Simon Harris TD is the Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science & Justice. He previously served as Minister for Health from May 2016 to June 2020, and as Minister of State at the Departments of Finance PER and Taoiseach with Special Responsibility for the OPW, Public Procurement, and International Banking (incl IFSC) from 2014 to 2016.

Simon’s involvement in politics began after he established an Autism support and lobby group in County Wicklow to seek to give a voice to people living with Autism and their families and to articulate their concerns and needs. He works tirelessly as a disability advocate and through his work in the disability area he has first-hand meaningful understanding of issues affecting people with disabilities.

Ambassador Akhilesh Mishra arrived in Dublin on 06 October 2021. Ambassador Mishra is a career Diplomat. He belongs to the Indian Foreign Service and has over three decades of of rich experience in the entire gamut of Indian diplomacy, covering political, security and geo-strategic affairs; economic &
commercial, investment & technology issues; education, research & innovation; cultural & soft power engagements; Indian Diaspora and India’s development
partnership with other countries.

Before joining the Embassy in Dublin, Ambassador Mishra was deployed in the Ministry of External Affairs as Officer on Special Duty (Political) from July-October 2021 and Head of Development Partnership Administration (dealing with India’s official development assistance and dialogue on international development issues) from Feb 2020-July 2021. Earlier, he was Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, from February 2019 – February
2020.

His previous assignments as the Head of Mission/Post/Division include: Ambassador of India to Maldives (2016-19) and Consul General of India in Toronto, Canada (2013-16); Joint Secretary/Head of Division in the Ministry of External Affairs dealing with India’s relations with Nepal and Bhutan (2011-13) and Joint Secretary in charge of Multilateral Economic Relations Division (2010-11).

Ambassador Mishra’s other assignments were: Deputy Chief of Mission in Kabul, Afghanistan (2008-10); Deputy High Commissioner Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (2005-08); Deputy Consul General in San Francisco, USA (2001-05); Deputy Secretary dealing with Bangladesh in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi (1999-2001); and, in different capacities in Indian Embassies in Kathmandu, Nepal (1996-99); Rome, Italy (1993-96); and, Lima, Peru (1991-93).

Ambassador Mishra speaks Spanish, Italian and Nepalese and knows, among
Indian languages, Hindi and Sanskrit besides English.

Ambassador Mishra holds the degrees of Bachelor of Technology and Masters of Technology, both from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and was the topper and Gold Medalist in both, securing a record 10.0 Cumulative Grade Points Average in M. Tech.

He belongs to Varanasi, one of the holiest, most ancient historical and cultural, living cities of India.

Besides international affairs, Ambassador Mishra has keen interest in Indian culture, specially Sanskrit Vedic & classical literature, Hindi & Urdu poetry, spirituality, yoga and meditation.

Ambassador Mishra is married to Mrs Reeti Mishra, and has two children. A Spanish and Italian speaker, Mrs Mishra has been actively involved in cultural, social and charity initiatives as part of diplomatic/consular spouses groups abroad. She is a motivational speaker, yoga enthusiast and proponent of Indian handicrafts/textiles, traditional arts and poetry.

Gary Gannon is the Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central – winning his seat in the 2020 General Election where he has been particularly vocal on Leaving Cert reform.

In 2014 Gary was elected to Dublin City Council representing the North Inner City local electoral area before joining the Social Democrats in 2015.

Gary was one of five General Election candidates put forward by the party in 2016 and also contested the European Parliament elections in 2019.

With over 20 years of experience leading one of East Asia’s most successful education agencies focused on international student recruitment to 120 UK higher ed and 400 K12 independent school partners, Susan Fang is THE go-to champion of British education, bridging the information gap between the East and the West. After joining NLCS and the University of Cambridge as an international student, she became inspired to empower scholars from around the world to receive a world-class education in the UK. When not parenting her two teenage daughters and advocating for British education, she enjoys running marathons in the great outdoors.

