Meet Our Mentors - AmCham Hackathon 2024

Dr Jane Hession & Ronan Healy  

                       

Role: Co-Founders  

Company: How Might We  

Dr Jane Hession and Ronan Healy are co-founders of How Might We, a Limerick-based design studio which facilitates meaningful conversations to improve employee and customer experiences. At the core of their studio’s capability is the Lego Serious Play method and their conviction in the power of Play to make service design, design thinking and soft systems method more accessible to organisations who wish to unlock team potential and delight customers.  

Jane and Ronan are not consultants who tell your team the answer to their problems. Their role is to create an environment that empowers them to communicate effectively and think creatively to optimise processes, resolve problems, strengthen culture, and delight customers. While many of their engagements focus on process improvement, Jane and Ronan also help teams realise the value of their roles, the importance of their relationships, and their sense of relatedness. 

You can find Jane's LinkedIn here

You can find Ronan's LinkedIn here

 

 

Philip Healy 

Role: Senior Manager, Direct Investment Team 

Company: Bank of Ireland Foreign  

Philip Healy works on the Bank’s Foreign Direct Investment team assisting international companies setting up operations in Ireland. Philip has worked with many US companies who are establishing a physical presence in Ireland and also with individuals and senior executives relocating to Ireland as part of these operations. He has over 20 years’ experience within Bank of Ireland in a number of credit, lending and business development roles across multiple sectors. 

You can find Philip's LinkedIn here

 

 

Roya Elison 

Role: Software Development Engineering Manager 

Company: Workday 

Roya Elison is a Software Development Engineering Manager, with over 20 years of experience in technology, from her native Hawaii, to Seattle, Dublin, and UK. Roya is a leader in UI Platform at Workday, and is passionate about driving innovation to deliver an excellent customer experience based on research and UX best practices. Roya’s technical, entrepreneurial and marketing expertise drives her love of experimentation. And her focus on mentoring others stems from a genuine desire to help others grow in their careers. Drawing from a wealth of experience, Roya provides practical guidance and real-world insights, enriching the learning journeys of her mentees. 

You can find Roya's LinkedIn here

 

 

Breda O’Brien 

Role: Organisation Culture Team Lead  

Company: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment 

Breda O'Brien is an experienced Civil Service leader with over 20 years’ experience across a wide range of diverse projects and organisations. Breda is currently head of organisational culture, innovation and reform at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment since her return from secondment as a Trade diplomat in the Delegation of the European Union to the United States in Washington DC. While in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Breda delivered the first Public Service Innovation Fund, Innovation Network and an annual Public Service Innovation Week. Breda has served in multiple communications and policy roles over her career most notably as a Government Press Officer and as part of the negotiating team for Horizon 2020 during the Irish Presidency of the EU Council. 

You can find Breda's LinkedIn here

 

 

Matt Wint 

Role: Senior Integrations Support Manager 

Company: Coupa Software 

Matt is an Integrations Expert with 14 years combined experience in the tech field. Matt moved to Ireland in 2015 from the US and just recently became an Irish Citizen. Solving problems with technology is one of his greatest passions. For the past 11.5 years, Matt has worked with Integrations Support at Coupa focusing on Customer Success, helping customers and partners adapt their integrations to meet best practices. 

Within his role Matt has worked to transform how to onboard and support integrations. From a project management perspective, he led an initiative to migrate legacy-built integrations to modern frameworks. Prior to this, he had experience implementing Medical Record Systems at Cerner across multiple health networks in the US.  

Matt is a former participant of the AmCham Hackathon.  

You can find Matt's LinkedIn here

 

 

Colm Collins 

Role: Business Immigration Director 

Company: Fragomen Ireland 

Colm is a business immigration professional with over 15 years’ experience providing global mobility, recruitment and human resources teams support with their corporate immigration needs. Having worked as a human resource specialist, he moved into the world of immigration working through the Big 4 in both Canada and Ireland to help manage and grow their global mobility functions before moving to Fragomen Ireland in 2017. He now provides strategic immigration support to both local and multinational companies, helping them efficiently and compliantly manage their immigrant population. 

