Tobias Bach is a researcher at the University of Hannover, Department of Political Science, Germany. He has conducted various research projects on government agencies, including the German COBRA survey. He has published in international journals such as Administration & Society, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Policy and Society, and Public Administration on various aspects of agency autonomy and control.

He is the co-author of two consultancy reports to the European Parliament on government agencies and administrative efficiency.

Stuart has held a number of top level appointments including Chief Executive of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), and Interim Chief Executive of NHS Education for Scotland (NES). Previously, he worked with Redbridge Health Authority which he joined in 1986 and held a number of senior management and Board level positions within that authority. He was Chief Executive of Redbridge Healthcare when it achieved NHS Trust status.  Stuart was President of the Institute of Healthcare Management from 2007 to 2011.

Richard is Head of Research, Publishing and Corporate Relations, responsible for planning and management of research and publications functions. He has carried out a wide range of research and consultancy studies on aspects of public service management including public sector reform, performance measurement, evaluation, the management of cross-cutting issues, and long-term policy thinking.

Professional Expertise

Richard’s major areas of specialisation include public sector performance management, monitoring and evaluation systems, and public service change and reform programmes.

He is an expert on evaluation, is Chair of the Irish Evaluation Network, and has served on the board of the European Evaluation Society. He provides support to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in a number of monitoring and evaluation reform initiatives.

In recent years Richard has been engaged in a number of major consultancy projects for public sector organisations in Ireland, particularly in the fields of programme evaluation, strategic management, organisational restructuring and performance management.

Internationally, he has conducted research on behalf of the European Commission, the OECD, and the World Bank. Among his many publications are Fit for Purpose? Challenges for Irish Public Administration and Priorities for Public Service Reform (2011) (with Muiris MacCarthaigh); Performance Reporting: Insights from International Practice (2009), and Comparing Public Administrations (2007)

Previous Experience

Richard has over 30 years experience of working with public sector organisations, including over 25 years with the IPA. Before joining the IPA Richard worked in local government in London.

Education

BA (Hons), MTD, PhD

Jim Breslin was appointed the first Secretary General of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in July 2011. This followed the creation for the first time of a full Government Department to take charge of the improvement of policies and services for children and young people. He has considerable senior management experience across both Government Departments and the health service. He also worked previously for the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) and the Department of Finance. He holds masters degrees in public administration from the Institute of Public Administration/Trinity College Dublin and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Maurice Buckley is Chief Executive Officer of NSAI (National Standards Authority of Ireland), Ireland’s official body for standards and measurement.   He holds an MBA degree from INSEAD, in France, and prior to recently becoming a Chartered Director was already a Chartered Engineer (C.Eng) with an ME (Master of Engineering, Electrical) from University College Dublin (UCD).

He began his career in Ireland working for an international manufacturer of high performance drives and motors. He progressed from product development to a product management role based in Germany. After completing his MBA at INSEAD, he joined The Boston Consulting Group developing strategies for German and European corporations. After some seven years in Germany, Maurice returned to Ireland, where he opened a printing company and went on to become Group Manager in charge of plants in Ireland, the UK, and Germany.

Patricia Byron is the first CEO of The Injuries Board, an independent State body,a key driverbehind thetransformation of the personal injuries claims environment since its establishment in 2004. The Board is quasi-judicial,making statutory awards in respect of compensation for personal injury claims. Its key achievements include faster processing times and lower delivery costs whilst ensuring claimants receive the same level of compensation as that previously administered through litigation by the Courts. It is now compulsory for such claims to be administered by the Board.Cumulativedirectfinancial savings of over €600m (to date) and lower insurance premiums for consumers and businesshave redresseda trend where insurance premium increases had previously threatened competitiveness.Additional indirect savings of circa €600m (to date)have also been achieved as the Board’s model has facilitated an early settlement culture where litigation is not required. Furthermore Court time has been freed up to concentrate on more appropriate cases.

