Speakers and Panellists include:

CANDACE JOHNSON is an international telecommunications expert and entrepreneur, and one of the 50 most powerful businesswomen in Europe. She is co-initiator of SES ASTRA and SES Global, one of the largest satellite systems in the world. She is also the founder and president of Europe Online, the world's first Internet via satellite network and is the founder of the continent's first independent, private trans-border satellite communications company, Teleport Europe-Loral Cyberstar. Candace has played a revolutionary role in European telecommunications. Candace has been honoured for her contributions to advances in telecommunications across Europe and America. She has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Communications Awards as well as honours from the Luxembourg and German governments. She holds masters degrees from the Sorbonne and Stanford University and graduated with a bachelors degree from Vassar College.

BILL LIAO, diplomat, investor, entrepreneur, business mentor, speaker, philanthropist and author, Bill Liao co-founded the business social network service XING and is a venture partner at SOS Ventures, a global venture capital firm and investment management firm. Bill is a special diplomatic envoy for St Kitts and Nevis for sustainable development and the environment. He is also the founder of WeForest.org, an international not-for-profit organization combating global warming in the most natural way possible by sustainably and holistically reforesting previously degraded land - the organisation is approaching planting it's millionth tree. Bill is also the Co-Founder of the Coder Dojo movement to assist young people to learn how to program. Bill is dedicated to the vision that business and enterprise, both commercial and social, conducted fairly and with respect for the environment, can and will create a better environment for work, life and the world that we all share. This vision is captured in his book: Stone Soup; a Secret Recipe for Making Something from Nothing.

KEITH WILLEY is Adjunct Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School currently the world’s No1 MBA Programme (as voted by the Financial Times). He leads the Managing the Growing Business and New Technology Ventures courses. For more than ten years Keith’s work at London Business School has focused on entrepreneurship, venture capital, managing growth, technology ventures and organisation development. He served as Executive Director for the Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management which established the subject as one of the most popular and respected within the School and now has expanded to become the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. In past years he has led the Masterclasses for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year programme and worked with Bertelsmann, EDS, Ericsson and the Young President's Organisation. Currently Keith is responsible for the E100 Angel Investment Club based at the School which has been operating since 1999 and has backed more than 70 ventures. Keith has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Birmingham University and an MBA from London Business School.

LIAM KELLY founded Nualight in 2004. His previous commercial LED activities include the establishment of CorkOpt Ltd. in 1994, to develop and manufacture LED-based luminaires for the machine vision industry. CorkOpt was acquired by USA-based StockerYale Inc. in 2000 and Liam continued as Managing Director until 2003. He was also a founder-director of Millimetre Wave Technology Ltd., and of Farran Technology Ltd, an imaging and communications systems manufacturer, until its acquisition by the Smiths Group plc in 2005.
Prior to his commercial interests, Liam spent twenty years in various senior roles, including Associate Professor of Microelectronics, in University College Cork where he helped establish the NMRC, now the Tyndall Institute. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California and was a founding director of Optronics-Ireland.
Nualight produces accent lighting for the food retail sector. Headquartered in Cork, it has subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Poland, and supplies global retailers and OEMs in North America and Europe.

STEPHEN BULLOCK is a successful entrepreneur and serial Tech Angel Investor with a portfolio focused on Digital Media, Web 2.0, software and B2B service companies. Stephen held senior marketing and Director positions in the Healthcare sector prior to founding VC backed Medical Action Communications (MAC), an international pharmaceutical marketing agency. The company won BCVA start-up of the year in 1992 and Stephen developed MAC into a global market leader. Following the sale of the business in 2000, Stephen became a full time Angel Investor and Consultant to early stage companies. He is a serial tech investor and has made over 30 investments. Stephen takes an active non-executive chair and board roles and consults to a wide range of portfolio companies and is President of the London Business School Enterprise 100 Investment Club, one of the most successful Angel networks in Europe.

