Dermot Byrne – Deputy President, Chartered IIA

Dermot is Head of Audit in the two central finance ministries in Ireland, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Finance. His role includes heading up the Audit Authority for EU Fund Programmes in Ireland.

He has over 30 years of management experience in both external and internal audit across Ireland’s government departments and the wider public sector, including international aid programmes between the UK and Ireland. He has also served on, and chaired, several public sector audit committees.

John Wood – CEO, Chartered IIA

John was appointed as Interim CEO on 2 January 2020 and is currently the executive leader of the Institute on behalf of the Council, until the appointment of a Permanent CEO – which is expected in 2022. He is an experienced CEO and Chairman who specialises in advising and leading organisations undergoing development and growth.

John possesses a mixture of third sector and commercial experience. He was formally an MD/CEO of SMEs in packaging and point of sale and, before that, worked in management consulting. He has also held various operational, technical and commercial roles in the metals and chemicals sectors.

Gavin Faloona – Chairperson, IIA Ireland

Gavin is Head of Internal Audit for Goodbody Stockbrokers. He is an experienced professional with 20 years' experience across industry.

Prior to this role, Gavin worked with Aviva Europe, the FCA. He has also held various other roles in risk management.

He holds both a BSc and an MSc in Finance from Queens University Belfast.

Derek Jamieson – Conference Chairperson and Director Regions, Chartered IIA 

As Regional Director, Derek's responsible for the overall development of the Scottish region and ensuring the appropriate support is provided for the membership. 

He is a Fellow of the Chartered IIA, with over 25 years’ internal audit experience, and a career spanning some four decades.

During that time, he’s worked not only in financial services, but across multiple sectors, on both a national and international basis. He’s also worked for several years within the first and second lines of defence.

He is the past Chair of the Scotland committee and holds a non-executive directorship with a Financial Services organisation. 

John Reilly – Head of Renewable Energy, Bord na Móna

John is a member of Bord na Móna’s Senior Leadership team and oversees the operation and development of its expanding generation portfolio in the Irish electricity market.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the energy sector and was previously part of the Senior Management team at Edenderry Power, prior to its acquisition by Bord na Móna.

John has worked for a number of major international utility players in the energy sector, including for E.ON, and Fortum. He sits on a number of policy committees across the energy sector and holds a PhD in Chemistry.

Rob Corbet – Partner, Head of Technology and Innovation, Arthur Cox

Rob is a Partner and Head of Arthur Cox’s Technology and Innovation practice: a market leading team dedicated to specialist data protection, IT, and intellectual property law. He acts for many of the world’s highest profile internet and technology companies, as well as public sector clients, and supports on privacy, data protection and cyber-security matters.

Rob is a leading authority on GDPR and has represented many clients in their dealings with the Data Protection Commission, including responding to formal domestic and cross border investigations and personally defending clients in criminal prosecutions before the courts.

Melissa Scully – Director, Deloitte 

Melissa is a Director in Deloitte’s Risk Advisory department specialising in corporate governance. She is a member of the Global Board Advisory Practice and also leads Deloitte Ireland’s Centre for Corporate Governance.

Melissa is a qualified governance professional and with over 12 years’ experience advising boards, c-suites and company secretaries on topics such as: Board effectiveness, governance policies and frameworks, company secretarial practice and risk management across all sectors. She also a serves as a member of the Council of the ICSA Chartered Governance in Ireland.

Prior to joining Deloitte she worked as a Company Secretary and managed a portfolio of fund companies listed on various stock exchanges.

Daniel Shearer – Audit Manager, Nationwide UK

Daniel is the lead manager for ways of working and change at Nationwide IA and focuses on changing auditor mindsets and continually improving processes.

Amongst his many responsibilities, he hosts the annual Nationwide open day for agile auditors, which invites likeminded people from across the industry to learn more about agile auditing.

You can find out more about Dan on his LinkedIn page, where he blogs under the banner ‘Agility in IA’.

Stacey Machesney – Head of Health and Wellbeing, Irish Life

As Head of Health and Wellbeing, Stacey leads the delivery of wellbeing solutions for Irish Life’s 1.3 million customers. Prior to this, she was the Head of Ireland at Spectrum Life, delivering wellness solutions for over 500,000 users across the UK & Ireland.

Stacey’s extensive experience in public health, HR leadership and health education drive her passion for creating impactful, measurable employee wellbeing solutions that achieve long-term success.

Niamh Larkin – Director of Audit, Local Government Audit Service

Niamh is the Director of Audit for the Local Government Audit Service (LGAS), and oversees its Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.Prior to this, she was an Audit Partner for 10 years with RSM Ireland. And, before that, Audit Director for Grant Thornton. She has also worked as a Deputy Director for the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.

Niamh is a member of the Internal Audit Committee for both the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. 

Lucio Della Ratta – Head of Audit, Customer and Conduct, Bank of Ireland

Lucio has over 25 years' experience in financial services gained internationally across a range of senior risk and audit roles. Prior to joining Bank of Ireland, Lucio held the regulatory approved role of Chief Internal Auditor for Aviva’s reinsurance entity, based in London. He was also accountable for auditing Aviva’s international markets, across both Life and General Insurance. Before Aviva, Lucio was a Managing Director at Barclays Bank, where he held a number of senior roles in both Treasury and Internal Audit, based in London, Madrid and New York. During his time at Barclays, Lucio led amongst others the audit team over Barclays’s European businesses, and oversaw Risk and Finance audit globally. Prior to Barclays, Lucio worked for ING Bank in internal audit and Banca d’Italia as a regulator.

At Bank of Ireland, Lucio’s role encompasses enterprise risk audit accountability for Customer & Conduct Risk, Market Risk, and Life Insurance risk, with stakeholder relationship management for Retail Ireland, Corporate Banking & Markets, and New Ireland.

Lucio is also a qualified coach with the International Coaching Federation and focuses on coaching senior executives in financial services and delivering leadership development programmes.

Paul Callum – Associate Director, Risk Advisory, RSM

Paul is a former Senior Police officer and a highly trained Detective and Critical Incident Manager with a specialist knowledge of complex investigations into organised crime, business human rights and modern slavery, safeguarding and protective security.

After leaving the force, Paul developed and delivered a modern slavery training programme with the GLAA and Derby University and has worked for child exploitation and modern slavery charities. He has also created a responsible sourcing and continuous improvement programme for a large public sector organisation and is a trained Social Accountability Auditor. 

Jane Woodcock – Head of the Technology Risk, Business Models and Operational Resilience, CBI

Jane enhances operational and cyber resilience and is responsible for understanding non-financial risks facing the Irish financial sector. She oversees various cyber and intelligence-based programmes in Ireland, along with CBI’s approach to IT risk and operational resilience in financial services.

Prior to her current role, Jane was the Head of Non-Financial Risk Inspections in the Banking Supervision Inspections Division, where she had responsibility for on-site inspections in Irish-licensed credit institutions. Most notably in the areas of IT risk, operational risk, business model and profitability, and internal governance and risk management.