Dr. Conor O’Carroll is founder and director of SciPol Services Ltd. As an independent consultant on Research and Higher Education policy and funding, he focuses on researchers’ career development with special attention to doctoral education and career assessment. He has led European policy initiatives on Open Science and doctoral training (he led the development of the European Innovative Doctoral Training Principles). He is an active researcher on national and European Research Policy, R&D, Higher Education and Researcher Mobility policy and is an accomplished commentator on R&D and higher education policy and funding. In his recent book “Towards a Global Value System in Doctoral Education” he and colleagues reflect on the future of doctoral education.

Olivia McEvoy is an inspirational thought leader and change-maker who consciously creates inclusive, diverse, equitable and accessible (IDEA) cultures and experiences where people are empowered to contribute and achieve their full potential. She is an advocate of data-driven transformation that embeds IDEA into systems, structures and cultures to achieve impactful, meaningful and sustainable change. She believes that should be delivered through authentic leadership, inclusive relationships and partnerships, personalised solutions and innovation.

She is Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Booking.com whose mission is to ‘make it easier for everyone to experience the world’ and a voluntary advocate in the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland including as former Chair of the Board of Directors of the National LGBT Federation and during her long-term involvement in the campaign to secure civil marriage equality in Ireland.

Olivia holds a M.Sc. in Interactive Digital Media and B.A. (Hons.) in Sociology and Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin. She is also an LBCAI-accredited lifecoach and a United World College scholar.

Jan Palmowski is Professor of Modern History, with an interest in German political and cultural history since the nineteenth century. Raised in Germany, he studied at the University of York and completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford. He became a Lecturer in European Studies at King’s College London and was appointed Professor of Modern and Contemporary History there in 2009, before moving to the University of Warwick in 2013. In 2001 he won a major research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board for a project on ‘Constituting the German Nation: The Construction of National Identity through Theory and Practice, 1898-1998), and in 2007 he won a King’s College London Teaching Award. He served as Head of Arts and Humanities at King’s College London (2008-12), and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Academic Vice President at the University of Warwick (2013-18). He is currently on secondment from Warwick as Secretary-General of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, though he continues to teach PhD students.

Chiara Finocchietti is Director of CIMEA – NARIC Italia. Geographer, she comes from the world of research and is an expert in the evaluation of qualifications and higher education systems. Author of various publications on the subject of credential evaluation, she coordinates numerous international projects on the above topics and is a member of various international working groups on higher education policies. She has been appointed a member of the Working Group on Higher Education of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Education (CDEDU Working Group on Higher Education), and is an expert of the ETINED Platform (Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education). She is Vice-president of the ENIC Bureau and National Correspondent for the Italian Qualifications Framework within the EHEA.

José M. Martínez-Sierra is the Director General of the UPF Barcelona School of Management. He is Jean Monnet ad personam Professor for the Study of European Union Law and Government. Between 2012 and 2021, he performed different teaching, research and administrative roles at Harvard University, working at Harvard College, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Harvard Law School. Faculty Affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Faculty Associate at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Faculty Associate at the Center for American Political Studies, and EU Law Coordinator at the Harvard Law School – Institute for Global Law and Policy.

Before joining Harvard University, he was an advisor to several Ministers responsible for Education and Universities. He served as General Director for International Relations at the Spanish Ministry of Education and General Director of the Agency for the Internationalization of Spanish Universities. Former President of the European Union High Level Group on Education and Training Policies and the EU Education Committee, a member of the OCDE Education Policy Committee and former president of the Bologna Follow-up Group. Representative for Higher Education at UNESCO and senior member of the Fulbright Commission.

Sophie is the Vice President for the IBM Digital Sales Centers in Dublin, Bratislava and Cairo. In her role, Sophie is responsible for leading a team of Sellers across EMEA region.

Sophie is an experienced IBM executive with strong leadership skills in Sales and Marketing. She is passionate about people and employee engagement and has led large teams through complex transformations and cultural changes across multiple geographies and Businesses.

Prior to her appointment as VP for Digital Sales in Dublin in January 2022, Sophie was Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of IBM Middle East and Africa (MEA) for 2 years operating from Dubai and prior to that she was the CMO for IBM in France. Sophie also served in Services for 10 years and was the Technical Sales Support Leader for France for 5 years.