2020 SPEAKERS

John Adair
Leadership Theorist and Author

Dawn Keaney
Senior Manager
Salesforce

Anne Caulfield
Accredited Executive Coach, Leadership Coach and Speaker
ElevateEdge Coaching & Consulting Ltd
John Adair

ohn has had a colourful early career. He served as a platoon commander in the Scots Guards in Egypt, and then became the only national serviceman to serve in the Arab Legion, where he became adjutant of a Bedouin regiment. After national service he qualified as a deckhand in Hull and worked on an arctic trawler in Iceland waters. He then worked as a hospital orderly in the operating theatre of a hospital.
After being senior lecturer in military history and adviser in leadership training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and Associate Director of The Industrial Society, in 1979 John became the world’s first Professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Surrey.
Between 1981 and 1986 John worked with Sir John Harvey-Jones at ICI introducing a leadership development strategy that helped to change the loss-making, bureaucratic giant into the first British company to make a billion pounds profit.
John has written over 50 books, translated into many languages. Recent titles include Lessons in Leadership and How to Lead Others. Apart from being an author he is also a teacher and consultant.
From St Paul’s School he won a scholarship to Cambridge University. John holds the higher degrees of Master of Letters from Oxford University and Doctor of Philosophy from King’s College London, and he is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Recently the People’s Republic of China awarded him the title of Honorary Professor in recognition of his ‘outstanding research and contribution in the field of Leadership’.
From 2009 to 2018, John was appointed Chair of Leadership Studies United Nations System Staff College in Turin.
Dawn Keaney
About Dawn Keaney
Dawn is a Senior Manager on the International Productivity Programs team in Salesforce. Productivity programs partner with the sales organisation on their productivity and talent strategy, enhancing their ability to attract, develop and retain top talent. Since joining the team in 2019, Dawn has supported the development of the end to end sales talent journey, driving a number of key initiatives across career management, coaching/development conversations, and leadership development.
Prior to joining Salesforce, Dawn was a Senior Manager in the Deloitte Human Capital Consulting practice where she led the Talent and Leadership practice across Private and Financial Services clients. In her 8 years as a consultant, she gained significant experience in the assessment, development and delivery of transformative programs to support talent management and business strategy. She has particular expertise in the areas of leadership development and assessment, competency framework design, organisation design, talent reviews, succession planning and talent strategy development.
Dawn has an Masters in Occupational Psychology from the University of Nottingham and a BA in Psychology from UCD. She is a qualified Executive Coach and is certified in the use of a wide range of psychometrics to include NEO-PI-R, Hogan Suite of Assessments and Saville Wave.
Anne Caulfield
About Anne Caulfield
Anne Caulfield is an Accredited Executive Coach, with a background of 20 years’ international business experience in corporate, working for blue chip companies in the IT, Healthcare and Telco industries, within Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain.
Anne is the founder of ElevateEdge Coaching & Consulting Ltd, coaching senior executives and business leaders in blue chip companies, financial services, SME’s and Third Level Educational bodies.
Anne supports professionals to develop their influence and authority in their business and careers through Leadership Development, Executive Coaching and Career Coaching. This is delivered though one-to-one coaching, workshops and masterclasses.
What we do
Elevating professionals and organizations success potential, fostering creativity and innovation to reinvent and maintain their edge in business. This is achieved through Leadership and Career development, supported by Executive Coaching, Workshops and Masterclasses. Supporting large organisations, business owners and professionals.
I help businesses to develop high performing teams, that deliver higher productivity and results. When they work with me, they discover powerful principles that boost collaboration, engagement, motivation and career fulfilment in every team member. I also support professionals one-to-one, to develop the influence and authority to take control of a more fulfilling and rewarding career path, doing what they do best.

Rebecca Patterson
Global engagement strategist & Internationalisation expert
iheed

