Advisory Council
Kingsley Aikins
Kingsley Aikins is the founder and CEO of The Networking Institute, a company based in Dublin that runs training courses, online and offline, on Networking, Public Speaking, Philanthropy/Fundraising and Diaspora Engagement.
Before that he was, for 17 years, the CEO of the Worldwide Ireland Funds based in Boston. The Ireland Funds is a global Irish Diaspora network and is active in over 30 cities in 12 countries hosting 100 events annually. The Funds have raised over half a billion dollars philanthropically and funded over 3200 projects of Peace, Culture and Charity throughout the island of Ireland
Prior to that he was, for 17 years, the Sydney based representative for Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. He established the Australian Ireland Fund and the Lansdowne Club, now one of the largest Irish business networks in the world.
Kingsley has worked extensively internationally with governments, corporations and non-profits as well as multi-lateral agencies including the EU, UN, World Bank, USAID and IOM (International Organisation for Migration). He has written and spoken extensively on Diaspora Engagement and worked with over 30 countries, regions and cities helping them develop policies, programmes and projects to connect with their Diasporas. He has developed the concept of Diaspora Capital which is made up of three flows – flows of people, flows of knowledge and flows of money.
Kingsley is an Economics and Politics graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and former member of The Institutes of Export, Marketing and Linguists (French and Spanish). He is also a former Trinity College, Irish Universities, Vichy (France) and Leinster rugby representative.
Sarah Murphy
Sarah is CEO of the Business Post and a member of the Executive Leadership Team of the Business Post Group.
The Business Post is Ireland’s leading business media brand. In addition to the long trusted and independent flagship media title, which offers a multi-platform source of premium news, insight, opinion and analysis; the business also includes the much-loved brands of Irish Tatler, FOOD & WINE Magazine, Connected & Auto Ireland among others.
The Business Post also incorporates iQuest, an events and trade publishing business unit which Sarah has managed since January 2019. Under her leadership, the iQuest team manages a portfolio of over 40 annual events; including conferences focusing on a range of industries, large scale exhibitions, awards ceremonies, virtual production and specialist brand / niche events. As part of iQuest, she is also responsible for a range of trade publishing titles and The Circle, a C-suite corporate membership group.
A graduate of Trinity College Dublin with a BA in Business Studies and French and an MA in Events, Marketing & Management from London Metropolitan University, Sarah previously spent a large part of her working career in Britain. During this period, she was a director of The Irish Post Media Group in London, where she was based for over 10 years. She held a leading role in the formation of the highly acclaimed and televised Irish Post Awards, played a pivotal part in the establishment of the media organisation’s corporate network, business magazine series, events portfolio and lead the upward digital growth trajectory of the group. She has a passion for projects engaging the Irish diaspora globally.
Sarah currently also holds numerous non-exec board positions including board member of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, board member of Work Equal and former Chair of the British & Irish Trading Alliance Ireland.
She is a passionate advocate for women’s equality in business, as well as for creating and fostering a work environment of social equality. In her spare time Sarah loves exploring the great outdoors, training for Triathlons, all things ‘foodie’, strong coffee and a good book.
Anthony is a Partner with Business Transformation Consultancy, Gate One and is their Country Lead for Ireland. He sits on Gate One’s Executive Board and as part of the Global Havas Group, he is a member of the Havas Ireland Leadership Team, encompassing their Creative, Media, Public Affairs and Consulting agencies. He has approx. 20 years consulting experience working with leading organisations across a range of sectors incl. Consumer Goods, Life Sciences, Oil & Gas and Government. He has also worked with other Big 4 and boutique consultancies incl. Deloitte and Moorhouse in London. Having worked across the UK, Europe and the Middle East sampling different cultures, Anthony has recently returned to live in Ireland with his family.
He has a BComm and a MSc in Management Research from University College Cork and a Diploma in Digital Business from Emeritus MIT & Columbia Business School. Anthony is married with 2 kids and is a keen golfer and runner, when time allows!
Cathal Lee
Cathal Lee is Managing Partner with Instinctif Partners, the international business communications consultancy. Cathal is an advisory board member of Asia Matters and is a graduate of University College Dublin with an MA in History of International Relations and a BA in History and Politics. He is a graduate of the Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) University and represented Ireland at the 9th Asia-Europe Young Leaders Symposium held in Beijing, China.
