A long-time PMI volunteer, Jennifer previously served on the PMI Board of Directors for eight years as the Audit Committee chair and vice chair. During her PMI Board service, she has guided the Institute through global expansion and acquisitions, diversity efforts, rebranding, and organizational transformation. As president of Mastodon Consulting, Jennifer Tharp works closely with boards, counsel, and the executive leadership of large, public companies and startup technology firms to increase fiduciary oversight, transparency, and accountability. She has also developed strategic plans for public companies, municipalities, and the state of California. She is an author and editor of the book “Sustainability Integration for Effective Project Management”, which examines how projects can be executed more sustainably. Jennifer holds a BSBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and has taught leadership and project management at the University of California, Berkeley.

Alan Smeaton is Professor of Computing at Dublin City University and a Founding Director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. His expertise is in using AI and machine learning in the analysis of all kinds of visual media, and in the application of AI to learning analytics. Alan is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and winner of the Academy's Gold Medal for Engineering Sciences. He is a former Board member of Irish Research Council, was a member of the inaugural Scientific Committee for the EU COST program, is a Fellow of the IEEE and of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, and a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE. He is a winner of the ACM SIGMM award for outstanding technical contribution to multimedia computing, communications and applications. He was appointed to the Irish Government's AI Advisory Council in January 2024.

Simon McGarr is a lawyer with McGarr Solicitors in Dublin, and the managing director of Data Compliance Europe, a global consultancy on GDPR and data protection matters. He is a Senior Policy Advisor for M3AAWG and a guest lecturer with the European Academy of Law in Trier as well as the External Examiner for the Law Society of Ireland on Data Protection. He has represented clients in both the landmark Digital Rights Ireland and Schrems I cases before the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the EU. He is also a regular contributor to Data Protection matters within the media and has presented to the Oireachtas several times.

Ciarán is a Partner in Data & Analytics, specialising in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence. He leads our Artificial Intelligence Lab in Ireland which he helped launch in September 2022. Ciarán partners with EY’s clients to understand their challenging business problems and to develop innovative solutions, leveraging data, analytics and AI services to support them in transforming their operations. He has been recognised as Analytics practitioner of the year in Ireland in 2020 and is a part time lecturer for AI and Machine Learning. His passion lies in the intersection between people and AI.

Jackie has over 25 years plus experience in Portfolio, Program & Project Management, driving transformational change by setting up and running VRO / Portfolio Management Offices in Telecommunications, Health and Insurance. At present a Director of Value Realisation Office at Munich Re, and a certified PMP and PfMP with a B.SC in Computer Science (TCD) and a Masters in Programme/Project Management (UL). Currently a member of the faculty and lecturer for the Institute of Project Management (IPMA) lecturing on their Level D Diploma in Project Management, and Level C Diploma in Strategic Project and Program Management offerings. In addition, she has volunteered for the Chapter for over 10 Years, is Past President of the Ireland Chapter of PMI and has been a member of the Judging committee PMO Global Awards (PMO Global Alliance). A lifelong learner, she has a keen interest in the impact of AI and Sustainability in the Project Management Domain.

Rebecca is Head of the Intelligent Automation Service in Expleo Group where she is responsible for the development and delivery of Expleo' s intelligent automation capabilities, which support clients in the deployment and scaling of automation solutions within their organizations. For Expleo, she has built a Global Service Offering by developing a Methodology and Best Practice Approach to implementing and deploying automation solutions. She runs the Expleo Intelligent Automation Global Centre of Excellence from Dublin, supporting the roll out of the service globally. The Service utilizes a range of technologies, including RPA, OCR, chat bots, process mining, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence. She is also responsible for establishing and maintaining Expleo' s strategic relationships with software providers and regularly speaks at industry events providing real world insights into the challenges of deploying automated solutions.

Kieran McCorry is the National Technology Officer for Microsoft in Ireland and has worked in the technology industry for over 30 years. He is a frequent speaker at worldwide conferences, is the author of four books, has presented multiple papers and articles, and holds several patents. He has a variety of degrees and post-graduate qualifications in computer science, law, corporate governance, digital policy, innovation and enterprise development, and data protection. He sits on several industry boards and Government forums, focused on technology skills development and strategic planning and is a Fellow of the Irish Computer Society.

