Chris Ball - Director of Corporate Finance with Russell Brennan Keane

He is responsible for providing advice and assistance to clients through the business lifecycle - from starting the business, expanding, and dealing with crises right through to selling the business or passing ownership on to the next generation.

Chris has recently been involved in significant acquisition projects, management buyouts and strategic management reviews.

Chris is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a BComm from NUI Galway.

James Browne - FCCA; Dip IFRS, DBS ACCA Course Director

As Head of the Accounting and Finance Department at DBS, James has extensive lecturing experience in the area of Costing, Management Accounting, Financial Accounting and Financial Management. As an FCCA James strives to include a strong practical emphasis in this course reflecting his wide ranging multinational and practical experience. James also acts as the ACCA representative on the Accounting Standards Committee of the Consultative Committee of Accounting Bodies (Ireland).

Julie Burke - JM Burke Tax Solicitors

Julie Burke, Solicitor, (Ireland and UK) has over twenty years post qualification experience primarily advising on contentious tax issues and resolving tax disputes with the Revenue.

She was appointed to the Commission on Taxation in February 2008.

John Coolican -Director, CFM Capital

John has advised on many significant transactions including eircom's purchase of Meteor and the Aer Lingus shareholder group on defence against 2 Ryanair bids. He was a director at the founding of Merrion Capital and spent 5 years in Silicon Valley with KPMG's hi-technology consulting practice.

Ciarán Desmond - Managing Partner - Maguire Desmond Solicitors

Ciaran advises on structuring of domestic and international corporate acquisitions, mergers and reorganisations, inward investment, tax investments, property development, cross border tax planning, pension structure planning and high net worth individuals' tax planning. In addition he has extensive experience in all areas of employment law, company law and revenue contentious litigation cases as well as expertise in large family law disputes.

Ciaran has been the advisor in a number of leading taxation cases in Ireland including two successful Supreme Court decisions against the revenue (Harris v Revenue Commissioners and the H William decision on interest deductibility)

He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Irish Taxation Institute.

Gerry Devitt - Harvest Financial Solutions

Gerry has over 20 years experience in the pensions industry, having previously worked with Pension and Investment Consultants and NCB Stockbrokers.

Gabrielle Dillon - D. O'Brien & Associates

Gabrielle is a director with Dermot O'Brien & Associates. Gabrielle has specialised in VAT since 1998 and previously worked as a VAT manager with BDO Simpson Xavier. Gabrielle qualified as an associate of the Irish Taxation Institute in 2002 and holds a Barrister-at-law degree and a BA in European Studies (Law). Gabrielle has experience in a broad range of VAT issues at both Irish and European level and has a particular interest in VAT and Property.

Paul Dillon - Tax Partner, Duignan Carthy O'Neill

He has extensive experience gained working in practice and in industry. He is responsible for tax consultancy and tax compliance for a wide portfolio of corporate and personal clients. He undertakes several one-off transactions such as international taxation issues and withholding tax, group restructurings, sale & valuation of companies.

Mairead Divilly - Partner, Mazars

Mairéad's professional experience spans audit, business advisory and outsourced accounting, payroll and financial management services to both the public and private sector. She acts as mentor to many indigenous enterprises for the management and development of their businesses. Her work includes improving company profitability and advising on future growth of the business. Mairéad also works closely with the Small Firms Association in providing a support service to its executive. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

John Doris - Meridian Business Advisors

John is principal of Meridian Business Advisors Limited and a non-executive director of a number of companies including Prime Active Capital plc.

Ken Fennell - Partner, Kavanagh Fennell

Ken has worked in the insolvency field for the past 18 years. He has worked on a wide variety of assignments in both the large and SME business sectors. Ken is a Member of the Institute of Accounting Technicians of Ireland and the Irish Society of Insolvency Practitioners. He is a regular contributor to business publications and the media on insolvency matters.

Liam Grimes - KPMG

Liam is a Taxation Director with KPMG. He has over 30 years experience in taxation in both the Private and Public Sectors. He has lectured extensively on taxation matters to advisers and accountants working in practice. Liam specialises in corporate restructuring and inward investment. He is a member of Main TALC and two sub committees dealing with technical issues and Revenue Audits.

Julie Herlihy - BA, ACA, AITI

Julie, a chartered accountant, joined the practice as tax partner in September 2006 due to continued strong growth and development of the practice. She was previously a tax director in KPMG and has extensive experience in advising family businesses, high net worth individuals and multinational groups.

She is currently chairman of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants and a member of the of the CCAB-I Taxation Committee. She lectures and writes tax articles for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and the Irish Taxation Institute and lectures for Mercia Ireland and the 2020 Group.

Christy Kearney - FCA

Christy is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is currently a self-employed business consultant and was previously a financial controller of a large multi-national company in Cork.

He has undertaken extensive speaking engagements in financial reporting and he has lectured and examined at final level.

Robert Kirk - BScn, FCA, CPA

Qualified as a charted accountant in Belfast. He is Professor of Financial Reporting in the School of Accounting at the University of Ulster. Robert has published several books on accounting standards and travels extensively around the world to speak to accountants on financial reporting standards.

