Our Speakers

Anne Graham, Chief Executive Officer, National Transport Authority

 Anne was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Transport Authority in 2015. Prior to that she served as the Authority’s Director of Public Transport Services. She graduated from UCD with a degree in Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer. Anne holds a Masters’ degrees from DCU and UCD. She has worked with the Dublin Local Authorities as a Civil Engineer, as Project Manager on many projects and as an Area Manager in the Southwest area of Dublin City, bringing local authority services closer to consumers in four local offices.

Niall Gleeson, Managing Director, Irish Water

 Niall has been MD of Irish Water since August 2019. He joined the company from Shanahan Engineering where he held the role of Senior Director based in Hong Kong. Prior to this, Niall was Managing Director of Veolia Ireland, which built and currently operates 30 water and wastewater treatment plants on behalf of Irish Water and other clients. Before that, he was Managing Director of Alstom Ltd where he was responsible for maintenance on the Dublin Luas light rail system. Niall holds a degree in engineering from DIT Bolton St, Dublin

Joanne Cluxton, Group HR Director, Mercury

Joanne is responsible for leading and managing the HR Team to support almost 3,000 employees in over 10 different countries across Ireland, UK, and continental Europe. Joanne’s current role covers all aspects of Human Resources for the Group including Leadership Development, Talent Management, Succession Planning, Labour Relations, Employment Law Compliance, Employee Relations, Training & Development, Compensation and Performance Management.

David Moloney, Secretary General, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Prior to his current role David was head of the Labour Market and Enterprise Division of the Department, with responsibility for various expenditure areas including Social Protection, Housing, Enterprise and Agriculture and for the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES).
Over the course of his career in the Civil Service, David has also served in the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Finance and the Department of Health.

Mark McGreevy, Chief Commercial Officer, Sisk Group

 Mark has responsibility for the business’s commercial affairs and strategy in Ireland, UK and internationally. A chartered QS, Mark has over 28 years industry experience and has held several senior positions across the business during that time. He is also an active member in various industry forums.

John Downey BA, MRUP, MBA, Dip. Law (kings Inns) MRTPI MIPI, Director, Downey Planning

John is the COO of Downey, a leading, multi-disciplinary practice of Chartered Town Planners; RIAI Architects, Landscape Architects; Urban Designers; and Project Managers.  Downey’s in effect provide all services under one roof making itself unique in the current market with its procurement and delivery of planning applications under both S.34 and under SHD. They are currently working on several thousand units in the system from Stage 1 to on-site delivery throughout the country.

John himself is a chartered town planner with over 24 years’ experience in planning & development within both the private and public sectors having worked previously in Fingal County Council as a Senior Executive Planner. In academia, he was a lecturer in the School of Planning in DIT (2010-2012) to both undergraduate and master’s level.

John is a specialist in planning and overall development procedures, inter alia, the procurement of all planning applications through the various planning processes including EIARs, SIDs, SHDs (Strategic Housing Development), oral hearings, and public consultations.

Moreover, he has been heavily involved within key advisory roles including the first research papers on planning changes for the Oireachtas (Issue and context – government reform of planning legislation, 2014); The Department of Finance (2015); and was part of the Advisory Group for the new National Planning Framework (2016) and the new Guidelines for Apartments (2018).

He is currently the RTPI (Ireland) Representative on the ECTP-CEU (European Council of Spatial Planners) and was a former Chair of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) Ireland and a General Assembly Board member in London serving on several elite committees including the International Committee and the Policy & Research Committee.

John has also served on the advisory boards of both UCD School of Planning and the School of Architecture. Finally, he has being awarded the Irish President’s Award for planning research (2011, DHP) and received an award from the Irish Planning Institute for the work he did with Fingal County Council in Lesotho in 2015.

Dr. Jamie Goggins, Established Professor and Principal Investigator, Engineering and Infomatics, NUI Galway  

 Jamie has over 10 years’ experience in consultancy, construction and research. His research activities span a wide range of areas, including in the fields of structures, earthquake engineering, sustainable construction technologies, sustainable energy and life cycle assessment. Over the last three years he has secured over 600,000EUR worth of funding as Principal Investigator for research projects, in addition to receiving funding as a collaborator for on an EU FP7 project (worth 250,000EUR). Jamie is a chartered engineer and has worked as a consultant on both national and international projects. He has also worked as a site engineer and project manager in both Australia and Ireland. He collaborates with both industry and international research institutes on many research projects. He has won awards for both his research and teaching activities. He is actively involved in the engineering professional body in Ireland, Engineers Ireland, and together with his students undertakes many outreach activities with the local, national and international communities

