Aislinn is the CTO for Kainos Digital Services, delivering software solutions to customers across commercial, health and public sector.

She helps organisations transform digitally using Cloud technology, Data and AI and Intelligent Automation.  Her work centers on engineering excellence and tech exploration; helping customers make progressive technology decisions with positive impact.

People are at the heart of this; she focuses on developing a culture of support and challenge.

Damien Coyle, Professor of Neurotechnology, is currently Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre and Research Director in the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems at Ulster University.

He has published over 130 research papers in areas such as computational intelligence/AI, bio-signal processing, computational neuroscience, neuroimaging, neurotechnology and brain-computer interface (BCI) applications and has won a number of prestigious international awards for his research including the 2008 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award and the 2011 International Neural Network Society (INNS) Young Investigator of the Year Award. He was an Ulster University Distinguished Research Fellow in 2011, a Royal Academy of Engineering/The Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow in 2013 and a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow in 2016-2017. He is a founding member of the International Brain-Computer Interface Society, a Senior member of the IEEE and chairs the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) UKIreland chapter.

Professor Coyle is also CEO of NeuroCONCISE Ltd, the Ulster University spinout company he founded in 2016 to build wearable neurotechnology that non-invasively measures and translates brainwaves into control signals using advanced algorithms to enable people to interact with technology and communicate without moving which has applications in rehabilitation, diagnostics, augmentative and assistive communication devices and entertainment.

Danny is the Managing Director of EMEA & Global Programs at SVG Ventures | THRIVE, a leading investor in agri-food tech based in Silicon Valley. He is responsible for expanding their platform in the EMEA region while leading THRIVE’s award winning accelerator programs in Silicon Valley and Calgary. Now based in Dublin, Ireland, he previously spent time in London and New York working in management consulting and corporate innovation before founding two startups of his own. Danny sits on the Advisory Board of the International School of Agri- Management (ISAM) in Spain where he also teaches Entrepreneurship. He has a particular interest in emerging markets where he sees the potential of Agri-Food Tech to transform the lives of at-risk communities. He holds a Masters Degree in Marketing Practice from the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School (UCD) and a Bachelors of Business Studies from DCU.

Building a global career in the US, Asia and Europe, I embraced diverse cultures and fuelled my passion for helping early-stage and established organisations to scale and grow. I understand the challenges of international business, assisting entities and creative individuals to chart a path to success, maximising performance and business outcomes.

As a strong, confident leader who places people at the centre of success, I am happy to join up with others to achieve common goals, taking P&L accountability for regional businesses and disrupting business models. I set out inventive strategic visions aligned with corporate objectives that realise year-on-year growth and boost profitability.

I enjoy working with new early-stage and start-ups, helping talented entrepreneurs to secure the backing and support that helps to make their ideas a reality. I am proficient in micro funds, angel investment and syndication processes, building networks nationally and internationally that attract investors and enable companies to expand.

Adrian Johnston joined Catalyst NI as Director of Strategic Business Development in January 2022 to develop and strengthen strategic partnerships across industry, academia and government. His most recent role prior to this was as Director of Operations with Digital Catapult NI from December 2018 accelerating adoption of emerging digital technologies across industry and the public sector. He has 20 years technology leadership experience having previously worked for Seagate Technology in their Springtown facility heading the Data Science and Analytics team. With a PhD in Informatics and AI, Adrian has continued to drive research in advanced manufacturing and the adoption of AI, IOT and automation in complex data environments with both Ulster University and Queens University Belfast. His academic and industrial experience is enabling NI SME, Tech innovators, corporates and public sector adoption of emerging tech to enhance productivity, growth and the NI economy. Adrian was awarded the 2020 Ulster University Distinguished Graduate of the year for his work in this field. He continues to engage with the research community and contributes to a few initiatives on future Northern Ireland AI strategy, funding and policy including as a member of the NI Matrix Science Panel, the UKRI AI Review panel and the UK RD Place Strategy Advisory group.

