the global arms trade. He has advocated for and advised on anti-corruption in the public, private and third sectors and has a particular interest in whistleblowing having advised a number of organisations on best practice. Andrew co-authored ‘Out of the Shadows – promoting Openness and Accountability in the Global Defence Industry’ and at Transparency International, led the team which designed the methodology for the 2019 Defence Companies Anti-Corruption Index – a best practice guide to anti-corruption in the defence sector.
Anna Waterhouse – Deutsche Bank Whistleblower
Anna is the former Head of Legal & Compliance for the Middle East and North Africa region of Deutsche Bank. She worked in a variety of roles in financial services and had a successful career, spanning over 20 years. In 2012, Anna blew the whistle on suspected money laundering to the United Arab Emirate authorities. However, instead of investigating her suspicions, the authorities started investigating Anna, ultimately ending her career in finance. Anna now works as a consultant.
Anna Myers, Executive Director, Whistleblowing International Network
Anna Myers is the founding Executive Director of the Whistleblowing International Network (WIN), a network to strengthen civil society organisations that defend and support whistleblowers around the world. Anna has worked in the field of whistleblowing law and practice for over 20 years. Originally from Canada, and a qualified UK lawyer, Anna was Deputy Director of Public Concern at Work (now called Protect) in London and worked for the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) in Strasbourg. She advised the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Cooperation (CDCJ) on the 2014 CM Recommendation on the protection of whistleblowers and drafted the UNODC Resource Guide on good practices in the protection of reporting persons. Under her leadership, WIN helped secure an EU Directive to protect whistleblowers and Anna is on the Steering Committee for the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE).
Damien Cahill – Section Manager, Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner
Damien Cahill has worked as an Assistant Principal Officer in the OPDC since the start of 2022. Prior to this he was the head of the Support Unit for the Office of the Information Commissioner and the Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information. He is currently playing a key role in setting up the new Office and is currently involved with writing the content for the new website. His main role, after the commencement date, will be to ensure any reports of wrongdoing received by the office will be transmitted to the most appropriate organisation.
Daniel Hager – Country Manager Ireland, Whistleblower Software
Daniel Has extensive experience as a speaker on digital whistleblowing solutions and has deep knowledge of how to manage and implement the correct reporting channels. Currently, he is taking the position as Country manager in Ireland for Whistleblower Software.
David Morgan – Consultant Psychotherapist
David Morgan worked as a consultant psychotherapist in the NHS and in private practice as a Psychoanalyst for 30 years. He is now in private practice. He is chair of the Political Minds Seminars at the London Institute of Psychoanalysis. His recent research has focused on the psychological implications for whistleblowers and the conditions, socially, politically and psychologically under which a person may “turn a blind eye” or take on the responsibility of whistleblowing. He became a consultant to whistleblower organisation at the behest of Prof Gavin Macfadyen and has now seen over 300 people with issues arising from Whistleblowing initiatives and runs a group to support 30 whistleblowers. He has recently become a consultant for Transparency International Ireland a whistleblower organisation offering support and therapeutic involvement.
Dr. Eddie Molloy – Independent Management Consultant
Dr. Eddie Molloy, is an independent management consultant, operating in all sectors in Ireland and abroad. He was an outside member of the Mullarkey Group that updated the system of accountability for accounting officers and secretaries general in 2002 and since then he has contributed to public discourse on public service accountability. He has carried out assignments in most government departments and state agencies and was member of The Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. He is a member of the board of the Public Appointments Service.
Elizabeth Ryan, – Partner, Mason Hayes Curran
Liz is a partner in the employment law and benefits team with a broad range of experience from providing non-contentious employment law advice to managing contentious employment law litigation before the Workplace Relations Commission (‘WRC’) and the civil courts. Liz has a particular interest in the law as it applies to protected disclosures and has frequently written and spoken about this topic.
Facilitator: Gráinne Madden – Founder and Senior Consultant, GMJ Associates
Gráinne is the founder and senior consultant of GMJ Associates, which provides guidance to Irish businesses on responsible business practice. Gráinne’s work includes development of corporate responsibility strategy, non-financial reporting and report assurance, development and implementation of ethical compliance programmes and protected disclosure policies. Gráinne also lectures on Corporate Responsibility to MBA students in Trinity College Dublin and Griffith College Dublin.
