AxisBIC - Providing hands-on assistance for Business and Innovation for Cork and Kerry

Key conference speakers 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 and has been honoured for her contributions to advances in telecommunications across Europe and America. She is also the Co-Founder of the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany (VATM) and the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN), both organizations which are going strong after more than 20 years. Currently is President of three Multi-Million Euro Early-Stage Investment Funds as well as being a Founding Member of the Sophia Business Angels, the Cologne Business Angels, Luxembourg Business Angels and the Galata Business Angels. Candace is a Non-Executive Director of Store Electronic Systems, a publicly quoted company on the Paris Stock Exchange as well as a Member of the Board of Advisors of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia as well as numerous other Non-Executive and Board positions. Candace is also spearheading the Global Board Ready Women initiative on Linked-In with the Financial Times Non Executive Director’s Club. She has a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Communications Awards as well as high decorations 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.
	JULIAN COSTLEY is a partner of Heaton Camillo, the investment and advisory firm that brings angel investors together with entrepreneurs. He was a Country Manager at Reuters, then created his own TV channel on BSB (later BSkyB), then founding CEO of France Telecom’s Globecast satellite company. He met venture capitalist Hermann Hauser in 1998 and together they created E*TRADE UK the UK’s first all-Internet stockbroking firm and effected a trade sale at the height of the dotcom boom. Since then he invested in 13 companies and became chairman/NED or adviser to many more focusing on the financial services, media, telecoms and internet markets in UK, Netherlands, Scandinavia, France, Canada and China. He is a lecturer/MBA course judge at London Business School, Oxford University and Skema Business School in Sophia Antpolis, France.
	KEVIN O'LEARY has been with QUMAS since its inception and was responsible for the original design and development of the company's first product release. Kevin has worked within regulated industries since 1987 and has extensive knowledge of regulatory compliance solutions. He established the company's presence in the United States in 1997 and now serves as the company's chief executive officer. Having originally majored in computer science, Kevin pursued further studies in industrial management and now works closely with regulators and industry organizations to ensure that QUMAS solutions meet the compliance needs of regulated companies. In 2006, Qumas was named Company of the Year by the Irish Software Association and Kevin was a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 Award.
	JOE MOORE, CEO of Socowave has performed in a range of company roles from business development to general management and company director with experience of business turnaround, internationalisation and company start-ups. Joe has 17 years’ experience with Motorola in Ireland and Germany and was involved in securing dominant market share in various wireless systems markets. In 2008, Joe founded a wireless technology company, having licensed IP from NUI Maynooth, secured seed capital funding and recruited a world-class R&D engineering team in Cork. The company has undertaken a 3-year applied research program to develop a new class of cellular base station and engaging with global infrastructure vendors to bring its innovations to market. Joe holds a HNC in Electrical/electronic engineering and an MBA from Smurfit Business School, UCD.
	GARRY MORONEY, co-founder and CEO of Clavis Technology, has more than 20 years’ experience as an entrepreneur and technology executive. In 2001, he co-founded a company called Similarity Systems – which pioneered the concept of a highly configurable data quality tool that could be used by data analysts to audit and cleanse any type of data. Similarity was acquired in 2006 by Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq: INFA). He then spent a year as General Manager of Informatica’s data quality software division before founding Clavis Technology in late 2007.
	BRENDAN O’DRISCOLL, is CEO of Soundwave, a disruptive location-based music discovery mobile app based in Dublin, Ireland. Backed by Mark Cuban and ACT Venture Capital, Soundwave was launched for iPhone and Android devices and in 14 languages by long time Apple advocate Stephen Fry at Apple's London HQ in June 2013. Before Soundwave, Brendan set up a Dublin-based “Rickshaw” start-up and later moved to Sweden to join Minesto, an innovative tidal energy technology company based in Gothenburg as well as completing his studies. In November 2011, Brendan founded Soundwave alongside Aidan Sliney and later Craig Watson. Brendan holds a B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCD and an M.Sc. in Innovative Sustainable Energy Engineering from KTH, Sweden.
	COLUM O’SULLIVAN (Sully) completed a BSc degree in Food Business in UCC in 1999. Having spent 4 years working with Musgrave Group in their Operations department, he left to set up Cully & Sully in September 2004 with Cullen Allen from Ballymaloe House. Cully & Sully supply over 1,500 shops nationwide with a range of 19 award winning products. All Cully and Sully recipes originate from Ballymaloe House and use the freshest ingredients possible. Cully & Sully were finalists in the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards and the Shell Livewire awards. Cully & Sully won the Meteor Best Local Producer awards and were the first Irish company to win a category award at the Sial d’Or awards in Shanghai. The company then went on win the Global Sial d’Or awards in Paris, beating 248 products from 30 countries all over the world. Cully & Sully was sold to US based Hain Celestial Group in 2012.
	EUGENE MURPHY is the Founder & CEO of Tweekaboo: a mobile, cloud and private social platform where families can seamlessly journal, share and print moments from their smartphones. Tweekaboo is building disruptive technology in the mobile to print space, recently closed a seed round and has users in over 120 countries. Prior to founding Tweekaboo Eugene ran his own Engineering Consultancy prior to which he worked in the Investment Banking Technology sector in London and New York.
	PAUL PRENDERGAST is a serial entrepreneur and has been involved in retail, services, web and publishing start-ups over the past 12 years. Paul had the initial idea for Inhance Technology (originally Yougetitback.com), is the CEO and works closely with our global client base including some of the largest consumer electronics retailers, insurance and warranty providers primarily in North America & Europe. Inhance Technology is an award winning Technology company based in Cork with a global client base of the largest Consumer electronic retailers, Mobile device Insurance companies and Telecom carriers globally - clients include Best Buy, Virgin, Orange, AIG, Carphone Warehouse. In Feb 2013 Inhance has opened a sales office in Boston, USA to support its growth in North America.
	PETE SMYTH founded Broadlake Capital in early 2009 with a view to providing capital and support to growing companies. Despite being established during one of the worst global recessions in decades, the Senior Management Team believe that sustainable businesses with strong management teams will be well placed to prosper when global economic conditions improve. Previously, Pete was Chief Executive of Noonan Services Group, which was sold in 2008, at the time the company had an annual turnover of €120m and employed 5,500 staff. Pete was also an Associate at Lehman Brothers and an Analyst at Allen McGuire & Partners. For Broadlake the key has been the team’s ability to develop successful partnerships with the management teams they work with. They seek to complement the experiences and strengths of management teams and only get involved in areas where they can add value and bring something to the table. Broadlake Capital has €100m under management and has made five investments in the last three years.

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