Declan is an industry leader in project delivery and change management and is ranked in the top 10 Thought Leaders in project management by Thinkers 360. He is the co-author of an award-winning, best-selling book - Humology: How to put humans back at the heart of technology. Declan has an honours degree in Artificial Intelligence and is studying AI for Business at Oxford University. His new start-up, Project Pal AI, is an AI-enabled project management tool that improves the quality and consistency of communications and reporting for project management professionals while providing significant efficiency savings.

Brian is a Partner in Mason Hayes Currann Law Firm and is Head of their Artificial Intelligence (AI) team. Prior to re-joining the firm in January of 2023 he spent time in-house as Chief Intellectual Property counsel with an Irish AI fintech start-up. During that time, he gained significant experience in operationalising and commercialising AI platforms and solutions. He led AI invention harvesting and international patent and trademark portfolio filing projects. He was also part of a team that conceived and developed a bespoke in-house software invention and R&D tagging tool that has applications in the trade secret space also. Brian helps clients prepare for compliance with the AI Act.

Moss is CEO and Co-Founder at Symantiq and brings over a decade of product expertise, specialising in tech-enabled stakeholder engagement. Proficient in deploying cutting-edge solutions like AI, VR, and AR, he harnesses Big Data through LLM Contextualisation for user sentiment analysis and insights for enterprise clients across Engagement and HR functions. Led development of advanced voice-note feedback tool for businesses and public organisations, enhancing decision-making and stakeholder engagement. Managed global team of AI experts across multiple locations, leveraging large datasets and synthetic rendering to enhance technology value. Managed digital engagement for Credit Suisse's sponsorship of Financial Times Media at Canary Wharf. Winning multiple corporate and public sector tenders for Freebike, a smart city transport solution in London. Expanded docking into key areas through strategic lobbying. Secured partnerships including Revolut, growing Freebike's user base to over a million. Plus multiple projects at tier-1 orgs and Scale-Ups including: Parcelly, Standard Bank and Saudi Aramco.

Sean is the winner of the 60th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE). Aged 17, a 5th year student from Coláiste Chiaráin in Limerick, has won the top prize with his project, VerifyMe: A new approach to authorship attribution in the post-ChatGPT era. Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November of 2022, the line between human-written and AI-generated text has blurred, leaving academia and industry searching for a reliable method to discern “true” human authorship. In his project, Seán considered the challenges of author verification in the context of the significant improvements in Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. He developed a novel approach to author authentication that identifies stylistic differences to verify authorship.

Keith Coughlan is a Digital Portfolio Manager for Aer Lingus’ Technology Delivery team. He is a Software Engineer turned Project and Portfolio Manager with over 20 years’ experience working on high value Digital Projects in Telecommunications, Government and Aviation sectors. He began his career developing eLearning applications for UCD whilst on scholarship for an MBS in eCommerce at the Smurfit School of Business. After graduation Keith specialized in the design and development of self-service web applications (mymeteor) for Meteor Mobile Communications. His shift to project management began with a move to Brussels to work for the European Commission where he worked with National European Governments and Poison Centres on digital projects to regulate pharmaceutical products. Keith has spent the last 6 years working closely with Aer Lingus’ Customer focused Business teams to deliver important customer focused Digital Projects, the latest of which include the introduction of Revolut as a form of Payment on web and mobile, the migration to Amazon Connect for Contact Centre Operations and the introduction of Robotic Process Automation for Customer Care transactions. Throughout his career Keith has maintained a strong focus on high availability digital self-service for customers.

Joe is Director of Project Management & lecturer at UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business, Dublin, Joe has been full-time teaching project management and other management subjects at Smurfit since 2005. International Executive MBA graduate (UCD 2004). Professional Postgraduate Diploma in University Teaching & Learning (UCD 2016). Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurial Learning with the UCD Innovation Academy (2020) Certified Management Consultant (IMCA) UCD Faculty Partner (2022-2024) Experienced Business/IT Manager who has held European and global positions in Software Development, Systems Implementation, Technology Management, & Telemetry Systems Development with multi-nationals including General Electric. Able to manage effectively in a constantly changing environment. Presented at industry seminars in UK, Europe and USA.

Jennifer is an accomplished Data Analytics Manager at ESB, specialising in Engineering and Major Projects. With over 10 years of experience in Data Analytics across multiple industries. She collaborates closely with business users to understand there challenges and develops innovative solutions to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making. Jennifer’s passion lies in unlocking the potential of data to create a brighter, sustainable energy future for ESB and its stakeholders.