Dr.Marc Pons is Engineer, MSc and PhD in Sustainability Science and Technology Currently the director of the Andorra Research + Innovation. He is also researcher at the Sustainability Institute of the BarcelonaTech (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) and assisiting professor at the University of Andorra.
He has worked on several research and engineering projects in Europe, Asia and North America with a strong focus on the the use of technology and Innovation for the sustainable transition in the fields of the Mountain Tourism, Energy, Mobility or Water management.

THE HALO brand is an imaginative, innovative and inspirational urban regeneration initiative
to revitalise former vacant land set within communities which are experiencing economic
challenges. HALO’s biggest economic asset is the untapped social capital of local
communities which have a huge beating heart
The first HALO project was completed in January 2022, it will create a dynamic commercial,
educational, cultural, leisure and lifestyle quarter in Marie’s hometown of Kilmarnock
Scotland. The development will be fuelled by renewable energy and is a focal point for
developing a skilled workforce, increased productivity as well as promoting enterprise and
innovation and opportunity for all.
This multi-faceted regeneration of a 28-acre site, formerly the home of Johnnie Walker, the
world’s leading Scotch whisky, will generate over £200million GDP for Scotland. The
development will stimulate over 1400 jobs.
The HALO Brand is being rolled out throughout the UK and Global economy.
Marie Macklin CBE is Executive Chair of Macklin Enterprise Partnerships.
Macklin Enterprise Partnerships seeks to invest in entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Macklin Enterprise Partnerships takes direct stakes in selected businesses or invests through
special-purpose funds created and managed with like-minded third parties. Marie takes the
lead in identifying potential partners and providing start-up and management advice to
selected entrepreneurs.

Before establishing Macklin Enterprise Partnerships, Marie had transformed a construction
business, founded by her father, into an entrepreneurial company engaged in economic and
social transformation in Scotland, after acquiring it in 2003. The KLIN Group, was
distinguished by her inspired and creative approach to investment and economic
regeneration. The company’s foundations had been set in revitalising land and property and
investing in challenging and demanding initiatives which helped to transform communities.
She was the first developer to locate a Wm. Morrison Supermarkets PLC in Scotland in an
£85M regeneration development.
Marie’s business career started in development, financial services and banking. She trained
as an accountant with Morrison Construction PLC, responsible for costing and sub-
contractor management. She joined MJ Marketing and Management Consultants, with
offices in Glasgow and New York, with responsibility for a portfolio of clients in various
sectors, assisting with business plans, marketing and branding.
In 1992, Royal Bank Invoice Finance head-hunted Marie to help establish a new operation
in Glasgow, involving the transfer of more than 500 Scottish and Northern UK customers
within a year. She was responsible for security, service and profitability, ultimately
becoming Head of Security and Services in a period marked by Black Wednesday. She was a
member of the Project Columbus team which led a fundamental restructuring of RBS’s UK
operations, including the tightening of credit controls.
Marie is a Board Member the Scottish Property Federation and until December 2015 Marie
was also on the Board of Management at Ayrshire College where she was Vice Chair of the
Finance and Property committees.
In October 2016, she was appointed to the Economic Leaders Board (ELB) by Lord William
Haughey OBE to oversee the Glasgow and Clyde Valley City Deal, a £1.1 billion
infrastructure initiative, funded by UK Government and Scottish Government.
Marie is also in 2017 was appointed as an Advisory Board Member of the Scottish
Chambers of Commerce and Women’s Enterprise Scotland –Women’s Business
Mentoring.
In March 2018 Marie was appointed to the Commercial Advisory Group of Sunderland
based Northern Housing Consortium (NHC).
In June 2018 Marie was invited by Scottish Power CEO Keith Anderson to be a founder
member of the Powerful Women mentoring scheme a collaboration between Scottish
Power the CBI Scotland and 18 founding Scottish Business leaders.