Cormac Lucey

A Chartered accountant with many years experience in industry and in corporate finance both in Ireland and in Germany. He also worked as a special Advisor to the Minister for Justice between 2003 and 2007. He is an Associate of the Irish Management Institute.

Sandra McDonald

Sandra Mc Donald has over 25 years experience in taxation having begun her career with the Revenue Commissioners and worked with two of the big four practices. Until recently Sandra was a Tax Director with Ernst & Young, Galway. She has now set up her own tax practice. Sandra advises clients on a broad range of Irish tax issues and also International taxes. She has lectured and presented to the Institute of Taxation and Institute of Bankers and is currently lecturing in NUI Galway.

Tom Murray - Partner, Friel Stafford

Tom is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Before moving into Corporate Recovery and Insolvency, Tom developed wide ranging experience in professional finance roles with a number of leading International and Irish businesses. He is a member of the Irish Institute of Credit Mannagement and the Irish Society of Insolvency Practitioners.

Colm Nagle - BDO Simpson Xavier

Colm is Partner with BDO Simpson Xavier, specialising in Audit, Business Assurance and Advisory Services, and Family Business Services.

Des O'Neill - Director, OmniPro

Des co-founded OmniPro in 2003 and was involved in all aspects of the company's establishment and growth to its current status.

Des is one of the countries best known speakers on Auditing and Accounting matters and presents at OmniPro seminars and seminars organised by accountancy Institutes both nationally and internationally. Des is a regular contributor to the accountancy profession through a combination of seminars, publications, articles, tools and new processes in the areas of practice development, strategy, personal development, technical standards and regulatory accountancy issues.

Auditing Practices Board (UK & Ireland) - Member of the SME Audit Committee
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants - Member of the practitioners network
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants - Final auditing paper examination moderator
Institute of Certified Public Accountants - Council Member and member of Education & Training Committee, Practicing Accountants Committee and Financial Reporting Committee representing the views and protecting the best interest of members.
Institute of Certified Public Accountants - Practice Review Executive regulating practicing members to ensure compliance with the regulatory regime and providing technical, practical and ethical support to members of the Institute.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, O'Neill Foley, Bailey & Associates - Auditor and Accountant
Past & Current Speaking Engagements ACCA, ICPAI, IIPA, IAI, Lithuanian Chamber of Auditors, Institute of Internal Auditors, County & City Enterprise Boards.

Micheal O'Neill - Director, OmniPro

Micheal co-founded and managed Web Solutions a website design company in 2001. This company was established during Micheal's first year in University and operated until 2003. Micheal's main focus during this time was business development and sales and he managed to make successful sales presentations to many companies ranging from SME's to some of the countries largest PLC's.

From the lessons learned in Web Solutions Micheal went on to co-found OmniPro in 2003. During the early years Micheal managed all aspects of business management, development and operation. Micheal is currently responsible for the overall management and development of OmniPro from a Strategy, HR, Operations & Marketing perspective. He co-ordinates the activities of each of the OmniPro Companies to successfully achieve their business objectives.

David Parmenter - Waymark Solutions, NZ.

David is an international presenter who is known for his thought provoking and lively sessions, which have led to substantial change in many organisations. David is a leading expert in: the development of winning KPIs, replacing the annual planning process with quarterly rolling planning, quick month-end processes and making reporting a decision based tool.

His work on KPIs has received international recognition through; an award from the International Federation of Accountants, the popularity of his webcasts on www.bettermanagement.com, and the success of his KPI book.

He has speaking engagements as far a field as Auckland, Wellington, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Johannesburg, Dublin, London, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Conor Sweeney - Director, OmniPro

Conor trained as a Chartered Secretary in the Corporate Legal Advisory department of KPMG, where he gained extensive experience in annual compliance, share registration, corporate re-organisations, company cessations and restorations, through working with a large portfolio of clients. Conor also worked as a Company Secretary for Deutsche Bank in the IFSC providing Company Secretarial Services to Special Purpose Vehicles ("SPV") and internal Deutsche Bank group Companies.

Past & Current Speaking Engagements ICAI, ACCA, ICPAI, County & City Enterprise Boards, Chambers of Commerce.

Brendan Twohig - Tax Director, MK Brazil

Brendan Twohig is a tax consultant with the Waterford office of MK Brazil and specialises in providing support consultancy services to clients and other professional advisors. Brendan has worked with both national and international firms and is an experienced speaker and author on tax issues.

Gerry Vahey - Partner, Mazars

Gerry has extensive experience in transaction support, reconstructions and amalgamations, succession planning and the tax efficient structuring of the sale and acquisition of companies. Gerry is a frequent speaker to business organisations on various taxation matters, such as Revenue
Audits, Business Expansion Scheme (BES), Employee Incentive Plans, Tax Based Property, Corporation and Capital Gains Tax.

Paul Wyse - Managing Director, Smith Williamson Freaney

Paul specialises in the area of corporate finance and business advisory services. Paul has advised on many acquisitions and disposals of family/owner managed businesses. He is regularly called on to act as expert witeness