Helene Donnelly OBE – Ambassador for Cultural Change
Helené was appointed in 2013 to act as NHS Ambassador for Culture Change and developed and embed a role to support staff to raise concerns and ensure that the voice of the frontline is heard clearly at a senior level within organisations. As Ambassador for Cultural Change, Helené had a clear remit from Trust Board’s to act freely and with complete autonomy from the management team as an additional route for issues of concern to be raised at the highest level. Helené continues to advise the government and relevant stakeholders on the importance of embedding and sustaining positive cultures, where staff are genuinely encouraged and enabled to speak up and voice concerns to protect staff and patients.
John Devitt – Chief Executive, TI Ireland
John is an ethics and communications specialist by training. He holds a first-class Masters degree in Ethics from Dublin City University, is a graduate of European Studies at the University of Limerick and the Public Relations Institute of Ireland. John founded TI Ireland in 2004 and has led TI Ireland’s whistleblowing research and support programme since 2009. He is author or researcher on numerous reports and guidance on the topic of whistleblower protection, ethics and anti-corruption standards, and has advised the Irish Government, United Nations, Council of Europe, and European Commission amongst others on whistleblowing legislation and procedures.
John Garred – Regional Compliance Officer, Siemens
John is a Chartered Accountant with over 35 years business experience in various industries including retail, airlines and engineering. He joined Siemens in 2004 and has been working in various compliance roles since 2008. Aside from his responsibilities in the UK he has overseen compliance activities in Scandinavia, Netherlands, Poland and Nigeria. His remit includes Anti-Corruption, Anti-Trust, Data Privacy and Export Control. He is also a senior member of a small global team that advises on the use of third party intermediaries across the Siemens Group.
Lisa Randles – Consultant Business Ethics, GoodCorporation
Lisa Randles is a senior consultant at GoodCorporation. She leads on client work related to speak up, codes of conduct, ethical culture, and training/eLearning. Lisa has supported several clients with evaluating and redesigning speak-up/whistleblowing systems, and benchmarking and drafting employee and supplier codes of conduct, often to align expectations with sustainability/ESG priorities. She has redesigned compliance eLearning & training programmes and developed action plans to embed compliance practices in organisations, including training, leadership engagement, and communications. She recently led a major review of ethics in UK engineering on behalf of the Royal Academy of Engineering. Lisa has a background firmly rooted in corporate communications, having spent two decades leading public relations, policy communications, change and internal communications programmes for organisations across a range of sectors including telecommunications, tobacco and software, in the US and in Europe.
Professor Kate Kenny – Professor of Business and Society, University of Galway
Kate Kenny is full Professor of Business and Society at NUI Galway. She has held research fellowships at the Edmond J. Safra Lab at Harvard University and Cambridge’s Judge Business School and researched whistleblowing in organisations since 2010. Along with numerous articles in peer review journals on this topic, she has published two books on whistleblowing: Whistleblowing: Toward a new theory (Harvard University Press, 2019) and The Whistleblowing Guide (Wiley Business, 2019, with Wim Vandekerckhove and Marianna Fotaki). She has written and contributed to articles in the Financial Times, the Irish Times, the Guardian and contributed to programmes on Ireland’s RTÉ (radio and television) and TG4. Her work has been cited in the UK House of Commons, and in EU policy documents.
Facilitator: Dr Lauren Kierans – BL, Assistant Professor of Law, Maynooth University
Dr Lauren Kierans lectures in Whistleblowing Law at undergraduate level and as a Professional Certificate at Maynooth University. She is also a qualified barrister specialising in Whistleblowing Law. Lauren holds a PhD on Protected Disclosures and has published articles, book chapters and national reports on whistleblowing law. She co-authored ‘Protected Disclosures Act 2014 – Annotated Legislation’ with Anthony Kerr (published by Round Hall). Lauren was awarded the governmental project for the drafting of the protected disclosures procedures guidance for public bodies on behalf of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
Máille Brady Bates – Solicitor Specialising in Employment Law
Máille Brady Bates is a solicitor and employment law specialist. Having focused her studies on human rights and comparative legal systems as an undergrad at University College London and graduate at Trinity College Dublin, Máille gained experience working with a wide range of organisations in this field: from the International Red Cross France, the Public Interest Alliance, the Free Legal Advice Centres, and Human Rights Defenders. Máille went on to train and qualify as an employment law solicitor with Arthur Cox LLP and practised as a Senior Associate on the Employment Law team for a number of years. Máille is currently Lead Employment Counsel across Europe, the Middle East and Asia with Meta. She recently co-authored a discussion paper on Workplace Sexual Harassment with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC).
