The independent representative body for all Irish exporters

Liam Hyland is the Director of Export and International Trade at Musgrave, a leading food retailer and wholesaler in Ireland. With a robust background in international trade, Liam has played a pivotal role in expanding Musgrave’s presence in global markets, driving initiatives that enhance the company’s export capabilities and strategic partnerships.

As a board member of the Irish Exporters Association, Liam is committed to supporting and promoting Irish exports. He leverages his expertise to advocate for policies that benefit exporters and shares insights on best practices within the industry.

Prior to joining Musgrave Liam held senior positions in international trade with Glanbia plc and Green Isle Foods, under Liam’s leadership Musgrave has successfully introduced a range of high-quality Irish products to markets worldwide, showcasing the best of Irish food Internationally. He is dedicated to fostering relationships with customers and partners, ensuring that Musgrave is a first-choice partner for retailers around the world.

Gabrielle has 25+ years’ experience in Supply Chain encompassing various global leadership roles focused on product launches, distribution network optimization, imports, exports, transportation & warehousing across the pharmaceutical & FMCG , while also involved and leading all aspects of supply chain & logistics.

Gabrielle joined PTC Therapeutics in 2023 as Head of Supply Chain & Logistics and prior to that worked with Alexion Pharmaceuticals for 10 years as part of the Global Supply Chain Leadership team, responsible for their Global Logistics and Distribution network.

Gabrielle is a graduate of UCD Smurfit Business School with an MSc in Business Leadership & Management Practice.

Niall holds and B.Comm and an M.B.S. in International Business from UCD and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. He is a partner in KPMG Ireland with over 20 years of experience across Consumer Markets.

He is the current Irish market lead for Retail and Manufacturing, working with Irish owned and controlled businesses with Global operations. He has worked extensively in the US, the UK, Europe and Asia for Groups with interests in the Automotive, Utility, Engineering, Construction, Media and Food sectors.

Outside of work Niall is a player and supporter of Greystones Rugby Club, where he serves on the Club’s Executive Committee.

Simon McKeever is the Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association (IEA) having held this position since 2013. Simon leads the Association’s work on several policy areas including COVID-19, Brexit, Market Diversification, Sustainable Trade and Investment and Trade Compliance.

The IEA’s participation on a number of Government stakeholder groups and EU forums is driven by Simon on behalf of the IEA’s broad membership base, which includes companies across the international trade industry. This broad membership base well places the IEA as a key interlocutor in the supply chain.

Prior to Simon taking up his current position as Chief Executive, he spent 3 years as Director of Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Dublin, which placed him at the forefront of joint trade strategy between Ireland and the UK, where he developed a close working relationship between UK Trade and Investment and Enterprise Ireland. Simon was the driving force behind the creation of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, and his leadership on the Agri-food agenda created a joint initiative that has kicked off the first Irish British Food Business Innovation Summit in Dublin.

Tom founded Keoghs Crisps in 2011 in response to declining potato sales from his family potato farm in North Co Dublin.

Since then Keoghs Crisp have been one of the fastest growing food businesses in Ireland and have developed sales in over 18 export markets.

Proudly holding many national and international awards in both quality and business excellence, Tom works tirelessly across all business areas

Eoghan is a partner specialising in corporate, commercial and technology matters. Eoghan’s key practice areas include corporate transactions, corporate re-structuring, corporate advisory, commercial contracts and data protection. Eoghan advises Irish and international clients on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance matters.

Eoghan has extensive experience advising on a range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, project finance, private equity and venture capital transactions, corporate re-organisations and management buy-outs. He also works with companies setting up in Ireland as part of our foreign direct investment offering.

Kisito is Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Director of the MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Trinity Business School, TCD. His research, teaching, and publication interests lie in the nexus between digital technology, business, and entrepreneurship. As a serial digital entrepreneur turned academic, Kisito is what some would describe as a PracAcademic. Having worked and traded across three continents, he has a fluent command of multiple languages, including Mandarin Chinese. Currently, he is actively involved in groundbreaking research exploring emerging themes such as platform-dependent digital entrepreneurship and Digital Darwinism (on platforms), generative AI affordances, entrepreneurship as design, crises as external enablers of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education in an era of AI.

Hugh Hennessy is an experienced professional economist with over 15 years’ experience working in a variety of roles. He is currently a Divisional Director at Indecon Economic Consultants. Prior to this, he was part of the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) and held a number of senior roles in the Department of Justice. He started his career as a researcher in the Economic and Social Research Institute. He is the Honorary Economist for the IEA.

David is a Corporate Finance Director specialising in M&A and Funding transactions. David also leads KPMG’S Industrials sector coverage.

David has over 10 years of experience in advising Irish businesses and shareholders on corporate finance deals across a range of sectors. He has a broad range of experience in both domestic and cross-border transactions, with both trade acquirers and private equity investors.

David completed a BSc in Finance at University College Cork and is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA).

A Sales Leader / Business Development Manager/Key Account Manager with in excess of 15+ years in a variety of different industries, qualified with an MBA in Corporate Administration (first class honors). Proven track record in consistently penetrating large multi-nationals by establishing strong relationships with key decision makers and developing and building solutions.

Darren Fortune is the Manging Director of Ventac – a specialist acoustic company based in Wicklow, Ireland. Ventac design and manufacture noise control solutions for the data centre, commercial vehicle and industrial sectors in Europe and the US.
Darren has a proven successful track record and extensive experience in business development for international markets. Darren joined Ventac in 2005 after spending fifteen fantastic years in the manufacturing division of Smurfit Kappa Ireland.
Darren holds an Honours degree in Business from Griffith College Dublin and is a graduate of Enterprise Ireland’s International Selling Programme.

Brendan Hogan is the Chief Engineering Operations Officer (CEOO) at Aerogen Ltd, – an indigenous Irish company that designs, manufactures & markets aerosolised drug delivery devices, – which have treated more than 30 million patients to-date.

For almost 20 years, he has played a pivotal role in developing, scaling, manufacturing, and shipping Aerogen’s sophisticated product technology to more than 80 countries worldwide.

Previously, Brendan was VP of Engineering and Quality at Filtertek BV, where he drove revenue growth through new medical product development. Before that, he held various positions with Potterton Myson, Boart Hard Metals and Roche Pharmaceutical.

He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both The Institution of Engineers of Ireland (IEI) and the (International) Institution of Engineering & Technology (IET). He has published nationally & internationally and is a named inventor on 75 patents. He holds post graduate degrees in Engineering & Business.