Marie is Patron to Centre Stage Communities, a social enterprise arts organisation which
works in communities in some of the most economic challenged areas in Scotland.
Marie has a long-established commitment to the development, excellence and philanthropy
of young people. She actively encourages entrepreneurs by advising, investing,
sponsoring and supporting schools, colleges, universities, arts and community organisations
to engage young people in business.
Marie also assists female entrepreneurs to build business networks through her initiative,
Women in Enterprise, in partnership with the Association of Scottish Business Women,
whose Award for Outstanding Contribution to Business she received in 2013. In 2015, the
Association named her as Woman of Inspiration to Business in Scotland.
During November 2016, Marie was recognised by the Scottish Business Awards as
Scotland’s Female Business Leader of the year.
In March 2017, she was named Non-Executive Director of the year by the Institute of
Directors Scotland (IoD), for her engagement with business Appointedd.
Also, in March 2017 Glasgow Caledonian University awarded Marie an Alumna for
Lifetime Achievement in business.
In October 2017, she was named Scotland’s Business Woman of the year by Women’s
Enterprise Scotland.
In July 2018 Marie was invited by the University Senate at Glasgow Caledonia University
(GCU) to accept an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
In recognition for outstanding contribution to the business world and outstanding
She was awarded The Belfast Ambassador Medal 2018 at The Belfast International
Homecoming – Capital and Investment Conference for services to the communities of
Belfast.
She was awarded a C.B.E in the Queens 2014 New Year’s Honours List for Services to
Economic Regeneration and Entrepreneurship in Scotland.

Clea is a Partner and the Head of Science at Lowercarbon Capital and leads all of the firm’s technical research, development, diligence, and scientific strategy efforts. Clea’s distinguished career has always been focused on solving the climate emergency through innovation in technology, business models, and policy.

Prior to joining Lowercarbon, she worked at San Francisco-based energy consulting firm, E3, where she developed electricity resource planning models and economy-wide decarbonization plans for entire states, utilities, and asset owners, with a focus on the role of hard science emerging technologies like hydrogen production methods, long-duration energy storage, biomass conversion, carbon sequestration, geothermal and advanced nuclear. She led the analysis on over 15 projects in her 2 years at E3 including “Achieving Carbon Neutrality in California” (link) for the California Air Resources Board, “Net-Zero New England: Ensuring Electric Reliability in a Low-Carbon Future” (link) in collaboration with the Energy Futures Initiative, and another on “Examining the Role of Nuclear for Decarbonizing the Pacific Northwest”(link).

Clea also co-founded her own company focused on access to clean cooking fuels in West Africa, having previously worked on clean energy access and investment across emerging markets in East and North Africa. Some of her field research is summarized here. Before that, Clea worked for Veolia, a global leader in waste management and conversion, where she developed investment strategies for non-ferrous metal extraction from biological waste streams and monitoring technologies for ozone-depleting substances.

Clea earned her Ph.D. in chemical engineering and energy policy at Imperial College London. She was awarded the Grantham Institute’s full scholarship to conduct her Ph.D. and went on to be the student representative of the Grantham Institute at the Paris COP21 Climate Conference. Clea conducted her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Imperial College London and was the only student selected to spend a year at Columbia University in New York.

Clea’s Ph.D. work focused on the techno-economics of large scale carbon capture and storage systems, part of which she conducted at Stanford University’s Energy Resources & Engineering department. With multiple publications under her belt, including “Cost and Performance of Some Carbon Capture Technology Options for Producing Different Quality CO2 Product Streams” (link) and “CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery: A Catalyst for Gigatonne-Scale Carbon Capture and Storage Deployment?” (link) each cited dozens of times, she was invited to present her research at several international conferences including at the distinguished Stanford Energy Seminar in 2018.

Clea sits on the technical advisory board of Third Derivative, a hard science-driven climate innovation accelerator founded by the Rocky Mountain Institute. She is also a founding fellow of On Deck’s first Climate Tech program where she advises entrepreneurs and scientists on key areas of focus on climate innovation. Clea has moderated and led panel discussions for groups such as AirMiners and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute’s (CELI) annual emPower conference on the future of a decarbonized economy, and US federal policy on climate.

Clea is a global nomad of Iranian and Danish descent. She has lived in Paris, London, New York, Tunis, Nairobi, and Washington, D.C., and along the way, she picked up five languages (more or less). Clea is also an avid alpine skier, US Sailing certified sailor who’s crewed boats over 35 feet long, a two-time half-marathon runner, and long-distance cyclist who once biked from London to Paris (~300 miles) in under 4 days raising more than $10k for a refugee support group along the way.