Marie Terracol – Whistleblower Protection Lead, Transparency International
Marie Terracol is the Whistleblower protection Lead at Transparency International, a global movement working in over 100 countries to end the injustice of corruption. She leads Transparency International’s policy work on whistleblowing and coordinate the movement’ advocacy efforts to improve the protection of whistleblowers across the world, so that they can safely speak up about corruption and other wrongdoing. Marie participated in the working group that developed the ISO 37002:2021 Whistleblowing management systems — Guidelines and is the author of Transparency International Internal Whistleblowing Systems – Best Practice Principles for Public and Private Organisations (2022). She authored several other Transparency International publications on whistleblowing, including A Best Practice Guide for Whistleblowing Legislation (2018), Building on the EU Directive for Whistleblower Protection – Analysis and Recommendations (2019).
Mark Toland – Chief Inspector, Garda Síochána Inspectorate
Mark Toland was appointed Chief Inspector of the Garda Inspectorate in November 2017. Mark previously served as a Commissioner at the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. As senior police officer, he worked in the Metropolitan Police Service prior to relocating to Ireland with his family in 2010. In 2022, Mark also performed the role of Chief Inspector of Irish Prisons from February to August.
Mary Inman – Partner, Constantine Canon
Mary Inman is a partner in Constantine Cannon’s London Office. After 20+ years representing whistleblowers in the U.S., she moved to London in July 2017 to launch the firm’s international whistleblower practice. She specialises in representing whistleblowers from the U.K., Europe and worldwide under the various American whistleblower reward programs. A recognised expert and frequent author, Mary has particular expertise in financial and accounting frauds and bribery of foreign government officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as well as representing international whistleblowers under the North American whistleblower programs.
Facilitator: Noel Ford – Principal with Governance Ireland and Independent Non-Executive Director
Mr. Ford is a vastly experienced independent director and chairman with over 30 years’ experience in the international investment funds industry across multiple jurisdictions. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer for Skandia Global Funds PLC and Chairman of Skandia Life Ireland Ltd. Mr. Ford is also a principal partner with Governance Ireland, a leading governance and compliance consultancy firm in Ireland. Mr. Ford is a certified independent director through the Institute of Banking/University College Dublin and is a certified management consultant with the Institute of Management Consultants. Mr. Ford was founder member, secretary and council member of the Irish Funds Directors Association, the representative body for independent directors within the Irish funds industry.
Paul Hulshof – Director Integrity and Compliance, KPMG
At KPMG the Netherlands, Paul is responsible for the team of Forensic Integrity and Compliance Services, which consists of 30 professionals. His team supports organizations in the financial, corporate and public sector with their compliance and ethics agenda. Paul is an expert in designing and implementing Integrity, compliance and ethics programs for international companies in a wide range of industries. As part of these programs, he assists in assessing the risk and compliance culture, creating effective speak-up systems, renewing codes of conduct, setting up sound compliance control frameworks, designing Integrity and Compliance training programs and organizing Tone at the Top sessions. In addition, Paul coaches C-level leadership professionals to be proper role models as part of effective integrity, compliance and ethics programs. His team developed a scientific model to assess the ethics and integrity culture within organisations. This model is widely adopted by many organisations as well as various regulatory bodies.
Per Arne Lund – Head of GRC, Volkswagen Group Sverige
Per Arne has worked with VW Group Sweden for more than 30 years in various management positions. During his years in the company, he has acquired broad experience from different positions such as accounting controlling, sales, Aftersales, product marketing, competence development and is currently responsible for compliance and risk. Over the years a natural part of the work has consisted of many contacts, both with international manufacturers of the VW Group in Europe and the Swedish dealer net.
Peter Gallagher – Head of Enforcement Advisory Division, Central Bank of Ireland
Peter is a qualified solicitor who, prior to joining the Central Bank of Ireland in 2016, practised in both private practice and in-house positions. He is currently the Head of the Central Bank’s Enforcement Advisory Division, where he has responsibility for the Central Bank’s outward-facing Protected Disclosures function, its Unauthorised Business Unit, Enforcement policy development and legal advice and complex Fitness & Probity assessments. He is a member of the recently established inter-agency National Economic Crime and Corruption Forum and is centrally involved in the Central Bank’s work towards developing a new Individual Accountability Framework for Ireland.
