Environment Ireland conference 2011

Alex Attwood, MLA was appointed Minister for the Environment in Northern Ireland in May 2011. He was previously Minister for Social Development since May 2010. He has been an SDLP Assembly Member for West Belfast since 1998. He was a Councillor on Belfast City Council from 1985 until 2005 and a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board from 2001-2007 and 2009-2010.

Maurice Bergin is Managing Director of the Green Hospitality Programme and Consultant to the Green Business.ie Programme and runs Hospitality Solutions Consulting Ltd. The Green Hospitality Programme, operated in conjunction with the Clean Technology Centre, Cork Institute of Technology, is one of Europe’s most successful hospitality environmental certification programmes which has delivered real reductions in energy, waste and water and saved members millions of euro.

Professor Gerry Boyle is Director of Teagasc, the Agriculture and Food Development Authority, which provides an integrated research, advisory and education service for the agriculture and food industries. He took over as Teagasc Director in October 2007. Since his appointment he has led a foresight process which culminated in the publication of the Teagasc 2030 report in May 2008, which looks forward to the anticipated changes in the agriculture and food industry out to the year 2030. Professor Boyle was recently elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Dick Budden has been Ireland Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) since 2008. CDP is a global not-for-profit organisation that aims to accelerate solutions to climate change and water management by putting relevant information at the heart of business, policy and investment decisions. Dick joined CDP following a forty-year career in manufacturing industry that began in the Fibres Division of ICI and led, to the role of Managing Director at Wellman International Ltd in County Cavan, Europe’s largest producer of polyester fibres and the largest user of recycled post-consumer PET bottles.

Aidan Cotter was appointed Chief Executive of Bord Bia in 2004, having previously served as the organisation’s Operations Director and prior to that in positions based in London and Dusseldorf. He is a graduate of University College, Dublin and Cranfield University in the UK from where he holds Masters Degrees in economics and business administration respectively. Bord Bia – The Irish Food Board is the Irish state agency responsible for the promotion and market development of Irish food, drink, and horticulture.

Michael Cunningham is the Group Head of Environment with WYG where he leads the 250 strong environmental team in Ireland, the UK and international. An environmental scientist by profession, Michael has over 20 years experience as an environmental consultant. Key areas of expertise include, waste management, environmental impact assessment, contaminated land, environmental liability assessment and regulatory compliance. Michael has been recently involved in the promotion and development of projects in renewable energy and waste infrastructure.

Matt Dempsey is Editor of the Irish Farmers Journal and is also Chief Executive of the Agricultural Trust, publishers of the Journal and the Irish Field. He is a former President of the European Agricultural Publishers Association and the Irish Grassland Association. He is Chairman of the Board of the RDS. Also, Matt is a past Chair of the National Agricultural Research Institute and ACOT, the national advisory and education body before their amalgamation into Teagasc.

Dr Jonathan Derham who is an NUI graduate has 22 years experience in waste management and industrial regulation, both in the public and private sector nationally and internationally. He joined the EPA in 1995, has been involved in regulatory aspects of most of the major waste infrastructure in the State. He is currently active in the national and EU waste policy areas.

Brendan Gillespie is Head of the Environmental Performance and Information Division in the OECD Environment Directorate. This Division is responsible for conducting environmental performance reviews of OECD and selected non-member countries, and for compiling and further developing work on environmental information and indicators. Prior to this, Brendan was Head of the OECD Environment and Globalisation Division. Brendan originally joined OECD in 1979 and has worked on a wide variety of environmental policy issues. Before joining OECD, Brendan was a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University for two years.

Trevor Haslett was appointed Interim Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Water in January 2011, having previously been Director of Engineering Procurement since 2003. He was previously Divisional Water Manager Eastern Division, having rejoined Water Service in 1999 after four years working in the private sector for a local civil engineering company. Trevor has been a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Chartered Engineer since 1977.

Dr Peter Heffernan was appointed as Chief Executive of the Marine Institute, Ireland’s national agency for marine Research Technology Development & Innovation (RTDI), in 1993. The Marine Institute (MI) spans a number of service areas for Government and acts as a research performer and science advisor; a national funder and as a catalyst for innovation and development. Peter has been a member of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (ICSTI), a Board member of the Ireland-Newfoundland Partnership, a national member of the European Science Foundation Marine Board and was host of the very successful EurOCEAN 2004 Conference.

Thomas Henrichs is a project manager for integrated environmental assessments at the European Environment Agency (EEA) – an agency of the European Union tasked with providing objective, reliable and comparable information about the state of and trends in the environment in Europe. Mr Henrichs was lead author of the EEA’s flagship report ‘The European Environment – State and Outlook 2010: Synthesis’

Phil Hogan TD is the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, having previously been Fine Gael spokesperson for the environment portfolio. He was first elected to the Dáil in 1989 and has held a number of positions within the party including Parliamentary Party Chairman, Director of Organisation, Enterprise Spokesperson as well as consumer affairs, regional affairs and food industry positions. He served as Minister of State in the Department of Finance in the last Fine Gael Government and was the party’s Director of Elections in the 2011 general election.

Dr Seamus Kennedy is Chief Executive of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in Northern Ireland. AFBI carries out scientific work in a range of areas including renewable energy, environment, marine and freshwater fisheries, seabed mapping, animal health and welfare, food safety and innovation and agricultural and rural economics. Dr Kennedy is a graduate in veterinary medicine from University College Dublin and completed a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast.

Ciarán Lynch is a Labour TD for Cork South Central, elected to the Dáil in 2007. He was re-elected to the 31st Dáil in February 2011 and was appointed Chair of the Dáil Commitee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht in June 2011. He was a Councillor on Cork City Council from 2004 to 2007 and was Chair of the Council’s Planning and Development Committee from 2005-2006 and of the Roads and Transportation Strategic Policy Committee from 2006-2007.

Dara Lynott Deputy Director-General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement. He was previously a Programme Manager within the Office, which is dedicated to the implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation in Ireland.

Micheál Ó Cinnéide is Director of the EPA's Office of Environmental Assessment, with responsibility for monitoring, assessment and reporting on the general state of the environment, as well as funding of environmental research.

Lee Solsbery is Global Technical Director for Sustainability and Climate Change at Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and has played a senior role in hundreds of energy and climate change projects worldwide. He has provided board-level advice to major multi-national firms on carbon risk and carbon management in the oil & gas, electricity, mining, cement, heavy manufacturing and transport sectors.

Deborah Spence is head of the Planning and Environment Group at Arthur Cox. She and her team advise on all aspects of planning and environmental law, including waste management liability, corporate regulatory compliance, contaminated sites liability, all aspects of permitting and licensing, environmental impact assessment and environmental and planning issues arising in major infrastructural projects.