Giancarlo Di Vece is the CEO of Unosquare, a growing 800 person global software consultancy that operates in 8 countries and 3 continents. During his time as CEO, Giancarlo has exponentially transformed the organization to scale – doubling in size in the last two years. With a fierce purpose of democratizing opportunity across the globe, Giancarlo and his leadership team work endlessly not only to find and attract the best talent anywhere in the world, but also guiding and facilitating the careers of those who decide to become part of Unosquare.

By caring about the community, its people, and the future of inclusive business, Unosquare has achieved the rarified status of being on the Inc 5000 Fastest growing companies 7 years in a row – a feat achieved by the likes of companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Patagonia to name a few. In addition to this, Unosquare has received awards in multiple countries for Innovation, Life-Work Balance, and Employee Satisfaction.

Giancarlo’s enthusiasm and contributions have been sought out as inspiration for others, he is often invited to write for Entrepreneur, Forbes, CIO.com as well as to speak at different events that influence the industry.

John is a Professor of Computer Science at the Open University, Director of the Knowledge Media Institute [1], the OU’s technology research and innovation centre, and the President of STI International [2], a semantics focused networking organization. He has published over 280 refereed articles (h-index 56) in the areas of semantics, the Web, distributed ledgers and eLearning. His current work focuses on how a combination of blockchain and Linked Data technologies can be used to process personal data in a decentralised trusted manner and how this can be applied in the educational domain [3].

Prof. Domingue currently serves as the leader of the first of five themes, on University Learners, for the £20M funded Institute of Coding [4] which aims to increase the number and diversity of computing graduates in the UK as well as enhancing the connection between university teaching and corporate training.

Since January 2019, he has played a leading role in the EU funded QualiChain project [5] which has the aim of revolutionising public education and its relationship to the labour market and policy making by disrupting the way accredited educational titles and other qualifications are archived, managed, shared and verified, taking advantage of blockchain, semantics, data analytics and gamification technologies.

Until February 2020 Prof. Domingue was also a key player in the European Blockchain Observatory [6] supporting the European Commission on road-mapping the future of this technology in a number of key sectors.

February 2020 saw the start of a new EU project, DEL4All [7], where under Prof Domingue’s leadership the OU will aid in road-mapping how education will be transformed due to the impact of blockchains, AI, data and augmented and virtual reality technologies.

In 2017 Prof Domingue’s research in blockchains and education was referenced in the Joint Research Centre Policy Report Blockchain in Education for the European Commission [8]. Prof. Domingue has given many talks on his work including at the Royal Institution in 2018 [9] and at TEDx [10].

Very recently his focused has centred on our blockchain based platform could be applied for COVID-19 Anti Body Test and Vaccination certification which has attracted attention from the media [11].

Last year he became a Fellow of the British Blockchain Association [12].

1. http://kmi.open.ac.uk/
2. https://www.sti2.org/
3. http://blockchain.open.ac.uk/
4. https://instituteofcoding.org/
5. https://qualichain-project.eu/
6. https://www.eublockchainforum.eu/
7. https://www.del4all.eu/
8. https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC108255/jrc108255_blockchain_in_education%281%29.pdf#page=66
9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwYDMdji3k
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPefcmWFWyM&t=6s
11. https://blockchain.open.ac.uk/#covid-19
12. https://www.britishblockchainassociation.org/fellowship

John spent his early career coding for a healthcare tech company in Pittsburgh before a 15 year stint in media. A journalist and editor at the North Belfast News, John also ran Ireland’s most successful independent food website, Forked.
In 2013 John launched a wifi software technology startup, which was used in restaurants, cafés, hotels, stadia and vehicles around the world.
John joined Entrepreneurial Spark in 2015 to help support ambitious startups throughout Ireland. The social enterprise was bought over by NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank in 2018. Since joining the team John has worked to support 7000+ startups across the country. Those businesses have raised £35m+ in investment and created more than 1000 jobs.
Since 2019, John sits as a member of Ulster Bank’s Regional Board and leads on climate and the drive to support a more diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northern Ireland.

at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, since 2013. His area of expertise is cardiovascular science, and he has been credited with the discovery of the multipotent heart progenitors which build the human heart (1).

