Stephen Myers

Stephen was born in Belfast, N. Ireland and educated at the Queen’s University, where he received a First Class Honours Degree in Electrical and Electronic engineering. He then completed his Ph.D. at Queen’s.

He started work at CERN as Engineer-in-Charge for the operation of the Intersecting Storage Rings Collider (ISR) before moving on to the Large Electron Positron (LEP). He made significant contributions to the design of LEP, and took responsibility for the commissioning. He was in charge of the preparation of LEP for physics in the 1990s, and was Project Leader of the LEP upgrade (LEP2) from 1996 until 2000. In 2000 he became Leader of the SPS-LHC (SL) Division, before becoming Head of the Accelerator and Beams (AB) Department in 2003.
In September 2008, he became Director of Accelerators and Technology effective from January 2009, "responsible for the operation and exploitation of the whole CERN accelerator complex, with particular emphasis on the LHC and for the development of the new projects (CLIC etc.) and technologies.

He has been honoured with several awards including honorary doctorates from the University of Geneva and the Queen’s University of Belfast. He was the recipient of the IOP Duddell Medal in 2003, and of the 2010 ACFA/IPAC’10 Achievement prize for outstanding work in the accelerator field.

John Barry

John Barry commenced employment with Bord Gais in 1997, having worked in the private sector, mainly in the Civil Engineering field prior to joining the Company. Initially employed as a Project Engineer, and soon after as a Project Manager, John was responsible for the roll out of the large transmission infrastructure projects including all the developments in the North of Ireland, and the pipeline to serve the Corrib Gas field in County Mayo.

Following a restructuring in 2005, John was appointed to the role of Head of Networks Construction, reporting to the Chief Executive. The role involved responsibility for all Networks Developments, including all works relating to the Distribution Network. In July 2007, John was asked by the Board to act as an interim Chief Executive, pending the appointment of the permanent CEO in December 2007. John was subsequently appointed to the role as Managing Director, Bord Gais Networks, in April 2008, and currently holds that role today.

John holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (Civil), from University College Cork ,with a post graduate qualification in Mechanical Engineering from the same University, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland. John is also a Trustee of the Bord Gais pension schemes.

Bob Hanna

Bob Hanna is Chief Technical Advisor in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. In this role he represents Ireland in a number of international fora. He was previously Advisor to Sustainable Energy Ireland, Commercial Manager with Premier Power and General Manager of Northern Ireland Electricity’s international business unit. He has also held positions with the former National Board for Science and Technology and the Electricity Supply Board. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of Engineers Ireland, a former member of Council and former Chair of the Northern Region.

Declan Lyons

Declon Lyons is Enterprise Ireland's Research, Design and Development director and Chairman & Liaison Committee Representative to the Mechanical and Manufacturing division of Engineers Ireland.

Liam Nellis

Liam is CEO, InterTradeIreland, The Trade and Business Development Body.

He obtained a Law Degree (LLB) from the University of London.  He went on to receive an MS.c in Social Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Ulster. Having joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service in 1973, Liam established NI-CO (the public sector marketing company) in 1990.  In 1997 he joined the Industrial Development Board as Executive Director, responsible for attracting foreign direct investment to Northern Ireland. After a brief period on secondment to set up the body, Liam was appointed CEO of InterTradeIreland in 2000.

Liam is a member of the Council of the University of Ulster, an Advisor to the National Competitiveness Council Dublin, and sits on the Northern Committee for the Sales Institute of Ireland. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors and is on the Board of the Institute of British Irish Studies at University College Dublin.

InterTradeIreland was established in 2000 to identify, develop and deliver North / South business development and trade opportunities. Since then, more than 2000 companies across the island have participated directly in its programmes; reporting over £566m of added value and more than 930 jobs have been created.

Paul Brewster

Dr. Paul Brewster is a Chartered Engineer with over ten years of experience on offshore renewable energy projects, technology development and research.
Paul is co-founder and CTO of Belfast based Pure Marine, where he leads the company’s Engineering team on a range of projects that address the major challenge facing the growing marine energy industry – how to produce more energy at a lower cost.

In addition to being an industry leader in Marine Energy, Paul played Gaelic football at the highest levels for over ten years and is well known in Irish sporting circles.

Peter Quinn

Peter Quinn bio

Tasha Wishart

Tanya Wishart is Director of Electricity at the Utility Regulator in Northern Ireland and is responsible for the regulation of the electricity companies in Northern Ireland.

The generation wholesale market operates on an all island basis and there is a Single Electricity Market (SEM) Committee to regulate this market. She is a member of the Oversight Committee, which comprises staff from the Utility Regulator and the Commission for Energy Regulation (the energy regulator in the Republic of Ireland),  which oversees operational aspects of the SEM.