Keynote Speaker
Margaret Heffernan, Author and Entrepreneur
Dr. Margaret Heffernan is the author of six books. Her third book, Willful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril, was named one of the most important business books of the decade by the Financial Times. Her TED talks have been seen by over 12 million people, and in 2015 TED Books published Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes. Her most recent book, Uncharted: How to Map the Future, was published in 2020. She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, Lead Faculty for the Forward Institute’s Responsible Leadership Programme and, through Merryck & Co., mentors CEOs and senior executives of major global organisations.
Interviewees
Chris Smalls, Former Amazon Manager and Founder of The Congress of Essential Workers
Chris Smalls previously worked as a warehouse manager at Amazon. During his five years at Amazon, he helped with the opening of three major warehouses in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In March of 2020, his Staten Island warehouse, JFK8 became an epicentre for Coronavirus cases. After raising concerns about the safety of his employees with HR and his superiors, Chris staged a walk out that garnered national attention. Ever since, Chris has been working tirelessly to raise awareness about the importance of a safe working environment. Chris recently founded The Congress of Essential Workers (TCOEW), a collective of essential workers who campaign for better working conditions.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris
Commissioner Drew Harris had 34 years policing experience with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) before joining An Garda Síochána. In his current role as Commissioner of An Garda Síochána he has responsibility for both Policing and State Security for Ireland. He was previously Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI where he was specifically responsible for performance and change management. He was also responsible for the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Crime Operations Department and is recognised as a national expert in dealing with high risk covert policing operations and critical incidents. He was appointed in 2013 as a high-level expert to a European Parliament Committee reporting on organised crime and corruption.
Muel Kaptein, Professor of Business Ethics and Integrity Management, RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam
Muel Kaptein is a Professor in Business Ethics and Integrity at the RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since joining Erasmus University in 1991, he has authored eight books and more than 50 peer-reviewed articles. He is also partner at KPMG where he, together with his team, supports clients in developing and assessing their ethics, integrity and compliance. He cofounded KPMG Integrity & Compliance in 1996. Professor Kaptein has developed different models and tools to develop and measure the integrity and compliance of organisations, such as the ethics game 'Cards on the Table', the survey tool 'The Integrity Thermometer' and the DilemmApp.
SCOTT Allen, Professor Emeritus of medicine, university of california and Medical consultant, Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security
Scott Allen is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine where he was formerly Chair of the Department of Medicine and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He co-founded the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Brown University and has served as a Medical Advisor for Physicians for Human Rights for over a decade. He currently serves as a medical consultant for the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security monitoring medical care in immigration detention facilities and is a federal court appointed medical monitor for Riverside County Jails.
Tom Mueller, Author, Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud
Tom Mueller is a freelance writer of non-fiction and fiction. He was educated at Oxford (DPhil, Rhodes Scholar), Harvard (BA, summa cum laude) and Alief Hastings High School in rural east Texas. Tom’s most recent book, Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud is a cultural history of whistleblowing and fraud, published in October, 2019 by Penguin Random House in the US, and by Atlantic Books in the UK and Commonwealth countries. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, National Geographic Magazine, New York Times Magazine and Atlantic Monthly.
Panellists
Colleen Cleary, Principal, and Founder, CC Solicitors
Colleen Cleary is the principal, and founder of CC Solicitors and leads a partner led team who are highly experienced in providing strategic advice on employment matters to a broad range of clients. Colleen is hugely experienced in advising on internal investigations, board and partnership disputes and skilled in negotiations. She is often quoted in the media as an expert in employment law as well as a thought leader in the area of equality and diversity.
Ed Sibley, Deputy Governor, Prudential Regulation, Central Bank
Ed Sibley was appointed Deputy Governor, Prudential Regulation on 1 September 2017. He is an ex-officio Member of the Central Bank Commission and is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). As Deputy Governor, Prudential Regulation, Ed is responsible for leading the supervision of credit institutions, insurance firms and the asset management industry. Prior to this appointment, he was Director of Credit Institutions Supervision, responsible for overseeing the Central Bank's supervisory work for all banks and credit unions operating in Ireland.