Professor Chien is a third generation Harvard alumnus, following his father and grandfather (2), and earned a BA from Harvard College in Biology in 1973. He earned his PhD and MD from Pennsylvania’s Temple University, and continued to study internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Chien became a member of the faculty at the University of California at San Diego, acting as director of the Institute for Molecular Medicine from 2000 to 2005, with an adjunct appointment as a Professor of the Salk Institute. Chien then worked as Scientific Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital from 2005 to 2012, concurrent to directing the Cardiovascular Program of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute from 2007 to 2013. In 2013 Chien received a Presidential appointment as Professor of Medicine and Cell and Molecular Biology and Director or the Wallenberg-Cardiovascular Initiative at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden (1).

He has over three decades of experience as a senior advisor-SAB member in the biotechnology sector (2), and his work as Director of the Cardiovascular Program of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, led to his co-founding, in 2010, of Moderna Therapeutics. In 2011, the Chien Lab made the discovery of the high efficiency expression of VEGF mRNA in heart muscle, resulting in a patent on the discovery that triggered mRNA towards therapeutic applications. In 2013, Chien and his associates documented the ability of VEGF mRNA for coronary vascular regeneration and to reverse the onset of heart dysfunction, thereby opening the potential of using synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce therapeutic desired effects in a patient’s muscle cells. In February 2019, AstraZeneca and the Chien lab reported the first in human study of an mRNA therapeutic, noting reversal of vascular dysfunction in diabetic patients by VEGF mRNA (3). At Karolinska, the Chien lab documented the ability to generate large numbers of human Islet ventricular heart progenitor cells from human embryonic stem cells, which resulted in a partnership with Astrazeneca to move the project toward clinical application (4).

For his work, Professor Chien has received several awards (1). Chien is a recipient of the Walter Bradford Cannon Award of the American Physiological Society and the Pasarow Award. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and has received an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Edinburgh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_R._Chien
https://www.eqtgroup.com/About-EQT/EQT-network/kenneth-chien/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08852-4

AstraZeneca, SWIBCo Launch Stem Cell Cardiovascular Therapy Collaboration

Luis Alonso is a research scientist in the City Science group and Principal Investigator of the Andorra Living Lab Project. He has a PhD in architecture and coordinates the Andorra Living Lab project. He oversees the integration of the group’s diverse research topics (energy consumption, city simulation, urban mobility, innovation district, and smart housing) in the City Science Network of Collaborative Cities, to provide comprehensive solutions for urban and country challenges, in order to transform cities into more diverse and vibrant “human scale ecosystems.”

Since he is focused on very different lines of research and work, his antidisciplinary approach fits on the Media Lab philosophy: City Science, urban indicators, big data analysis, urban planning, architectural robotics, building design and construction, new and smart materials (free-form transparent energy efficient envelopes and biomedical uses), energy simulation and building efficiency and sustainability, eco-innovation, e-learning and its impact on social networks, new technologies, IoT, etc.

Mark O’Connell is CEO and founder of OCO. Mark has worked in more than 80 countries and has cultivated in depth government, industry and trade association networks across the world.

Core experience includes strategy and policy, business, sector and market analysis and evaluation, business planning, project management and performance review.

Mark is currently a Board Member of the International Economic Development Council.

Mary Ann Pierce is founder and CEO of MAP Digital. She is a Webcast pioneer and for over 20 years she has produced cloud-enabled events on MAP Digital’s proprietary MetaMeetings platform, the only integrated enterprise event SaaS platform. Mary Ann and the MAP Digital team are enabling the Event 3.0 era by transforming conferences into content marketing engines with MAP Digital’s Content-as-a-service automation. Repurposed event content from their MetaMeetings platform fuels the campfires of event communities and amplifies the event’s thought leadership, brand via video snippets distributed over social media and media channels to build audience and sponsorship revenue.

For 20 years the MAP Digital team has deployed the MetaMeetings® platform to run the entire digital infrastructure for global investment banking, pharmaceutical, Marcom and CEO Council conferences. MAP Digital helps their clients transform their conferences into strategic business channels. At MAP Digital giving back is fundamental. We use our MetaMeetings platform for Social Good working with the Global Summit of Women, the Equality Moonshot, and Capital as a Force for Good, a community of financial service CEOs funding sustainability. She is the Global Ambassador of the AwakenHub, the first all-Ireland accelerator for women, which will soon be expanding within the Irish Diaspora.