Cathal has almost 20 years’ industry experience in public affairs and corporate communications, having previously served as a political adviser in the Houses of the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) and then managing public affairs for the Construction Industry Federation (CIF). Until 2019, he was Chief Executive Officer of Lee Communications, a company he established in 2011 to provide public affairs and corporate communications support to a large number of organisations and businesses. Over the course of his career Cathal has advised businesses of all sizes, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to high growth technology start-ups, as well as business associations, member organisations, non-governmental organisations and political leaders on public affairs strategies and corporate communications.
Cathal is a former Board Member of the National Youth Council of Ireland and previously represented Ireland as a member of the European Youth Parliament.
Devan Hughes
Devan is CEO & Co-Founder of Buymie, an on-demand grocery delivery platform. He holds a degree in Finance from the National College of Ireland, and has worked in the start-up sector for most of his career. Most recently Devan worked for Fortune 500 cloud computing company, Salesforce.com, as part of their strategic enterprise team, with a focus on innovation within the FMCG and Manufacturing sectors. Devan has extensive experience in commercial and operational efficiency and is one of Ireland’s leading experts inlast mile delivery, platform economics, design and architecture.
Dr Ebun Joseph
Dr Ebun Joseph is a Diversity and Race relations consultant, Module Coordinator and Lecturer, Black Studies at University College Dublin (UCD), Director Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies (IABS), and founder and Chairperson, African Scholars Association Ireland (AFSAI 2018-2022). Dr Joseph held the position of Career Development Consultant at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (2017-2021), and was a Teaching Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Training and Employment Officer EPIC (2007 -2017). Ebun is an author, TV panellist, Columnist and an equality activist. With a research focus on Labour markets and race relations, she has presented at several conferences, businesses and nonprofits. Ebun is published and contributes regular responses on contemporary issues of race and racism in Ireland. Her recent book is titled, Racial stratification in Ireland: A Critical race theory of labour market inequality with Manchester University press. She also co-authored the book, Challenging Perceptions of Africa in Schools: Critical Approaches to Global Justice Education with Routledge in Jan 2020. Dr Joseph’s 2020 article won the IRJ Prize awarded to the paper adjudicated to represent the best original contribution to the journal in a given year. ‘Composite counterstorytelling as a technique for challenging ambivalence about race and racism in the labour market in Ireland.
Orla has an in-depth understanding of scaling companies, how they operate and issues they face through 25+ years’ experience of working with them from the perspectives of an executive leader, corporate finance advisor, capital markets operator and non-executive director.
Orla is passionate about the role of finance as the fuel for accelerating growth in scaling companies and the importance of the right financing strategy to deliver to this. As former Head of Listing for Ireland and UK at Euronext, she founded Euronext’s IPOready programme, to give companies the required skillsets for raising strategic finance. She is actively involved in a number of initiatives including the Alliance for an Innovation Driven Recovery in Ireland and was a member of the European Commission’s Technical Expert Group on SMEs.
Orla is a Non-Executive Director of Cairn Homes plc, Elite SpA and HealthBeacon plc; and is on the Advisory Board of Elkstone Ventures. She is a member of the Chartered Accountants Ireland Sustainability Expert Working Group and Chapter Zero Ireland.
Orla has a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Accounting from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Dr Claudia Igbrude
Dr Claudia Igbrude helps organisations leverage technology to build learning and talent development experiences that scale and have a demonstrated impact. She has over 20years experience in the technology sector with 18 of those at the intersection of technology design and development, learning design, education practice enhancement, and business transformation. Her experience spans across SMEs, MNCs, Higher education and as an entrepreneur. She is currently the Learning Technology Leader for PayPal and an Advisory Board-member with HubSpot.
She also advises organisation leaders in business and the Not-for-profit space on building inclusive strategies for people operations processes, customer operations, and product innovation.
Previously, as part of her work in the Technological University Dublin, she lectured at post-graduate level, conducted research and supervised dissertations while driving innovation in learning and teaching using mobile technologies and virtual reality. She was the inaugural Education lead for Women in AI Ireland.