Emmet Whelan, Partner, ByrneWallace
Emmet Whelan is a partner in the Employment Department of ByrneWallace. Emmet advises on all aspects of employment law and in particular specialises in contentious employment matters and employee benefits. He lectures regularly on employment law courses at the Law Society. He also provides employment law training and seminars to clients and professional bodies. Emmet has published employment law articles in the Irish Employment Law Journal, Employment Law Review and the Journal of Public Affairs Ireland and is a co-author of the textbook, Employment Law.
Gerald chifamba, SALES AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE, EQS GROUP
Gerald Chifamba assists international companies with ethics and compliance management systems and has extensive experience in whistleblowing and policy management. Prior to joining EQS, he worked in FinTech for a challenger stockbroker. He is a board member for one of the largest youth homeless charities in London.
Judy O’ Loan, Managing Solicitor, Transparency Legal Advice Centre
Judy O’ Loan is a solicitor by training. Upon graduating from Queen’s University Belfast, she completed an MSc in Environmental Policy and Management. She then worked in EU regulatory affairs and public administration for seven years, before returning to law. She worked for five years with London’s leading human rights firms gaining significant experience in human rights and personal injury litigation as well as administrative law encompassing judicial review.
Kyle Welch, Assistant Professor of Accountancy, George Washington University
Professor Kyle Welch is a published academic researcher studying internal whistleblowing. He previously worked on the investment team at the Stanford Management Company (Stanford University’s endowment). While there, he developed asset allocation and portfolio strategies. He also evaluated public equity, private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund investment opportunities and fund managers. Prior to working at Stanford, he worked at Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in the Corporate Valuation and Consulting Group (now part of Duff & Phelps). Professor Welch received his B.S. and Masters from Brigham Young University and his Doctorate from Harvard Business School.
Leo Martin, Founder and Director, GoodCorporation
Leo Martin is a Founder and Director of GoodCorporation. A globally recognised authority on business ethics, anti-bribery and corruption and corporate responsibility, Leo has exceptional experience in the oil and gas, telecoms, media, gaming and logistics sectors and has led assessment teams in some of the world’s most ethically challenging environments. Leo helps world-leading organisations design their ethics and compliance programmes and measure their effectiveness across continents and jurisdictions. Leo began his career as a Fellow of the Overseas Development Institute before joining KPMG, where he worked on economics and strategy for governments and companies worldwide.
Linda Hogan, Professor of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin
Professor Linda Hogan is an ethicist with extensive experience in research and teaching in pluralist and multi-religious contexts. Her primary research interests lie in the fields of inter-cultural and inter-religious ethics, social and political ethics, human rights and gender. In addition to her academic expertise, Professor Hogan has expert knowledge of institutional management and governance, having spent 5 years as the Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer and Deputy President at Trinity College Dublin. She has also worked on a consultancy basis for a number of national and international organisations, focusing on developing ethical infrastructures.
Mark Chambers, Associate Director, Institute of Business Ethics
Mark Chambers is an Associate Director at the Institute of Business Ethics, a charity that promotes high standards of business behaviour based on ethical values, and leads the IBE’s interaction with boards, regulators and policy makers. After graduating in Zoology from Oxford University, Mark re-trained as a lawyer and spent his early years at Slaughter and May in their London and New York offices before moving into business. During his career, he managed world-class global functions responsible for governance, legal and regulatory risk management in large, complex, regulated businesses.
Michele Monahan, Honorary Vice President of SIPTU and Radiography Services Manager, Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown
Michele Monahan is a Radiography Services Manager at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown. She holds qualifications in Radiography and Ultrasound as well as a Master’s in Management. Michele is currently the Honorary Vice President of SIPTU and has been a member of SIPTU’s National Executive Council for 8 years. Michele has consistently advocated on behalf of workers, particularly Radiographers and Radiation Therapists throughout her career.
Rosarii Mannion, HR Leader and Practitioner
Rosarii Mannion is a senior experienced HR Director having held key roles most recently when she worked as National HR Director in Ireland’s largest employer, the Health Service Executive, with 120,000 employees. She is a passionate believer in maximising staff performance, staff engagement and promoting the benefits of coaching and mentoring in the workforce. She was awarded ICF Ireland Business & Executive Coach of the Year in 2017. In 2018, she was awarded the Ireland HR Leader of the Year.
Sorcha Pollak, Journalist, Irish Times
Sorcha Pollak is a journalist with The Irish Times specialising in migration and social affairs. Her first book New to the Parish: Stories of Love, War and Adventure from Ireland’s Immigrants was published in 2018. She is currently working on her second book which examines racial segregation among second generation immigrants in Ireland. Her foreign journalistic work has brought her to Honduras, India, Jordan and Peru. Before joining The Irish Times, Sorcha lived in London where she worked for the Guardian newspaper and TIME Magazine.