Mary Ann Pierce studied film and communications at Temple University before working in direct marketing, corporate communications, film, theater, and arts management. She has served on the board of Digital Irish, advised the MIT Enterprise Forum NYC and Silicon Republic’s Inspirefest in Dublin, and taught digital event design at New York University. She is the Global Ambassador of the Awaken Hub, the first female founder accelerator spanning all Ireland and expanding within the Irish Diaspora.

Pierce has presented at many events, including the annual meetings of IMEX, PCMA, MPI, and Global Summit of Women. MAP Digital has embraced empowering Women and Girls in STEM as their Corporate Social Responsibility. In 2017, Meetings & Conventions magazine listed her among the Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry, and in 2020, Meetings Today magazine named her a Trendsetter.

Mary McKenna is a Donegal based serial technology entrepreneur and angel investor. She was one of the co-founders of successful Irish online learning company Learning Pool which is based in Derry in the North West of Ireland.

Since selling Learning Pool 7 years ago Mary has worked extensively with earlier stage startups and scaleups across the entire European startup ecosystem and especially with first time and female entrepreneurs. She has angel invested in 16 early stage tech startups to date.

She is an EU Horizon Europe innovation judge, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Oxford and in 2020 along with some likeminded friends she launched the AwakenHub community for female founders across the island of Ireland.

Mary was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2014 New Year’s Honours for services to digital technology, innovation and learning.

Professor Nixon holds a PhD in Computer Engineering from Sheffield University. A technologist and computer scientist, Professor Nixon was previously the Vice-Chancellor of the multi-campus Ulster University in Northern Ireland. No stranger to Australian shores, he moved to Tasmania in 2010 where he was  Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research — delivering significant growth in both rankings and research funding—before returning to the United Kingdom.

Professor Nixon has a deep understanding of the nexus between industry and university research having had significant industrial and commercial experience through collaborations with INTEL, Microsoft Research, HP, Oracle and IBM as well as being involved in start-ups and establishing the Irish national early stage technology incubator.

He is deeply committed to the civic obligations of a university and recognises the critical and unique role the University of Canberra plays in the ACT. Professor Nixon believes that modern universities need meaningful engagement with their students, their staff, industry partners and the community to deliver consistent and compelling impact.

Professor Damien Coyle is a Professor of Neurotechnology, Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre at Ulster University’s Magee Campus and a UKRI Turing AI Acceleration Fellow 2021-25. His research focuses on developing AI to address challenges associated with translating electrophysiological signals into control signals for brain-computer interface (BCI) based neurotechnology and trialling these developments on a large scale.

He has published over 150 research papers in areas such as computational intelligence/AI, bio-signal processing, computational neuroscience, neuroimaging, neurotechnology and brain-computer interface (BCI) applications and has won a number of prestigious international awards including the 2008 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, the 2011 International Neural Network Society (INNS) Young Investigator of the Year Award and the IET and E&T Innovation of the Year Award 2018.

He was an Ulster University Distinguished Research Fellow in 2011, a Royal Academy of Engineering/The Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow in 2013, a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow in 2016-2017 and is currently an Ulster Senior Distinguished Research Fellow.

He is a founding member of the International Brain-Computer Interface Society, an IEEE Brain Steering Committee member, an advisory board member for the UK Neurotechnology Innovation Network, and chairs the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) UK-Ireland chapter. He is the Founder and CEO of NeuroCONCISE Ltd, an award-winning, AI-enabled, wearable neurotechnology company.

Seamus McAteer is an entrepreneur, and operator. He is currently Founder in Residence at AI Fund. After a career as a frequently quoted analyst with SRI International and Jupiter Communications he founded M:Metrics, a global syndicated data  currency for the mobile Internet that was acquired by Comscore in 2008.  Seamus founded and successfully sold two other startups: Metaresolver, an ad tech platform acquired by Millennial Media, and Datasnap, a location analytics platform acquired by Neustar. More recently he joined Otter.ai as employee number seven to lead commercial activity He was instrumental in launching their product and scaling the business/

Seamus lives in San Francisco with his wife Madeline and 10 year old son Thomas. He runs occasional half marathons and loves live music—the louder the better. He helps out at a number of nonprofits and is on the Board of Governors of Ohlhoff Recovery Programs, the largest non-profit program working with addicts in San Francisco.

