Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin

Finbarr Bradley manages innovation learning communities in several Irish and international companies. He is a former professor of finance at DCU where he also developed an innovative Irish-medium degree in finance and computing, run out of the centre, Fiontar. He is the former chairman of zamano, a telecom start-up founded by former Fiontar students now listed on the London and Dublin Stock Exchanges. He was a professor in the Economics Department at NUI Maynooth and a visiting professor at the UCD Smurfit School. He also taught at the University of Michigan and Fordham University in the US and the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland. His co-authored book, Capitalising on Culture, Competing on focuses on innovation, learning and sense of place in a globalising Ireland. He will publish shortly, essays co-edited with Joe Mulholland on the Irish economy from the MacGill Summer School 2009. He has an electrical engineering degree from UCC, an MBA from Syracuse University, New York and a PhD from the Stern School of Business, New York University (NYU).

Dr. Niall Brady is a graduate of UCD (BA 1983, MA 1986) and of Cornell University (PhD 1996). His research interests include arable cultivation during the medieval period and maritime archaeology. Niall has achieved scholarships to study at Etnologiska Institutionen, Åbo Akademi, Finland, and at Merton College, Oxford, and has held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (1996-97), where he was appointed as a lecturer in the History Department. Since returning to Ireland in 1997, Niall has been very involved with private sector archaeology, and in 2000 co-founded The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd, which is Ireland’s leading underwater archaeological consultancy. In 2002, Niall joined the Discovery Programme. He lectures widely both at home and abroad. Niall is a council member of the Society for Medieval Archaeology (2005-2008) and of the Royal Irish Academy's Working Group on the Humanities and Social Sciences (2005-6).

John Concannon is a graduate of NUI, Galway and holds a Masters degree in Business Studies, a Bachelors degree in Commerce and a Postgraduate Higher Diploma in Marketing Practice. In June 2004, he was appointed Chief Executive of Ireland West Tourism after holding a range of roles with Unilever PLC and Dubarry of Ireland. In June 2006, Fáilte Ireland John was appointed to the new position of Director of Regional Development with Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority. As the first Director of Regional Development for Fáilte Ireland, John sits on each of the new Regional Tourism Development Boards. The Regional Directorate is responsible for the domestic marketing of Ireland, in addition to Fáilte Ireland’s investment in international trade and consumer shows as well as PR and familiarisation visits of international media and trade. In addition, the Directorate has overseen the recently published a three-year Strategic Tourism Development Plan for each of Fáilte Ireland’s Regions.

Mr Martin Cullen TD was appointed Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism on 7 May 2008 by Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD. Previously he served as Minister for Social and Family Affairs from June 2007 to May 2008. From September 2004 to June 2007 he served as Minister for Transport and established Transport 21, the Government's 10-year €34.4 billion investment programme for transport development. He was Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from June 2002 to September 2004. He served as Minister of State at the Department of Finance, with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works, 1997-2002. Martin Cullen TD was first elected to the Dáil as a Progressive Democrat TD in 1987. During the 27th Dáil he joined Fianna Fáil.
Throughout his career Minister Cullen has also been a Senator, Taoiseach's nominee, 1989-92; Spokesperson on Enterprise and Employment 1993; Industry and Commerce 1988-89; Tourism, Transport and Communications 1987-88 ; Member, Waterford City Council 1991-97; Mayor 1993-94 (his father and grandfather were both Mayors of Waterford)

Frank Dawson was appointed Roscommon County Manager in March, 2009. He holds a Masters Degree in Rural Development. After a career which included a ten year period of secondment to the Department of Finance Mr. Dawson moved to the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment in Sligo and became the Chief Executive Officer of Sligo County Enterprise Board in l992. In l999 he was appointed a Director of Services with Galway County Council where he was Chief Officer to the County Development Board and Director of Service for Community, Enterprise and Economic Development.

Since about 2001, Máirtin O’Connor, Cathal Hayden and Séamie O’Dowd have been building a formidable musical relationship, gigging together frequently as well as collaborating in the studio. The catalyst for this was when Máirtin invited Cathal and Séamie to play on his ground-breaking “Road West” album, alongside a gathering of Ireland’s finest musicians, and again later on his “Rain of Light” album. Máirtin was one of the main musical forces behind the now legendary “Riverdance” phenomenon, having previously, through his work with "De Dannan", "Midnight Well", "Skylark" and as a solo artist, quite simply gone where no Irish accordion player had gone before. Cathal Hayden achieved worldwide recognition as founder member of “Four Men and a Dog”. He is one of Ireland’s top fiddlers and his solo banjo performances are quite simply show stopping. Rooted deeply in the traditional music of Sligo, Séamie O’Dowd has played in many genres of acoustic and electric music. He toured the world for a number of years with Sligo trad legends, “Dervish” and recently has played at home and abroad with Liam O’Flynn, Matt Molloy and Mary Mc Partlan.