Tracy Boylin, CEO, Organisational and People Genetics
Tracy Boylin is a human resource and organisational development specialist and is CEO of Organisational and People Genetics, which is a specialist HR advice, consultancy and tech company working mainly in the whistleblowing arena. She worked as an HR Director for 20 years spanning the private, charity and public sectors, during which time she was commended by Ofsted for resolving the longest running strike in Educational History and won a National Training Award. She is a Visiting Research Fellow for Middlesex University, specifically assigned to the Whistleblowing Research Unit run by David Lewis and Teaching Associate for Warwick University.
Facilitators
FERGUS FINLAY, COLUMNIST, IRISH EXAMINER
Fergus Finlay is the former CEO of Barnardos, Ireland's largest children's charity. For around twenty years prior to that, he was employed as Senior Adviser to the Labour Party, serving in three Governments and working for the Party in opposition. He also served for three years as a Director of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations. Fergus is the author of four best-selling books. He broadcasts regularly on radio and television, and contributes a weekly column to the Irish Examiner.
Gráinne Madden, Founder and Senior Consultant, GMJ Associates
Gráinne Madden 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.
Ian Talbot, Chief Executive, Chambers Ireland
Ian Talbot has been Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland and Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Ireland since 2008. Prior to those appointments, Ian held positions as a Director of Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase in Ireland for 18 years. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse where he spent several years working in their Dublin and Luxembourg offices and also holds MA and BBS degrees from Trinity College Dublin. He is Deputy President of Eurochambres in Brussels, is a member of the National Economic and Social Council and the National Competitiveness Council in Ireland and also sits on the board of ESB Networks DAC and Skillnet Ireland.
John Devitt, Chief Executive, Transparency International Ireland
John Devitt founded TI Ireland in 2004 and has led TI Ireland’s whistleblowing research and support programme for the past ten years. He is an 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. An ethics and communications specialist by training, John holds a first-class MA in Ethics from Dublin City University and is a graduate of European Studies at the University of Limerick and the Public Relations Institute of Ireland.
Kate Kenny, Professor of Business and Society, NUI Galway
Kate Kenny is Professor in Business and Society at NUI Galway. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a PhD from Cambridge University. Kate has held research fellowships at the Edmond J. Safra Lab at Harvard University and Cambridge's Judge Business School. She has researched whistleblowing in organisations since 2010, with projects funded by Harvard, the UK's ESRC and ACCA, British Academy and Leverhulme Trust. Her book, Whistleblowing: Toward a new theory, was published by Harvard University Press in 2019. A second book, The Whistleblowing Guide: Speak-up Arrangements, Challenges and Best Practices, co-authored with Wim Vandekerckhove and Marianna Fotaki, was published last year.
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.
Marianna Fotaki, Professor of Business Ethics, University of Warwick Business School
Marianna Fotaki holds degrees in medicine, health economics, and a PhD in public policy from London School of Economics and Political Science. Before joining academia in 2003 she worked as a medical doctor in Greece, China, and the UK, as a volunteer and manager for humanitarian organisations, Médecins du Monde and Médecins sans Frontiers in Iraq and Albania, and as the EU senior resident adviser to governments in transition (in Russia, Georgia and Armenia). Marianna is at present a Senior Editor for Organization Studies and co-directs pro bono the online think tank, Centre for Health and the Public Interest.
Mary Inman, Partner, Constantine Cannon
Mary Inman is a partner in Constantine Cannon’s London Office. After 20+ years representing whistleblowers in the US, she moved to London in July 2017 to launch the firm’s international whistleblower practice. She specializes in representing whistleblowers from the UK, Europe and worldwide under the American whistleblower reward programmes, including the Federal and various state False Claims Acts and the SEC, CFTC, IRS and DOT whistleblower programs. Ms. Inman’s efforts to export the American whistleblower programs to the United Kingdom, including her efforts on behalf of a successful British whistleblower, were featured in a recent New York Times article “Law Firm Sees Britain as Hunting Ground for U.S. Whistleblower Cases.”
Stephanie Casey, Integrity at Work Programme Manager
Stephanie Casey 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.