Orla Coughlan
Co-Founder & CEO
The Riasc Partnership

Karen Maher
HR professional & Chartered Fellow of CIPD
Karen Maher Associates
Rebecca Patterson
Rebecca has held the Global Marketing Director position at iheed for the past 2 years. iheed is an Irish Medical Education Organisation and is leading the way in delivering high-quality online medical education. Built by doctors and healthcare professionals, iheed has over 30,000 users across the globe, and believes that effective, accessible medical education is the key to providing better health outcomes worldwide.
With over sixteen years’ experience in international education across the higher education and medical education sectors, Rebecca has held management responsibility for Griffith College International office (2004 – 2012) and the International Division of UCD College of Engineering & Architecture (2012 – 2017) and has provided leadership to the broader university community on internationalisation, international engagement and international partnerships.
Rebecca has travelled extensively on governmental trade missions and is a specialist in new market development. She has brokered 50+ education bilateral agreements with Universities and Government Agencies in Europe, China and India.
Rebecca is a high-performing professional with strong leadership skills and specialised Higher Education market knowledge. She is a specialist in developing consistent, powerful brand messaging across regional / global markets and customer segments. Adept at the utilisation of web-based communications tools. Rebecca is an international marketing strategist. She has the ability to balance brand custodianship with robust income increases. Energetic, commercially focused, results-oriented strategic thinker, with a keen sense of business awareness including strong analytical and communication skills. Proven ability to lead teams and develop and nurture positive relationships.
Orla Coughlan
Orla is an International Human Resource Executive who has operated at C- Suite level in Europe, US and Asia. Over the past 25 years she has teamed with business leaders in multi-cultural, global markets, focussing on acquiring and growing businesses, in both consumer and enterprise technology. Her previous roles include, EMEA HR Director at HP, Global Vice President HR at Activision Blizzard, and most recently Chief Human Resources Director at eir in Ireland. On leaving eir she founded The Riasc Partnership – which works with a range of Companies and Not for Profit organisations on organisation strategy & Leadership Coaching.
In 2019 she was appointed to the Board of SOLAS and Advisory Board of KerryScitech. She has been a member of the Steering Committee of 30% Club Ireland since 2016. A Psychology and Economics Graduate from UCC, she completed a Diploma in Executive Coaching at IMI.
‘Having worked in both high growth and start up companies, I have seen the significant financial and market impact of developing, and retaining great people. My passion, is enabling the success of businesses through the development of their Leaders and creation of talent/succession plans which allow our clients identify and retain highly valuable people. My work enables me to share my experience with our clients to ensure they leverage all of their people and create an environment where everyone can be the best version of themselves. Business now moves so fast, that enabling agile, diverse and resilient organizations is key to success.’
Karen Maher
A HR professional and Chartered Fellow of CIPD with a background in Organisational and Workforce Development, HR Consultancy and Management Training delivery. Specialist interests include Coaching, Mentoring, Mediation, Emotional Intelligence, Life Long Learning and Training design and delivery to meet specific organisational needs. Karen gained a wide range of experience in the UK and Ireland in both the Public and Private Sector in HR, Training, Organisational Development and Consultancy before establishing Karen Maher Associates.
Karen Maher Associates specialises in Coaching and Mentoring, Workplace Mediation Services Emotional Intelligence Assessment and Action Planning, Building Resilience, and design and delivery of Management Development Programmes.
Prior to Karen Maher Associates, Karen was a successful Management Consultant for SHRC Ltd and the Health Management Institute of Ireland with a reputation across both public and private health services as a first-class management trainer and coach. Karen was responsible for designing and delivering successful development programmes including a popular Leadership and Management Development programme for nurses and midwives in the Dublin North East area as well as specific courses for Clinical Nurse Specialists and Public Health Nurses accredited by NMBI. She designed and delivered HMI programmes across the country focusing on a range of specific management skills as well one to one sessions dedicated to improving the professional and personal development and wellbeing of individuals from various organisations.
Previously employed in the UK by Cleveland Police specialising in Equality and Diversity, this role included the design and delivery of HR related training to Police Officers of all ranks. Karen was also employed for a number of years in Local Authorities in the North East of England as a Training Manager and Organisational Development Manager before moving to Ireland.
Educated to Masters levels, with a MA in HRM as well as a BA(Hons) in Education. A qualified Executive Business Coach and Mediator, licensed to deliver and interpret the EQi2 Emotional Intelligence Test and skilled in coaching teams and individuals.
Karen is passionate about HR and Organisational Development and helping people realise their full potential. Karen is skilled in a wide range of management disciplines and tools to facilitate Training and experiential learning with a considerable background in working with individuals, facilitating their personal growth and development.

Tanya Hudson
Business Psychologist
KinchLyons

Martin Garvey
Own the Room

David McRedmond
Chief Executive Officer
An Post
Tanya Hudson
Tanya is a chartered psychologist and a member of the Division of Work and Organisational Psychology and Coaching Psychology Group within the Psychological Society of Ireland. A certified trainer, accredited coach and facilitator, she tailors her coaching and training sessions to the unique needs of every client and focuses on her participants to facilitate high impact events.
Tanya is a guest lecturer on the M.B.A. Programme at the National College of Ireland and the Diploma in Organisational Change and Development at the Irish Management Institute.
Her qualifications include M.Sc. (Work & Organisational Psychology) University of Limerick; B.A. (Psychology) U.C.D.; Adv. Dip. (Personal, Leadership & Executive Coaching), Cert. Solution-Focused Business Professional University of Milwaukee and BPS Certificates in Occupational and Personality Testing.
Martin Garvey
Martin went from struggling with public speaking at the start of his career to happily delivering a training for over 1000 people in an open field in Papua New Guinea. The key to his transformation was a shift in mindset: he realized that the feeling of nerves was simply a boost in energy to help improve his performance.
As a management consultant, Martin has worked for Accenture (where he was a member of the team that launched PostBank in Ireland) and has advised firms in the telecom, retail, pharma, finance and healthcare industries, including Microsoft, Vodafone, Mastercard, Lidl and Primark. Over his career as a trainer, he has collaborated with customers on 6 continents to design and deliver leadership development training to best meet the teams’ needs.
Martin is a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin and received a certificate from the Wharton School’s Executive Development Program. A practitioner of NLP, Lean and Agile methodologies, he strives for constant learning and personal development. He is a rugby enthusiast, having played the sport semi-professionally for 10 years.
David McRedmond
David McRedmond was appointed Chief Executive Officer of An Post in October 2016. He has led the Company’s Transformation programme and return to financial stability, revenue growth and profit by taking big steps to fix the Company’s economics; by restructuring the Mails & Parcels and Retail business in line with a rapidly changing, digital marketplace and by putting a highly skilled management team in place to drive the business forward.
David is personally driving An Post’s Sustainability Charter, having positioned Climate Action, Decent Work, Sustainable Cities & Communities and Innovation & Partnerships – four of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals most pertinent to the global postal industry – at the centre of An Post’s business transformation strategy.
He was previously CEO of TV3 which he transformed into a major Irish broadcaster, concluding with its sale to Liberty Global in December 2015. David was previously Commercial Director of Eircom and Managing Director of Eircom Enterprises. During his early career as a retail industry executive in the UK and USA, he held roles such as Operations Director of Waterstones and CEO of WH Smith Inc.
David was appointed chairman of Eir in 2018; he is a director of Premier Lotteries Ireland (the National Lottery) and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A native of Dublin, he holds a Masters Degree in Modern Irish History from University College Dublin.