You can find Colm's LinkedIn here

 

 

Sarah Blake

Role: Director 

Company: Earthology 

Sarah has more than 25 years’ business experience in Sustainability, Human Resources (CIPD Associate) and Horticulture (RHS trained). After studying Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University, Sarah founded Earthology to help employees and their companies on their sustainability journey, one step at a time! Sarah is a member of the Al Gore Climate Reality chapter in Ireland.  She has also helped more than 20 companies with B Corp Certification. Sarah runs Certified Carbon Literacy courses to educate and inspire both Senior Leaders and Green Teams.  

You can find Sarah's LinkedIn here

 

 

Fiona Finegan 

Role: Service and Interaction Designer  

Company: Accenture  

Fiona Finegan is an enthusiastic and engaged designer, who believes in the importance of human centered design, while also using a systemic approach to tackle complex systems. She is passionate about interaction design, service design and how we can improve people’s lives through design. Fiona is currently a Service & Interaction Design Lead at The Dock, in Accenture. She works on diverse innovation projects within cyber security, digital transformations, capital infrastructure and life sciences. She works within multidisciplinary teams, working from initial problem definitions, research, prototyping, testing and delivering products for clients. 

 

 

Sinead Devlin 

Role: Head of Global Strategic Partnerships

Company: Emergenetics 

Leading the Emergenetics international EMEA team, Sinead has broad a range of experience from working globally in large corporates through guiding and establishing start-ups, to currently developing bespoke, leadership, talent and change and culture programmes to increase performance and engagement. 

Emergenetics works on the basis of helping organisations solve problems that are stopping them from fulfilling their potential and always looks to maximise a Return on Investment. Emergenetics brings a unique blend of skills including HR, Organisational Development, Agile Thinking and Business Psychology and, most importantly, a strong customer results driven focus 

You can find Sinead's LinkedIn here

 

 

Sarah Callinan 

Role: Global Enablement Business Partner 

Company: Salesforce  

A highly motivated, ambitious and resourceful emerging leader with an optimistic outlook. Sarah possesses an excellent ability to motivate others, coupled with the ability to communicate comfortably at all levels, ensuring an excellent working environment for all members of a team to perform at their best. She has a passion for personal development & is always looking for opportunities to get out of her comfort zone & grow. Previous to her current role, she worked as an Innovation Consultant in the Financial Services/Fintech industry. Sarah has travelled extensively across North America and Europe while also working in South Africa, Latin America and Australia. Sarah enjoys setting and accomplishing personal goals. 

Sarah is a former participant of the AmCham Hackathon. 

You can find Sarah's LinkedIn here

 

 

Maurice Whelan

 

Role: Founder and Managing Director 

Company: Unleash Potential 

Maurice is the founder and Managing Director of Unleash Potential, which specialises in leadership development, executive coaching, strategic leadership and mental wellness. He has over 30 years' experience in both the public and private sector at senior management and executive level as Head of Customer Experience, Business Development, and Sales in the health insurance sector and software industry. 

Maurice’s leadership and strategy execution skills have been recognised by many national and international awards including Contact Centre Manager of the Year, European People Manager of the Year and European Industry Champion of the Year (ECCA). He is a Fellow of the Contact Centre Management Association (CCMA) since 2007 and was the recipient of their Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a board member of the CCMA for 11 years, six of them as Chairperson. Maurice currently chairs the judging panel of the HR Champion Awards, a position he has held since 2018. 

You can find Maurice's LinkedIn here

 

 

Una Ryder

Role: Director of Marketing and Business Development 

Company: McCann FitzGerald LLP 

Una is an experienced business strategist having worked in senior-level roles in a number of different sectors including aviation, consulting and professional services.  She has particular experience of market and brand strategy including market opportunity identification, brand development, product and service innovation and client management.  She chairs the Executive Committee of McCann FitzGerald LLP and is a Board Director of the Central Remedial Clinic.  She holds a M.B.A. from the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School (1st class) and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors (Distinction). 

You can find Una's LinkedIn here