DES DOYLE is manager of Enterprise Ireland's (EI) Growth Capital Dept. with responsibility for EI's engagement with seed and venture capital funds, business angel activity and the introduction of national and international investors to investment opportunities in EI client companies. Previous experience in EI includes management roles in the High Potential Start‐Up Division (software companies), the Scaling Division (principally software & life sciences companies) and EI’s Food Division. Prior to Enterprise Ireland, Des worked with IDA Ireland on foreign direct investment and small business development and served on a number of IDA’s regional small business development Boards. Before joining IDA, Des was a financial manager in the multi-national sector. Des was educated at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin and holds a B.Comm, a post‐graduate diploma in business strategy and an MSc (Strategic Management).

DECLAN FOX, Serial entrepreneur, technologist, digital marketer and business coach, co-founded Comnitel Technologies in 1999 and as CEO, grew the company from start-up, raising €30M from leading institutional investors. Comnitel later merged with a US Telco, and was acquired by IBM in 2007. Founder of Magellan Partners, a venture & advisory consultancy, with a focus of innovative technology companies across different sectors. Co-Founder and Managing Director of OmniVend since 2005, a revenue and service management company selling various product sets for multiple mobile operators. OmniMedia was set up in 2009 as an innovator in the new wave of Digital Media applications. Declan is also actively involved in mentoring and promoting entrepreneurship for early stage companies, innovation centres and academic institutions.

CHARLES GARVEY was first COO and then CEO of Horizon Technology Group from 1990 to 2003. Horizon started life as a small Apple Computer reseller in Cork with 7 employees and at its peak the group was worth over €1b and employed 720 people. The company completed 13 acquisitions and disposals and in 1999 was listed on the main board of the London and Dublin stock exchange. Horizon was eventually sold to Avnet Inc in 2009. In 2006 Charles became CEO of NitroSell, an eCommerce company focussed on web enabling ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers. NitroSell's online retailers offer 1.6m products for sale and have over 6.3m registered customers between them. More recently Charles founded Metabolomic Diagnostics Ltd., a biotech spin out from UCC using metabolomic biomarkers to predict pre-eclampsia, a major complication of pregnancy responsible for over 70,000 maternal deaths and over 500,000 infant deaths every year. The project was recently awarded the largest ever Commercialisation Plus grant from Enterprise Ireland.

DAVID GRIMES, is an Entrepreneur and Accountant with more than 40 years experience in the technology and business sector. David has successfully completed fund raising over the last 20 years and has founded a number of companies, including RCL Technology and Qumas a global leader in compliance solutions serving as CFO and COO. David is vice-chairman of AxisBIC.

JULIAN KING, Ambassador to Ireland since September 2009, joined the Foreign Office in 1985. After a number of jobs in London he went to study at the Ecole Nationale d’Adminstration in Paris in 1987. He subsequently joined the British Embassy in Paris, as Private Secretary to the Ambassador from 1989-90. In 1991-2 he worked on European Common Foreign and Security Policy, based in Luxembourg. From 1993-95 he worked in London on European Defence and NATO issues. From 1995-98 Julian worked as Private Secretary to the Head of the UK Diplomatic Service, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State. In 1998 he joined the UK Representation to the EU in Brussels focussing on the EU enlargement negotiations which he followed to their successful conclusion at the end of 2002. From 2003-4 Julian served as Counsellor and Head of Chancery at the UK Mission to the UN in New York, covering UN Security Council business in the period after the Iraq War. In 2004 he returned to Brussels as the UK Representative to the EU Political and Security Committee, with the personal rank of Ambassador, covering CFSP and European Defence issues. From 2008-9 Julian moved to the European Commission in Brussels, on secondment, to head the office of the British Commissioner with responsibility for representing the EU27 on international trade matters, including negotiations on the WTO Doha round. He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 2011, following the historic first State Visit to Ireland of HM The Queen.

PAUL HANDS is a successful business graduate and serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience in the technology and business sector. Paul has successfully completed funding rounds over the past fifteen years with numerous national and international investment companies and organizations. Paul has founded a number of technology companies in Ireland, including QCL (acquired by Calyx in 2003) and QUMAS, a global leader in delivering enterprise compliance solutions to Life Science companies and financial institutions (Irish Technology Company of the Year 2006), and after serving as CEO from its foundation he assumed the position of chairman in 2006. 2011 sees Paul as the business promoter of a number of high potential startup ventures focused on World Class University based innovation projects. He is an active board member of the Chamber of Commerce in Cork and a member of the recently established Cork Entrepreneurship Steering Group.

