SPEAKER PROFILES

Charles SpinosaGroup Director and Leader of Marketing Practices, VISION

Over the last decade, Charles Spinosa has developed a unique market-expansion practice devoted to helping clients enter hard-to-penetrate markets. As an off-shoot of core practice, Charles and his teams have used his core methods to start a value chain practice dedicated to helping suppliers and purchasers find hidden efficiencies for cutting costs, making amicable pricing arrangements, and raising profits on both sides of the table.

The marketing practices at VISION help clients develop new product and service concepts to extend brands into difficult markets, reposition brands, build customer communities, integrate new media and traditional marketing, work with Investor Relations to gain new investors, and increase value chain efficiency.

ABB-ALSTOM, CEMEX, the Warner Music Group, AmericanCentury Funds, the San Francisco Chronicle, Celtic Football Club, the Bank of Ireland, Bancomer, KSTS-TV part of the Telemundo Group, and the InterAmerican Development Bank have all benefited from working with Charles and his teams.

Before management consulting, Charles taught English at Miami University in Ohio, philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and published widely in both fields. He earned a Ph.D. from Berkeley and a B.A. from Columbia, where he graduated magna cum laude.

David WalshChief Executive Officer, Netwatch

In seven years, David Walsh has led Netwatch in Carlow to the point where it has opened a new state-of-the art corporate headquarters and currently employees 95 staff.

Netwatch was the first company in Ireland to combine specialist video-transmission technologies with satellite communications to provide safe, preventative, immediate and cost-effective protection solutions for clients. The Netwatch system is a next-generation asset-protection solution, which deploys the most advanced protection technologies including GPS tracking, audio visual detection, personal protector equipment and wireless perimeter security cordons to protect individuals and premises. 

A graduate of UCD, David has 15 years senior management experience with a highly successful, internationally traded engineering company. An expert in leadership and strategic planning, David oversees short, medium and long-term targets for Netwatch and ensures they are not only achieved but surpassed.

Louise Phelan Vice President of Customer Solutions and EMEA Merchant Services, PayPal

Based in Blanchardstown Dublin, PayPal is the European Centre of Excellence and employs almost 1,850 people. Louise joined PayPal in 2006 as CS and Risk Director for the EU and was recently promoted to her current position.

 

Prior to joining PayPal in June 2006, Louise was a member of the Senior Management Team for GE Money, a division of General Electric (GE), which specialises in small ticket lending for a client base comprising both consumers and commercial customers.

 

During her 16 years with GE (formerly Woodchester Investments), Louise held a wide variety of Management & Leadership roles. From 2000- 2006 she held the position of Compliance Leader with responsibility for leading change and integrating a compliance culture across the organisation. While in this role, Louise was a member of the Business Quality Council and was Ombudsperson for the business.

 

Louise is on the Board of the American Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and CCMA Ireland.

 

Aidan KennyChief Executive Officer and Principal Consultant, Servitize

Aidan is an international expert in service strategy development and management with 25 years experience on both sides of the customer-supplier interface in multiple marketplaces.

 As founder of Servitize, Aidan has established a leading service strategy and design business working with the private and public sectors in Ireland and abroad.

Prior to founding Servitize, Aidan worked with executive management at Nikon and Intel across Europe, US and Asia. Aidan was responsible for business planning, business development and extended service offering design, development and implementation.

Aidan has been an early advocate for service design and design thinking through his blogs and speaking engagements. Aidan has also worked as a service sector advisor to a number of professional consultancy firms. He has delivered workshops on Service Strategy & Design and has contributed to recently published books including This is Service Design Thinking. He is currently writing a management book on service strategy.

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Pat Lynch Director, Founder and Senior Researcher,The RIKON Group

Pat is co-founder and Senior Researcher at the RIKON research group, part of Waterford Institute of Technology.

The RIKON Group is located within the School of Business at Waterford Institute of Technology and carries out funded Research in: Innovation, Knowledge Transfer and Organisational Networks. Utilising the Irish business landscape as a laboratory, The RIKON Group undertakes pioneering research and consultancy into industry-relevant issues and has established itself as one the leading catalyst of change within the business community.

The Group’s overarching strategy is to become the leading centre for small business innovation and knowledge management research in Ireland and gain an international reputation for its activities in research and practice.

Stephen McLaughlin Head of Research and Development, The Innovation Value Institute

In Feb 2010 Stephen took up the position of researcher with the Innovation Value Institute. 

The theme of Stephen’s research is focused on how complex organizations can improve their performance through better knowledge transfer, and innovation.  As part of this he is interested in understanding how organizations define and develop their business strategies to focus on effective utilisation of appropriate knowledge transfer mechanisms (including technology), and innovation management systems. This link between overall strategy, knowledge transfer, and innovation becomes a critical success factor within a complex and dynamic business environment.

Prior to this Stephen was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, and Deputy Director of the Complex Service Innovation Research Network (CSIRN). 

Stephen now holds an Honorary Senior Research Fellowship position with the University of Glasgow. He also has over 20 years of management experience, gained prior to becoming an academic, within both the public and private sector. Most recently holding a senior management position within IBM (UK).