EY CFO Summit 2024: Mastering Change, Shaping Tomorrow

Christa Davies
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Aon plc

Christa Davies serves as Executive Vice President, Global Finance, and Chief Financial Officer for Aon plc. She joined Aon in November 2007 as Executive Vice President, Global Finance, and became Chief Financial Officer in March 2008.

In her role as CFO, Christa oversees Aon’s global financial operations. She has helped manage the firm’s two largest mergers: Benfield Group in 2008 and Hewitt Associates in 2010, as well as the relocation of Aon’s headquarters to London in 2012.

Before joining Aon, Christa worked for Microsoft from 2002 to 2007 and held a series of positions with increasing responsibility, including her last role as Chief Financial Officer of the Platform and Services Division, the largest and most profitable division within the company.

Christa is a graduate in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Queensland in Australia, and as a Fulbright Scholar, earned her M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Ian Goldin
Professor of Globalisation and Development, Oxford University, former Vice President and Head of Policy, World Bank and former policy advisor to Nelson Mandela

Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford, Professorial Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford University, and from 2006 to 2016 was the founding Director of Oxford University’s interdisciplinary Oxford Martin School.

Ian Goldin currently leads the Oxford Martin research programmes on Technological and Economic Change, Future of Work and Future of Development. From 2001 to 2006 Ian was Vice President of the World Bank and the Group’s Director of Policy and Special Representative at the United Nations. From 1996 to 2001, he was economic advisor to President Mandela and the Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), transforming it to become the largest investor in infrastructure and over 500 municipalities in the 14 countries of Southern Africa.

Previously, Ian served as Principal Economist at the EBRD and the Director of Programmes at the OECD Development Centre. He has an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MA and Doctorate from the University of Oxford.

Ian has been knighted by the French Government and received numerous awards. He has published over 60 journal articles and 23 books. Ian Goldin has provided advisory services to the IMF, UN, EU, OECD and over 100 Fortune 500 Companies and has served as a non-executive Director on six globally listed companies, including as the Senior Independent Director and Chairing a wide range of Board Committees. Ian is an acclaimed speaker at TED, Google Zeitgeist, WEF and other meetings and is Chair of the core-econ.org initiative to transform economics.

Michael McGrath TD
Minister for Finance

Michael McGrath is a TD for Cork South Central and is currently the Minister for Finance in the Government of Ireland. He previously served as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform from 2020 to 2022. Before entering national politics, Michael served in local government in Cork for eight years. 

He was elected to Dáil Éireann at the first attempt in 2007 and has been re-elected in every election since. In his time in Dáil Éireann, Michael has served on a number of Oireachtas committees including the Finance Committee, the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry, the European Affairs Committee and the Public Accounts Committee.

As Minister for Finance, Michael is responsible for leading the Department in the achievement of the government’s economic, fiscal and financial policy goals, having regard to the Programme for Government. The Minister for Finance has a key role in decisions made across government, and is Ireland’s representative at the Eurogroup and Ecofin meetings of European Finance Ministers. As Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Minister McGrath is a Governor of a number of international bodies that Ireland is a member of, including the European Investment Bank, the IMF, the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Catriona Campbell
MBE, EY UK&I Chief Technology & Innovation Officer

Catriona Campbell, MBE is EY UK&I’s Chief Technology & Innovation Officer. A renowned expert in HumanComputer Interaction (HCI), Catriona founded London-based experience design firm Seren in 2001. Now called EY-Seren, after being acquired by EY in 2015, the company has offices in several countries, assisting clients to create well-designed experiences.

Since then, she has guided some of the world’s best-known brands towards digital success, as the firm’s CTIO, landing a well-deserved place in the BIMA Digital Hall of Fame & and an MBE thanks to two decades of outstanding contributions to her technology acumen. In 2020 she authored a best-selling book on AI, has worked extensively with governments and clients to deploy AI programs, and is the Chair of the Scottish AI Alliance, a Ministerial appointment.

George Deegan
Partner and CFO Programme Sponsor, Assurance, EY Ireland

George Deegan is a Partner in EY Ireland’s Assurance practice and is the EY CFO Programme Sponsor. As the Global Engagement Partner for a number of listed clients and as the EMEIA Coordinating Partner for Fortune 100 companies, George coordinates and leads multidiscipline cross-border teams and resources. George is responsible for ensuring the highest service quality, seamless and consistent cross-border service and providing the right Industry and functional expertise and insights to his clients. In over 20 years at EY, he worked with clients listed on Dublin, London, Nasdaq and New York stock exchanges, supporting significant debt and other public equity offerings. George also acts as a non-executive director and audit committee member.