Frank Kelly, President, Construction Industry Federation of Ireland (CIF)

 Frank Kelly is a Construction Director at Walls Construction. Frank has more than twenty-five years’ industry experience having joined Walls Construction in 1992 as a site engineer progressing to contracts manager and to his current position of Construction Director. He has worked across a diverse range of sectors including commercial, retail, pharmaceutical, healthcare, residential, fit-out, industrial and education. Frank has been responsible for the delivery of some landmark projects like Trinity Biosciences on Pearse Street and the recently completed Central Bank on North Wall Quay. Frank has been actively involved in the CIF since 2008 and sits on several the advisory committees to the executive body including chair of the Safety & Health Committee. His standing in the Irish construction sector was recognised by his recent term as President of the Master Builders and Contractors Association.

Dr Mary-Liz Trant, Director of the National Apprenticeship Office (NAO)

Mary-Liz is the first person to be appointed to the role for a new body jointly established by SOLAS and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to implement the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025. Prior to heading up the NAO, Mary-Liz was Executive Director for skills development in SOLAS. She also held senior posts in the HEA, leading on enterprise engagement, Springboard+ and equity of access to higher education. A teacher by profession, earlier in her career Mary-Liz taught at second and third-level and worked with early school leavers. She holds a doctorate in Education and Masters’ Degrees in Education and in French.

Paul Sheridan, Director of Main Contracting, CIF

Paul is a Chartered Engineer and holds a postgraduate diploma in Construction Law and Contract Administration. He also has experience in and holds qualifications in Strategy and Innovation, Business Transformation, Organisation Development, Lean 6-Sigma and Strategic HR.

Paul began his career as a Contract Manager in the Water and Wastewater industry. He previously worked in the Tendering and Contracting Department in the CIF before working as an Executive in Industrial Property Development sector. Since then, Paul has worked with Engineers Ireland and the Royals College of Surgeons in areas of policy development, governance, internal consultancy, membership support and service, advocacy, representation, quality assurance and process excellence, accreditation, academic and professional education, training, strategy and business transformation.

Sean O’Neill, Managing Director, Park Developments & Chair Irish Home Builders Association

Seán has worked in the property industry for almost 20 years, having joined Park Developments in 2002, he was appointed Managing Director in 2016.  Park is one of Irelands oldest home builders having been incorporated in 1962. The Park team are currently working on several large-scale residential projects in the Dublin market.

Seán also serves as Chair of the Irish Home Builders Association.

Dermot Carey – Director, Safety and Training, CIF

 Dermot Carey heads up Safety & Training Department within the CIF. He has responsibility for developing and guiding the CIF’s policy in these areas.

Along with shaping policy, Dermot’s role involves liaising with Government departments, the Education sector and members on issues and providing assistance with member safety regulatory compliance. Included in this role is the operation of the Safe-T-Cert accreditation service and its day-to-day operations in the Republic of Ireland.

Tom Parlon, Director General, CIF

Before joining the CIF, Tom served as a TD for Laois – Offaly and as Minister for State at the Department of Finance from 2002 until 2007. As Minister he was responsible for the Office for Public Works (OPW).

From 1997 to 2001, Tom was President of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), having previously held several other positions with the association.

He is from Coolderry in Co. Offaly.

Kas’s team works within both new and existing buildings across commercial real estate, healthcare, life sciences and education segments to deliver systems which ensure optimal efficiency and user comfort across all stages of the building life cycle. Kas is passionate about improving sustainability across the built environment and reducing carbon emissions in our sector.

David O’Brien, Construction Advisor, the Office of Government Procurement

Reforming public procurement, David’s team are currently in the process of reviewing the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). He discusses the reforms the Office of Government Procurements are working on that includes risk management, liability, inflation, project management, performance management, BIM, sustainability and life cycle costing, and a range of measures relating to the procurement process itself.

Dr. Avril Behan – Project Director, Build Digital Project at TU Dublin

Avril is the Project Director for Build Digital, a €2.5million project funded by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, creating a National Centre of Excellence for Digital Construction in Ireland, as part of the priority actions of the Construction Sector Group’s Innovation and Digital Adoption Subgroup.
A Chartered Geomatics Surveyor, Avril’s research interests include all aspects of building information modelling and management, digital and lean construction, energy performance of buildings, and collaborative education.
Avril is a director of Lean Construction Ireland and a Fellow of both the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.