Sean Flood is an experienced entrepreneur with a passion for companies in the mobility, sustainability, advertising and health & wellness space.

For 12 years prior to overseeing the sale of the company to Last Mile Holdings (MILE on TSX), Sean was Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Gotcha Mobility (ridegotcha.com), an e-mobility company dedicated to providing innovative shared mobility products and technologies that get people out of single-occupancy cars and safely onto accessible, sustainable electric mobility products. The company operates e-bikes, e-scooters, and etrikes as transportation solutions tailored to cities and universities across the US. Gotcha was recognized as one of America’s fastest-growing companies in 2018 and 2019 on the Inc. 5000 list and was a finalist on Fast Company’s 2019 World Changing Ideas Awards in the Health and Wellness category for providing students with sustainable micro-transit products that encourage healthy lifestyles. In 2019, Sean received Charleston Regional Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 award for his entrepreneurship in launching Gotcha and community involvement. Sean was also CEO of Rivet Campus Media (rivetcampusmedia.com) (Owned by Private Equity firm MSouth), the largest on campus collegiate advertising platform. He oversaw growth of 125% in two years and partnerships with 148 universities around the country. Currently, Sean is a Founding Partner at EFO Ventures, an early stage investment firm focused on investing in founders in the mobility, cleantech & health and wellness sectors. Sean is a graduate of Florida State University’s Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship with an additional degree in Marketing.

As Director of Technology Transfer and International Relations at the Parque Tecnológico de Andalucía (PTA), internationally known as Málaga TechPark, she coordinates the international strategy of the park. Holding a Master’s degree in Integrated Management of Science and Technology Parks, Sonia Palomo has a global vision, therefore, to innovation, technology transfer and technology parks. Her main activities are the design, implementation and coordination of European and international projects, the promotion of technology transfer actions, the creation of sectorial groups, international cooperation to implement innovative strategies and the organisation and coordination of events at local, national and international level. Sonia Palomo has also been, for several years, coordinator of the training department of the Park, coordinating the preparation of educational programmes, studies, analysis and design of courses.

Dr. Whoriskey has helped build some of the most successful Biotechnology companies from the ground up as a member of the Founding Executive Teams of Vera Therapeutics, Moderna, Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Cubist Pharmaceuticals. These companies have pioneered cutting edge technologies and developed lifesaving medicines and protective vaccines, creating significant value and contributing numerous jobs to the local economies. As head of Technology Strategy, Susan played a unique role in the C-Suites creating cohesion at the interface of research, intellectual property, and business in the critical early phases of translating the “big science idea” from the lab bench to the clinic. This included managing company growth through seed and venture funding, scientific proof of concept, IPOs, clinical development, and the achievement of multiple FDA drug approvals. Cubist was purchased by Merck in 2014 for $9.5B. Momenta was acquired by J & J in 2020 for $6.5B. Moderna and Vera Therapeutics remain independent public companies.

Susan has held various positions in academics, venture capital and biotech executive management. She has been a Research Fellow in Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School with a Nobel Laureate, a consultant to venture capital firm Polaris Venture Partners, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT.

Dr. Whoriskey earned a PH.D. in Molecular Biology & Molecular Genetics from UCLA and a Bachelor of Science in microbiology from University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She is a proud recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Biotechnology and Entrepreneurism from the University of Ulster. She is an inventor on 50 issued and pending patents and has written grants that have received over $30M in federal funding for scientific research.

CEO/Founder of Instil Software, a product-focused software engineering consultancy based in Belfast. Built on a foundation of engineering, design and product excellence, we develop software for and provide developer training to some of the world’s leading technology firms.

Personally, I have 30 years broad industry experience, including 10 years writing compilers and emulation software, and 20 years developing software for the telecoms, medical, audio, security and insurance industries.