Mark Spain
Group Chief Financial Officer, Bank of Ireland plc

Mark Spain is Group Chief Financial Officer of Bank of Ireland plc. Mark is a strategically adept leader, with a track record of leading multi-functional teams to successfully deliver significant and positive commercial outcomes, with particular expertise in commercial analysis and decision making, financial control, finance function operations, people leadership, M&A, ESG, multi-stakeholder engagement and investor relations. Mark has over 25 years' experience as a finance professional, having qualified as a chartered accountant in 1994. He joined the Group in 1998 as a Director in IBI Corporate Finance, an M&A advisory boutique. He became Director of Group Investor Relations in 2013, followed by Director of Group Finance in 2016. In 2019, he was appointed Chief Strategy Officer and member of the Group Executive Committee. Prior to joining the Group, Mark worked in Diageo plc's M&A team and KPMG. Mark holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) Degree and a diploma in Professional Accounting from University College Dublin. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Rob Doepel
EY UK&I Managing Partner for Sustainability; EY UK&I Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader

Rob Doepel is the EY UK&I Managing Partner for Sustainability and the Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader. Rob focuses on bringing the best of the end-to-end EY offerings to our clients across all sectors. As a practitioner, Rob brings over 20 years’ experience in delivering large-scale transformational change, both within industry and as an Advisor.

Rob has worked across the globe for a variety of clients within numerous industries, including financial services, transport, pharmaceuticals and media. For the past 15 years, Rob focused on the power and utilities industry, helping clients navigate an ever-changing consumer, regulatory and political environment across transmission, distribution and retail energy.

Frank O’Keeffe
EY UK & Ireland Managing Partner, Markets, and EY Ireland Managing Partner

Frank O'Keeffe is EY UK & Ireland Managing Partner, Markets, and EY Ireland Managing Partner. As Managing Partner, Markets, Frank is responsible for Client Service, Commercial & Operations functions across the United Kingdom and Ireland, defining and executing EY’s go-to-market growth strategy and supporting our teams to partner with our clients to help solve their biggest challenges. He has been Managing Partner at EY Ireland since 2018 and in this role, he continues to oversee a period of rapid growth for the firm across the island of Ireland.

Frank joined EY in 1997 and has held a series of leadership roles across Region, Service Line and Sector. Prior to taking up the role as Managing Partner at EY Ireland, he held a position on the Irish Leadership Team as Head of Assurance, serving a range of large national and multinational clients across the manufacturing, retail, technology and supply chain sectors.

Frank was the Partner Sponsor for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ program in Ireland between 2009 and 2014. He has also held the position of Diversity & Inclusion Partner Sponsor and continues to preside over EY Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee in Ireland. Frank is the current Disability Partner Sponsor for the EY EMEIA region.

He is a Chartered Certified Accountant by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. He has previously held roles on a number of external committees, including Notre Dame University, the American Council and IRUPA Player Welfare National Board.

Alan Duffy
European Head of Commercial Banking Sustainability, HSBC Continental Europe

Alan Duffy is the European Head of Commercial Banking Sustainability at HSBC Continental Europe. In January 2022 Alan was appointed as HSBC’s first Head of Sustainable Finance for Europe Commercial Banking. Prior to this Alan held the roles of CEO & Head of Banking HSBC Ireland based in Dublin having established HSBC’s commercial banking business in Ireland in 2006. During his career Alan has worked in a variety of international wholesale banking roles with Scotiabank and ING and has extensive experience of the North American, Nordic and European banking markets. A Business Studies graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Alan also holds an MBA from University College Dublin and he completed a Business Sustainability Management course with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Alan is a qualified Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors, London and a member of the Institute of Bankers.

Yvonne Holmes
Head of Group Sustainability, DCC plc 

Yvonne Holmes is the Head of Group Sustainability at DCC plc which has over 50 businesses across Energy, Technology and Healthcare in 22 countries. Yvonne was the Chief Sustainability Officer in AIB Bank for three years up to 2022. Previous other roles include leading the Data & Analytics function and large Transformation Programmes for AIB.