JAMES J KETT is Chief Executive of VoiceSage, a global leading provider of Enterprise driven customer communications, hosted in the cloud. VoiceSage has won an Innovation Award from Telco 2.0 and two awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2011. JJ Kett was a founder of KineMatik (a research management software platform), Agrilink (North South agri/food body), the Cork Cancer Research Centre and Cork University Foundation. He is a former President of the Agricultural Science Association, and founding Chairman of the Directors of Development in all Irish Universities. He is the founder of the University College Cork Entrepreneurship Programme and former Director General of the Cork University Foundation (raised IR£65m for the university in Ireland and the US). In 1998 Oxford Philanthropic ranked Cork University Foundation as the most dynamic, best managed, most vibrant, efficient and cost effective University fundraising operation in Ireland and the UK.

PAT LYNCH is a Cork based Entrepreneur and business owner. Pat founded Microtech Cleanroom Services in 1998. He previously worked as finance director / controller for the Irish operations of US multinationals Seagate Technology and Summit Technology. He is currently Director of Compliance & Risks and Omnivend. He also holds the roles of CEO of Cork based YouGetitBack Ltd and Founder and CEO of Stock Market Training Ltd.

MICHAEL O’CONNOR is CEO of CORKBIC, a venture consultancy specialising in high tech innovative projects usually involving international growth. Previous experience was manufacturing and sales start-ups with Raychem Corporation before co-founding Intepro, a venture capital backed Irish IT start-up. Responsible for strategy, sales and marketing in the European start-up, he led the US market entry with several rounds of international venture capital before divesting to a Swiss multinational. He graduated in Engineering from Cambridge, is a Chartered Engineer and holds an MBA from London Business School specialising in strategy and in International Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a Board Member of Cork Chamber and it@cork.

JERRY O’BRIEN has 17 years consumer electronics and semiconductor industry experience, having held senior commercial and product development roles in various start-up and early phase high tech companies competing across Far East, US and European markets. Jerry is currently CEO of Radisens Diagnostics, a medical diagnostics start-up, is a convergence of medical diagnostics and consumer electronics using disruptive patent pending technology to deliver on the significant market and clinical need for decentralising diagnostics into point of care settings such as doctor’s offices, outpatient and emergency room departments. Recently Radisens raised €1.1m in investment. The investment comprises of a €500k investment by the Bank of Ireland MedTech Accelerator Fund with the remainder of the funds provided by Enterprise Ireland, and private angel investors sourced by the company. Jerry has a B.E. (‘94) and M.Eng.Sc (‘99) from University College Cork and an MBA (‘03) from Smurfit Business School, Dublin.

EOIN O’DRISCOLL is Chairman of the Board of Forfás and is also on the board of a number of private software and telecommunications companies. A former Senior Vice President of Lucent Technologies, Eoin is now the Chairman of enet and of SWS SouthWestern. He is a director of Ion Equity, the Irish Times, & IBEC’s National Executive Council. Eoin is a former President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland and a founding board member of Science Foundation Ireland. In 2004, Eoin chaired the Enterprise Strategy Review Group at the request of the then Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. In July 2004 the group published a strategic plan for enterprise in Ireland entitled ‘Ahead of the Curve - Ireland’s place in the global economy’.

PAT O’FLYNN, CEO of Solvotrin, is an entrepreneur with over fifteen years experience ranging from operational management to strategic leadership roles. He has successfully built businesses from inception and has a proven track record in the Pharmachem and related industries. He has managed successful joint-ventures most notably with Dutch Utility Company AVR (2001) to form AVR-Safeway Ltd and subsequently sold it to International Utility Company Veolia (2008). Pat, a finalist in the 2008 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award is a principal in the OFactum Group and is CEO of Solvotrin Therapeutics Ltd. Pat holds academic qualifications in engineering, business management and corporate finance. His latest venture Solvotrin Therapeutics Ltd is a privately held pharmaceutical company with a platform technology for making successful drugs better and protecting them with Chemical IP.