Philip Brennan – Founder and Managing Director, Raiseaconcern.com
Philip Brennan is Founder and Managing Director of Raiseaconcern (www.raiseaconcern.com). Raiseaconcern works with private sector employers and public bodies in the prevention, detection, investigation, and remediation of workplace wrongdoing. Raiseaconcern specialises in setting up and managing Employee Disclosure (Whistleblowing) Schemes for employers and in conducting investigations of workplace wrongdoing. Philip is a former President of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland and of the Irish Tax Institute. He is also a Fellow of the Irish Tax Institute and of the Association of Compliance Officers in Ireland.
Rody Butler – Senior Investigating Officer, Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission
Rody Butler is one of the Senior Investigating Officers in the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) and since 2015 holds the portfolio of Senior Officer in the Protected Disclosures unit which deals with matters arising from the statuary obligations under section 7 of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. GSOC has designed from the ground up a unit specifically to meet the needs of such investigations and has shared its knowledge in this field of disclosure-based investigations with other state agencies both in Ireland, Europe and in other countries around the world by request. As well as receiving and handling disclosures, GSOC have both criminal and disciplinary powers to investigate such matters. Rody has extensive experience in investigating matters in a national and in an international setting having worked with the United Nations, NATO, consulting for the OSCE, the Council of Europe and assisting NGO’s.
Facilitator: Stephanie Casey, Integrity at Work Programme Manager, TI Ireland
Stephanie manages the Integrity at Work (IAW) programme at Transparency International Ireland. She is responsible for the development and delivery of IAW member support including training, policy guidance and events as well as communicating the aims and vision of the initiative to a wide range of audiences and stakeholders. Stephanie has worked in the non-profit sector for over eighteen years, previously holding senior managerial roles in Oxfam Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society and Arthritis Ireland. Stephanie holds a first-class MA in Ethics from Dublin City University.
Facilitator: Susan Battye – Partner, Walkers
Susan is a partner and head of the employment practice at Walkers Ireland LLP. She has over two decades’ experience advising employers on the full life cycle of employment. Her advisory experience includes: corporate restructuring and redundancies, grievance and disciplinary procedures, managing whistleblowing claims, internal investigations, and providing employment law training. She has significant experience in resolving complex disputes, including bonus claims, breach of confidentiality clauses, enforcement of post-termination restrictions. Susan has represented clients before the Workplace Relations Commission, including defending unfair dismissals, constructive dismissals, discrimination claims, whistleblowing and penalisation claims, workplace bullying and stress-related claims, industrial relations disputes and employment injunctions before the High Court.
Facilitator: Suzanna Knight, Speak Up Helpline Advice and Policy Coordinator, TI Ireland
Suzanna helps co-ordinate the Speak Up Helpline. Suzanna has worked extensively in human rights and advocacy-based settings for over twenty years, supporting ethical organisational development in a variety of sectors including domestic violence, family support and ethnic minority groups. Suzanna also served as a police officer in the UK, specialising child protection, sexual assault and racially motivated crime. She holds a BA (Hons) in Sociology and a first-class MSc Psychology from Northumbria University.
Tilly Prior – Senior Research Officer, Business Integrity, Transparency International UK
Tilly is part of Transparency International UK’s Business Integrity team, which works to raise private sector anti-corruption standards. She is responsible for leading the organisation’s research into enhancing anti-corruption approaches with values, measuring the effectiveness of corporate anti-corruption approaches and raising corporate anti-corruption disclosure standards. She also supports the running of the Business Integrity Forum. Tilly holds a MA in Governance and Corruption and a BA in Politics both from the University of Sussex.
William Maher – Barrister
William Maher BL is a practicing Barrister at Bar of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. His practice covers a broad range of civil and commercial matters with a particular focus on employment and administrative law concerns. William has a longstanding interest in protected disclosures and has acted in numerous whistleblowing actions on behalf of both the employee and the employer before the Superior Courts and before statutory employment law bodies in Ireland. William is a regular contributor at conferences on the Irish experience of protected disclosures legislation. In 2021 William represented the successful claimant in Baranya v Rosderra Irish Meats 2021 [IESC] 77, the leading and to date only Irish Supreme Court decision on whistleblowing in Ireland. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision provided a comprehensive analysis of Irish whistleblowing legislation and been the source of much discussion and debate and influenced an amendment to Irish protected disclosures legislation in 2022.