In December 2008 Martina was appointed to the new position of Chief Executive Officer of Roscommon Integrated Development Company, the new integrated local development company in County Roscommon responsible for the delivery of the local development social inclusion programmes and rural development programmes in the County. Ms. Martina Earley has twelve years experience in rural development and managed the EU LEADER and National Rural Development programmes for Leitrim and North Roscommon in the period 2001 - 2008. In addition to this she headed up and managed the secretariat of the Irish LEADER network, which is the contact point for Rural Development at a National Level. She has lead and managed several cross border projects including the INTERREG funded project Source: developing rural creativity. Her qualifications include an honours degree in Business and Finance.

Sarah Glennie has been working professionally in the cultural realm for fourteen years and has extensive experience of running and working in a number of public cultural institutions. She moved to Ireland in 1995 to work at the Irish Museum of Modern Art where she curated a number of projects including solo exhibitions by Olafur Eliasson, and Shirin Neshat and the major public art project GHOST SHIP by Dorothy Cross. In 2001 she moved to The Henry Moore Foundation Contemporary Projects where her curated projects included Paul McCarthy at Tate Modern, and Stopover at the Venice Biennale 2003. She co-curated Romantic Detachment at P.S.1/MoMA and in 2005 a major new film commission by Tacita Dean for Cork Capital of Culture 2005. She was the Commissioner of Ireland’s participation at the 51 st Venice Biennale 2005 and was Artistic Director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery from 2005 - 2008 where she initiated a nationally and internationally significant programme, highlights of which included The Eternal Now: Warhol and the Factory and 2006 an exhibition and unique performance by Patti Smith. In 2008 she became Director of the Irish Film Institute where she is overseeing a major redevelopment.

Michael John Gorman is the founding Director of the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin dedicated to sparking off creative collisions between art and science through exhibitions, festivals and events. Prior to this, he worked as Senior Manager for Young People's Programmes with Discover Science and Engineering where he led the development of projects including NanoQuest, a 3D video game exploring nanotechnology. For three years he was Lecturer in Science, Technology and Society at Stanford University where his course co-taught with mathematician and magician Persi Diaconis was described as "the coolest course on campus". Michael John is the author of several books including Buckminster Fuller and Designing for Mobility (Rizzoli-Skira: 2005). Michael John has a BA in Physics and Philosophy from Oxford University and a PhD in History from the European University Institute in Florence and has held postdoctoral fellowships at MIT and Harvard University. Key current interests relate to the intersections between science, the arts and entrepreneurship. Michael John's most recent book is a conversation exploring a mysterious seventeenth century Flemish painting representing the interplay between art and science with Lawrence Weschler, Pamela Smith and others.

Garry Hynes founded Druid in 1975 and has worked as its Artistic Director from 1975 to 1991, and from 1995 to date. From 1991 to 1994 she was Artistic Director of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Druid Productions include - The Cripple of Inishmaan, Long Day’s Journey into Night; Leaves; Empress of India; The Year of the Hiker; DruidSynge; Sharon’s Grave, Sive, On Raftery’s Hill, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Leenane Trilogy; Lovers’ Meeting; Conversations on a Homecoming; Bailegangaire; The Shaugh-raun; The Wood of the Whispering.
Other Theatre Productions include - The Weir, Crestfall; Juno; Translations; Mr Peters’ Connections; Crimes of the Heart; My Brilliant Divorce; 16 Wounded; A Streetcar Named Desire; King of the Castle, The Plough and the Stars, The Power of Darkness, Famine, A Whistle in the Dark, Portia Coughlan.
Awards - Honorary Doctorates from the University of Dublin (2004), the National University of Ireland (1998) and the National Council for Education Awards (1988), and a Tony Award for Direction for The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1998). She is a recipient of many other theatre awards, including The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Award for Best Director and a Special Tribute Award for her contribution to Irish Theatre (2005).

Alice Lyons, who was born in Paterson, New Jersey and has lived in County Roscommon since 1998, is a poet and visual artist. She has postgraduate degrees in Sociolinguistics from the University of Pennsylvania and Fine Art from Boston University.  Her poems have recently appeared in The Irish Review and Tygodnik Powszecheny (Kraków); as public art installations in Staircase Poems at The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon and Viewfinder at The Barracks in Cootehall; and as films, the most recent of which, The Polish Language, won the award for Best Animation at the 2009 Galway Film Fleadh.  She is the recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award for Poetry and the Ireland Chair of Poetry Award. She is associate curator at The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim. www.alicelyons.ie

Cathal Mac Coille is a Dubliner. Educated at Coláiste Mhuire and UCD, he spent a brief but satisfying period as editor of Comhar before graduating with a BA in history. He worked as a researcher in RTE Radio before being appointed to the Nuacht desk in the Newsroom. He was a member of the station's Belfast staff between 1978 and 1984. A period as presenter of Morning Ireland followed before he left RTE to join the Sunday Tribune, where he was appointed assistant editor in 1992. When TG4 was established in 1996, he became the station's political correspondent. He returned to Morning Ireland in 2001 and has been one of the programme's regular presenters since then. He writes a weekly column on politics in Foinse.