ANNE O’LEARY started CADCO Ltd in 1990. CADCO became Autodesk Distributor for Ireland in Sept. 1990 and N.Ireland in 1993. In 1995 Anne added Documentum to CADCO’s portfolio of products and services, achieving Signature Partner Status in 1996. CADCO continued to develop with 3 office locations Cork, Manchester and Belfast and 52 employees. CADCO received the Cork Chamber of Commerce Company of the year award (SME) in 2003. CADCO’s business was sold in 2009 to Computer2000 part of the Techdata Group which is the largest IT distributor of hardware and software products worldwide. Anne became Executive Chairman of Kinematik in Jan 2010. a software development company based in New Jersey USA and Cork, which specialises in engineering software solutions in heavily regulated industries e.g. Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, R&D and government. Anne is a chartered Civil Engineer.

ASIER RUFINO worked as a management consultant for Accenture and BNP Paribas. He has participated in high profile projects for both SMEs and blue chip organizations such as Thomson Reuters, BNP Paribas and Eli Lilly. More recently Asier has focused on entrepreneurship and innovation by providing business development, strategy and coaching services to start-ups and SMEs. Asier is currently working with the Basque Institute of Competitiveness (Orkestra) in their platform Crecer+. Asier is the Director of the Emprendedores Crecer+, program which is aimed at helping local high growth technology companies to internationalise and the Business Angels Crecer + where he is one of the founders of the network and is part of the Executive Committee. He also coaches new ventures in the Executive MBA of the Deusto Business School. Asier holds an MBA from London Business School / Sloan MIT and has a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the Basque Country University in Spain.

HERMANN SIDHU, a Partner with Ernst and Young in Ireland, has over ten years experience serving technology clients in Europe, US and Asia-Pacific. Currently, based in Dublin he serves the Irish and European operations of some of the largest US multinational technology clients. Hermann has particular expertise in the area of US GAAP reporting, as well as the complex internal controls requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Prior to relocating to Dublin in August 2011, Hermann was based in Tokyo serving US and Japanese listed technology clients throughout the Asia-Pacific geography. Hermann has hands on experience in assisting client’s transition operations and finance functions in emerged and emerging economies such as China, India, Vietnam and Malaysia. Originally, from the US, Hermann has also worked with start-up technology clients in Silicon Valley and Washington DC including advising on successful IPO’s and M&A transactions. Hermann graduated from University of Florida with both a Bachelor of Finance and Accounting degree and a Masters in Accounting.

ADRIAN WALL is a partner in Ronan Daly Jermyn’s Corporate Department. He advises on all forms of corporate transactions and commercial agreements, as well as on company law. Adrian has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions work. He also frequently advises on investment projects and has represented numerous companies raising investment as well as venture capital and private investors. Prior to joining RDJ, Adrian worked as a senior associate at a leading Dublin firm and also worked at Australia's largest law firm. Adrian holds a BCL Degree from University College Cork and a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance (CDipAF) from the ACCA. Representative work that Adrian has recently been involved includes the following; acting for Populis (Europe’s leading digital media company) on its recent acquistion of Mokono (Germany’s largest blog network), representing Nualight on its recent acquistion of Lumotech, a Dutch lighting technology company and the sale of Firecomms, first ever sale of an Irish high growth company to a Chinese buyer.

JAMES WHELTON, Entrepreneur, Developer and Social Media Connoisseur, lives and breathes for technology, business and problem solving. James is experienced in all areas of IT, from computer hacking to iOS development to Social Platform data parsing and analysis. James Whelton started his first company, Disruptive Developments, and first charity, Coder Dojo, while in 6th year prior to his leaving cert. Disruptive Developments is based in Cork and currently has 3 employees. The company develops Sociero, a Social Media Monitoring and Analytical Platform. James raised seed capital just after his mocks. Coder Dojo runs free coding sessions across Ireland, teaching youths to code in locations like Google and the NSC. James has appeared in Wired, TechCrunch, Engadget, SF Chronicle and more for hacking and has created several viral content"