Katie Burns
Partner, Consulting, EY Ireland

Katie Burns is a Partner in the EY Consulting practice in Dublin, leading the firm’s business consulting finance transformation team. Having worked across diverse industries, Katie has extensive experience in finance operating model design, global business services, digital finance and enterprise performance management. Prior to joining EY, she worked as Finance Transformation Director for another Big Four firm. Katie earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University College Dublin (UCD) and a Master of Business Studies from the UCD Smurfit Business School. She is a Chartered Management Accountant as well.

Vickie Wall
EY Ireland Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) leader

Vickie is the EY Ireland Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) leader. In addition, she is a co-founder of the EY Global Reporting Center of Excellence (CoE) also based in Dublin.

Vickie has over 20 years’ experience working with large multinational companies in Dublin, Sydney and the USA, across a breath of areas including traditional assurance services, statutory reporting compliance and governance solutions, technical accounting support and advice, financial reporting process optimisation and global business services.

EY FAAS provides support ranging from technical accounting and reporting advice, GAAP conversions, transaction accounting, IPO readiness, finance & reporting process optimization, finance digitalisation and support in design and evaluation of process & control frameworks for financial reporting.  In addition, FAAS can help companies and boards prepare for the UK Corporate Governance Code requirements, most notably the 2024 Code.   

Vickie holds an MA in Business and Accounting from the University of Edinburgh, a Diploma in IFRS from the ICAI, a Diploma in Corporate Governance from Smurfit Business School and is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

Majella Mungovan
Vice President of Financial Operations, Meta

Majella Mungovan is the Vice President of Financial Operations at Meta, where she leads a world-class global organization of 400 FTEs and vendors across 10 countries from her base in Dublin. With over 20 years of experience in finance, Majella has played a crucial role in Meta's rapid growth, helping the company reach $100 billion in revenue faster than any other in history. In her current role, Majella is responsible for all aspects of Meta's finance revenue processes, including financial operations, business partnering, accounting, credit, collections, billing, and external reporting. She is passionate about building a culture of innovation and diversity within her team and is always looking for ways to incorporate new technologies such as Machine Learning & AI with traditional people skills and capabilities. Prior to joining Meta in 2014, Majella held various roles at Deloitte, Glen Dimplex, and Microsoft.

Dearbhail McDonald
Author and Broadcaster

Dearbhail McDonald is an award-winning Journalist, Author, Broadcaster and MC. A global Eisenhower Fellow, Dearbhail has won a series of awards for her contribution to public affairs journalism including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Smurfit Business School, the Mary Cummins Award for Women of Outstanding Achievement in Media, an inaugural Dublin City University Special Alumni Achievement award, as well as Irish Tatler’s Media Woman of the Year. The author of Bust: How the Courts Exposed the Rotten Heart of the Irish Economy (Penguin), Dearbhail has used her platforms to consistently highlight a range of diverse issues affecting women including workplace equality, gender based violence, the socio-economic impacts of declining birth rates (Fertility Shock, RTE, 2019) and the contribution of women religious in Irish Life (The Last Nuns in Ireland, RTE, 2024). President of the Strategy Committee of the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, Dearbhail has served on the boards of Fighting Words, Ireland’s national creative writing centre for children and young adults, the St. Stephen’s Green Trust and the External Advisory Board of Maynooth University Department of Law. Dearbhail holds an LL.B (Law) from Trinity College Dublin as well as a Masters Degree in Journalism from Dublin City University.

Toby Sainsbury
Principal Officer, Artificial Intelligence and Future Manufacturing Ireland Unit, Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment

Toby Sainsbury leads the Artificial Intelligence and Future Manufacturing Ireland unit at the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment, and is ​responsible for National AI Policy, the National AI Regulatory Sandbox Facility ​and the Digital Transformation of Ireland’s manufacturing sector. 

Toby’s unit leads on the development and implementation of the National ​AI Strategy and the National Industry 4.0 Strategy. Toby is also the Irish representative on the EU Semiconductor Board at the ​European Commission.

Derarca Dennis
Partner and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) Lead, EY Ireland

Derarca is the Partner and Lead for Sustainability Services (CCaSS) for EY Ireland.

She has over 20 years of professional experience in financial and non-financial reporting, including six years based in Brussels and Finland. Derarca leads a team of climate change and sustainability specialists who focus on advising private and listed companies on climate and sustainability business solutions. She also leads the Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS) team that advise on a range of technical financial and non-financial reporting issues.

Derarca is a graduate of University College Dublin and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland, as well as holding a degree in Psychology.