Bryan Andrews
Transforming public services: The HR challenge

Bryan Andrews is Chief Executive of the Public Appointments Service (PAS), which is the central recruitment, selection and assessment body for the Public Service in Ireland. He has extensive experience of strategy development and leading change both in his current role and in his previous position as Head of Corporate Development in Department of Social and Family Affairs. Bryan holds an MBS (HRM), MSc (Public Management) and is a qualified Executive and Business Coach.

Tom Boland
Transforming Ireland’s education sector

Tom Boland has been Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) since January 2004. The HEA is a statutory body established to allocate public funding to Irish higher education institutions; to oversee performance of the higher education and research sector generally and to advise the Minister for Education and Science on the development of the sector. Tom is Chairperson of the Board of HEAnet (a public sector company which provides high quality internet services to the Irish education and research system). He is also a member of the Board of Science Foundation Ireland, the Central Applications Office and the Governing Board of IMHE, a sub-programme of the OECD Education Directorate. He holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Law and was called to the Irish Bar in 1987.

Neil Collins
Modernising Ireland’s public services

Neil Collins is Dean of Faculty and Professor of Government at University College Cork. He is also the co-author of Modernising Irish government: The politics of administrative reform, published in 2007. Neil has written extensively on Irish politics, public participation and the marketing of public sector services. He was previously Professor of Public Policy and Management at the University of Ulster.

Ciarán Connolly
Public sector reform: An update

Ciarán Connolly is Secretary General, Public Service Management and Development, in the Department of Finance. He previously served as Assistant Secretary in Personnel and Remuneration Division of the Department with responsibility for public service pay and industrial relations. Prior to that he worked in various Divisions of the Department and previously in the Department of the Public Service and the Revenue Commissioners.

Lucy Fallon-Byrne
Facilitating change and innovation in Ireland’s public sector

Lucy Fallon-Byrne has been Director of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance since its establishment in 2001. Her particular expertise is in the area of organisational innovation and she is currently completing a Doctoral thesis on the dynamics of innovation in Ireland’s public and private sector organisations. In the NCPP her work is focused on finalising the National Workplace Surveys which are the second in a series of major studies on Irish workplaces. Prior to joining the NCPP, Lucy served as Assistant Chief Executive of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment where she oversaw the development of the new Primary School Curriculum. She is a member of the Executive Board of Trócaire and holds an MA in Political Science and an MBA from the Michael Smurfit School of Business at UCD.

Tony Foley
Funding public services in an era of fiscal austerity

Tony Foley is a senior lecturer and head of the economics, finance and entrepreneurship group in Dublin City University Business School. He was formerly the Director of the Local Government MBA programme and executive MBA. He is also formerly executive dean and head of executive education. Tony’s research interests lie in industrial development, public expenditure structures and trends and economic policy. He has extensive professional involvement with the Irish and international public and private sectors. Prior to joining DCU he worked in the Department of Finance, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Dublin Corporation, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the IDA.

Joe Gavin
The future role of local government in delivering public services

Joe Gavin is City Manager of Cork City Council. He joined the Local Government Service in 1965 and has held a variety of posts with local authorities in Sligo, Mayo, Kildare, Galway and Cork. He served as Galway City Manager from 1994 to 2000 before being appointed to his current position in September 2000.

Matthew Horne
Radical Efficiency: Different, better and cheaper public services

Matthew Horne is Managing Partner of The Innovation Unit. He leads their work on Radical Efficiency – creating different, better and cheaper public services; and their work on measuring innovation results and capabilities in organisations. He has worked with The Innovation Unit in various ways since 2003. Matthew helped set up and lead Innovation Exchange, the flagship programme for innovators from the third sector, and the Innovation Catalyst - a programme of support to Local Authorities. Matthew has worked for the UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. He has experience as a service designer in public services - having worked for the Design Council, Participle, and DEMOS where he ran their programme on public service innovation.

Professor Frances Ruane
Issues for health services reform

Professor Frances Ruane became Director of the ESRI in December 2006. Her previous position was as Associate Professor in the Department of Economics in Trinity College Dublin where she also held the posts of Director of the Policy Institute and Director of the MSc programme in Economic Policy Studies. In March 2007 Frances was appointed a member of the Higher Education Authority and in May 2007 she was appointed a member of the Health Research Board. In April 2009 she became Chairman of the newly formed Expert Group on Resource Allocation and Financing in the Health Sector and in July 2009 she was appointed to the Commission of the National Pensions Reserve Fund.

Michael Scanlan
Transforming Ireland's health sector

Michael Scanlan was appointed Secretary General of the Department of Health and Children in April 2005. He has spent most of his career in the former Department of the Public Service and in the Department of Finance. Michael was promoted to Assistant Secretary in 2000 where he was responsible for overall public expenditure policy and Government’s decentralisation programme. He was also responsible for public expenditure policy within the health sector and worked closely with the Department of Health and Children on the health sector structural reform programme, including the establishment of the Health Service Executive, and on a number of major health policy issues.

Sonia Sodha
Getting more for less: Efficiency in the public sector

Sonia Sodha is Head of DEMOS' Progressive Austerity Programme. DEMOS is a London-based think tank. Her chief areas of expertise include children and young people’s emotional wellbeing, education, asset-based welfare and wealth inequality. Prior to joining DEMOS, Sonia was a Research Fellow at ippr. She has also worked for the Home Office, for a US Congressman and for an MP, and completed an internship at the Social Market Foundation. Sonia studied for an MPhil in Politics at St Antony's College, Oxford, and holds a first class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Paul Wickens
Shared services in delivering public service reform

Paul Wickens has over 25 years experience in the ICT sector. He was recently appointed as Director of Shared Services in the Department of Finance & Personnel in Northern Ireland. He was previously Managing Partner at Stockbridge Associates providing specialist consultancy to companies working within the public sector. Prior to that he was Managing Director at Steria. He led the winning and delivery of a number of major projects in the reform of the public sector – specifically Europe’s largest EDRM and training project, a shared services ICT transformation project and the first phase of NI Direct.