Lisa McAllister is Chief Executive of the Western Development Commission ( WDC). She was appointed in 2002. The function of the WDC is to foster and promote Economic and Social Development in the seven counties of the West of Ireland from Donegal to Clare. Lisa has been involved in Western Development since 1992, at the time of the Developing the West Together campaign. She was appointed as a member of the first board of the WDC at its establishment in 1997. The Western Development Commission is a State body enacted in 1999 by the WDC Act 1998. She came from the private sector where she was previously General Manager of the Sligo based hardware wholesale company Herron and Son Ltd. Lisa worked in the voluntary and community sector having headed up the Council for the West and the Euro Info Centre (DGXXIII) based at Sligo Chamber of Commence and Industry. She is a science graduate from UCD and has a Masters in Rural Development.

Una McCarthy, Head of Festivals, Street Arts and Spectacle at the Arts Council since 2004. A native of Co Cork, Una has worked in arts management since the early 80’s in Ireland and England.  Prior to her current position Una has held positions as Director of the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo; Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and the Old Museum Arts Centre in Belfast. In her current role Una is responsible for 13 Multi disciplinary arts festivals and over 180 festivals supported through the Small Festivals Scheme and a further five organisations under the Street Arts and Spectacle portfolio.

Stuart joined Business to Arts as Chief Executive in early 2007, having been immersed in business in roles such as Business Development Director with Accenture; Head of Outsourcing with CapGemini and Commercial Manager for Fujitsu. While at Accenture, through volunteering as a mentor for Business to Arts, Stuart began to see that business could learn a lot from the skills of artists and arts professionals. He worked with artists when organising internal communications events for Accenture, which led to him seeking out more structured roles in the arts. Stuart has since been recruited for a number of panels, think tanks and task forces, and is driving the message that the arts have a natural role to play in the innovation and creativity discussion that is taking place throughout the country. As well as working to develop creative partnerships between the arts and business, Stuart lectures part-time for Trinity College (MSc Management of Information Systems), and has co-authored degree courses for Oscail, the National Distance Education Centre of Ireland, based at DCU. He currently sits on the Boards of Fishamble Theatre and Lewis Glucksman Gallery at UCC.

In the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Roger O'Keeffe is Head of Sector responsible for the coordination and implementation of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. He has been working on European cooperation in the field of education and training in the Commission since 1993, and was a member of the team which organised the European Year of Lifelong Learning in 1996. He was subsequently responsible for relations with international organisations in the field of education and training. He previously dealt with European regional policy and structural funds, both in the European Commission, which he joined in 1989, and in the Irish Department of Finance, where he had already been dealing with the European structural funds from a national perspective.

Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin is Inaugural Chair of Music and Founder/Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Noted for his development of a uniquely Irish traditional piano style, he has recorded extensively with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. With many recordings and publications to his name, he was awarded an Honorary D.Mus from the National University of Ireland at his Alma Mater, University College Cork, in 2005 for his contribution to music in Ireland over the past thirty years. His most recent recording was the DVD Irish Destiny: music for the historic 1925 silent movie of the same name (Irish Film Institute: Dublin 2006). His most recent publication was ‘Parallel Universes: Poetics, Politics, and the State of Play’: a keynote address to the conference Arts Research: The State of Play (Dublin 2008). His most recent compositions include Francesco Walks for Baroque band and Irish traditional fiddlers (Commissioned by Ar Ais Aris Festival, Donegal, 2008); and UNSUNG (commissioned by Carlow Arts Festival for Rex Levitates Dance Company). He is currently finishing a new solo piano album entitled Elver Gleams.

Steeped in the North Connaught flute playing tradition, John Wynne is one of the most prominent flute players in the trad scene today. From a young age John has had success in All Ireland competitions. He was a member of the group, Providence which he recording two albums with. John released his first solo CD, ”With every breath” to critical acclaim in 2000. In 2007, he released the much acclaimed ”Pride of the West”, a fiddle/flute album with John McEvoy. Earlier this year, he released his second solo recording entitled “Ar nos na gaoithe – like the wind”. The album has already received great reviews from “The Irish Times” and Irish music magazine. John is a founding member of Roscommon Traditional Arts Forum, which whom he produced “The flute players of Roscommon Volumes 1 and 2. Finally, John is also involved in organising concerts and festivals, such as “Feile Frank McGann” and “The Reel Thing” series of concerts at Roscommon Arts Centre.