Gerry Finn - Director, Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly

Mr. Gerry Finn has spent his working career to date in the Public Service. From 1993 – 1999, he was Chief Executive Officer of Roscommon County Enterprise Board. During this period, he was also Chairman of the County Roscommon Area-Based Partnership Company.

He held the post of Director of Community & Enterprise with Roscommon County Council in 1999 and has been Director of the Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly since February 2000. The BMW Regional Assembly has been designated by the Government to be the Managing Authority for the BMW Regional Operational Programme 2007 – 2013 and is responsible for its preparation and delivery.

Mr. Finn holds a Masters in Rural Development from the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Rohit Talwar - CEO Global Futures and Foresight & Fast Future

Rohit Talwar is an internationally renowned futurist, award winning inspirational speaker, consultant and change agent. His core talent lies in motivating teams to think differently, act fast and be FIRST to the FUTURE. Rohit is a personal advisor to CEO’s of global corporations, innovative start up companies and governments. Rohit focuses on how companies can address emerging opportunities and risks, develop powerful and inspiring future visions and create organisations capable of achieving and sustaining peak performance in a fast changing environment. He is currently helping clients respond to the rise of Asia and is writing a book on China’s impact on 21st century global businesses.

In January 2006 Rohit was profiled as one of the top 10 global futurists by the UK'd Independent Newspaper. In October 2005, Rohit's keynote address on the Future of Travel received the prestigious ‘stickiest guru’ award after being voted best speaker at Asia’s largest travel conference. Rohit has just completed an assignment running the largest Horizon Scanning and Futures Programme in Europe for UK Government and leading a study on the critical global trends over the next 50 years. He also facilitated the consultation for the UK MoD's major study on Strategic Trends 2030 and has recently completed the design and facilitation of an Accelerated Scenario Learning programme for a global pharmaceutical company.

He has written widely on futures, strategy and change and was the editor and lead author of the book Achieving Transformation and Renewal in Financial Services. He has appeared on BBC TV, CNBC and BBC Radio 4 to talk about future trends.

Mark Callanan - Public Policy Specialist, Institute of Public Administration, Ireland

Dr. Mark Callanan is a lecturer and public policy specialist with the Institute of Public Administration in Dublin. Before joining the Institute, Mark worked with Deloitte & Touche in Brussels. He is responsible for providing a range of services to central government and local authorities in Ireland, has undertaken commissioned research for a range of government agencies and the European Commission, has spoken at domestic and international conferences, and provided training courses for public servants in 12 European countries.

Mark is project manager for a futures project on the Irish public service. This project is examining global and national trends and drivers of change within the public services over the coming years. This involves analysing some of the challenges for public service providers on the horizon, and assessing how ready the public service is to cope with different eventualities. Ultimately, the project is aimed at provoking thinking about long-term trends, including demographic, societal, economic, technological, environmental, and workplace trends, and how these may impact on public service provision. These are being used to consider the state of readiness of the public sector to meet some of the different challenges ahead, with a view to identifying choices and changes that are needed in the light of emerging trends.

Mark is also a member of the high-level Local Government Customer Service Group, set up by the Irish Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, containing representatives from central government, local councillors, county and city managers, directors of service, to examine a number of issues related to local government, including performance indicators, corporate planning, customer surveys and complaints and redress systems. Part of my contribution to the Group has involved undertaking research into best practice in both Ireland and abroad in these areas.

Mark obtained a PhD in Commerce from University College Cork, Ireland, and a Masters from the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium.

Josephine Green - Director of Trends & Strategy, Philips Design

Josephine studied History and Politics at Warwick University in England and has worked both in International Sales and Marketing and in Futures and Social Research for Advanced Strategy.

Since 1997 she has been Senior Director of Trends and Strategy at Philips Design where she currently promotes new thinking and new knowledge in the fields of Foresight and Society, Cultures and People Research, and its application to strategic thinking, sustainable innovation and new value creation.

She is a member of European and Women’s International Network, a member of the Advisory Board of the UK Design Council, Honorary Professor at The Glasgow School of Art and Design and a consultant for a number of European Futures programmes and advisory boards.

Michael White – Enterprise Ireland

Michael White is Head of Regional Innovation Policy at Enterprise Ireland. He is the National Delegate and National Contact Point for Ireland for the Regions of Knowledge Initiative under the EU’s seventh framework programme for research and development.

Richard Thorn, BA (Mod), MA, PhD - Director, Sligo IT

Richard graduated in 1978 from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with a degree in Natural Science (Earth Sciences), obtained a PhD (Environmental Science) from TCD in 1983 and a Masters in Public Management from the Institute of Public Administration in 2000. He has held teaching/research and management posts in Dublin Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin, Institute of Technology, Sligo and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) and has held visiting lectureships in Coventry and Middlesex Universities. He has been an external examiner from Associate Degree to PhD levels in non-university third level and university sectors in Ireland and UK. He has a broad range of research and writing interests having published over 140 scientific, technical, travel and higher education management publications covering areas as diverse as waste management, strategic planning and scuba diving travel articles and has supervised/is supervising c.20 Masters and PhD students in both environmental science and management areas.

Richard was previously Head of the Castlebar Campus of GMIT (1994-2001) and is currently Director of the Institute of Technology, Sligo a university level, degree and doctoral awarding, higher education, institution that has approximately 6,000 students studying at levels from craft to PhD. He has served as Chairperson and on the board of numerous not-for-profit organisations including Sligo General Hospital Research and Education Foundation (Chairperson 2004 - 2007), Company Secretary to the Irish Underwater Council (2001-2003) and Chairperson of the Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology, Ireland (2007). He is a council member of the National Executive of IBEC (the Irish Business and Employers Confederation). He was Sligo Chamber of Commerce's Business Person of the Year in 2005 and is a qualified Senior Executive Coach Mentor.

Martin Rhisiart - Deputy Director, Observatory of Innovation, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University

Martin has been at the Observatory of Innovation since 1999. He previously worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and in educational institutions in Italy. At Cardiff Business School, he has conducted research in innovation, Foresight/futures and sustainability.

A graduate of the London School of Economics (History) and Cardiff University (Public Policy), he is a Principal Investigator in the FUTURREG project and is currently applying futures techniques in the areas of corporate planning and Welsh language, culture and economic development. Currently his other main research activity is the application of public policy theories in science and technology policy (genetic technologies).