Penny Ciniewicz has been Chief Executive of the Valuation Office Agency since September 2009.  She is currently Chair of ACE (the UK Association of Chief Executives of arms’ length bodies).

She joined the Agency from HMRC where her last post was Director, Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence.  Her civil service career began in DTI, where she was Director, Aerospace & Defence, and led on shareholder issues while exploring a PPP of BNFL jointly with HMT and advisors.  She was Principal Private Secretary to two Cabinet Secretaries, Lord Turnbull and Lord O’Donnell.

James Curran has worked in environmental science and environmental regulation for 30 years. He has undertaken studies in hydrometeorology, numerical modelling of dispersion in marine waters, and water resources management as well as a spell of direct regulatory enforcement with agricultural and industrial businesses.

He has been a consultant to the Scottish Office and was for some years the Head of Science with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and then Head of Environmental Strategy.

In 2006 he co-founded and then ran Entrading, the UK's first comprehensive eco-store and cafe in central Glasgow. This was sold a couple of years later and in 2009 he took up the post, again with SEPA, of Director of Science and Strategy. In 2012 James was appointed Chief Executive of SEPA.

James was awarded an MBE for services to the environment in 2007.

Dr Katharine Dommett is a Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield. She is currently working on an ESRC-funded project entitled ‘Shrinking the State’, which explores the extent to which the reform of arm's length bodies will deliver the policy goal of a smaller, smarter, cheaper state. Her research focuses on political parties, governance, rhetoric, ideology and democratic participation in British and international contexts.  

Andy joined the Irish Blood Transfusion Service in April 1999. He was initially appointed as Deputy Chief Executive Officer / HR Manager but moved to take responsibility for donation collection in June 2000.  He has been Chief Executive since July 2002 during a period of significant change within the IBTS and the environment in which it operates.   He has overseen a major change programme since 2005 which has resulted in significant savings to the Exchequer and fundamental change in how IBTS delivers its products and services.

Professor Per Lægreid, Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University of Bergen. His research interest includes studies of public administration, public management from a broad institutional perspective combining political science and organizational studies; empirical studies of institutional changes  of central government organizations, democratic governance, administrative reform, welfare state reforms, internal security and crisis management and administrative policy in a domestic and comparative perspective; a special focus on New Public Management reforms in the public sector as well as post-NPM reform initiatives, regulatory policy arrangements and studies of multi-level governance systems. He has published extensively on such topics in international journals.  His recent books include  Goverrnment Agencies. Pracitices and Lessons from 30 Countries, with. K. Verhoest, S. van Thiel and G. Bouckaert (Palgrave 2012) The Ashgate Research Companion to New Public Management, with T. Christensen (Ashgate 2011) and Governance of Public Sector Organizations, with. K. Verhoest (Palgrave 2019).

Maureen Lynott is a senior level director and executive in the public and private sectors. She has extensive experience in governance and management with particular expertise in performance systems and strategic change.  

Ms. Lynott was educated and worked in New York until 1987. She holds a BSc(Hons) from the State University of New York, an MSc from Hunter College Graduate School of the City University of New York, and  is a graduate of the Executive Management Programmes at Columbia University School of Business and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1987, Ms. Lynott was invited for a year’s appointment as a Visiting Academic at Trinity College Dublin in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Science.

In Ireland, she has been Senior Advisor to the CEO of the newly amalgamated Health Service Executive with responsibility to lead a number of  national strategic initiatives, operational improvement programmes, and establish the HealthStat sytem, the first online performance measurement programme in the Irish public service; first external Chairperson of the Top Level Appointments Committee; Chairperson of the Task Force to establish a new Child and Family Agency; Project Director to establish the National Treatment Purchase Fund and its first Chairperson; executive roles at Voluntary Health Insurance Board and BUPA Ireland.

She has been a non-executive Board member of the Housing Finance Agency, Chairperson of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, Chairperson of the Special Residential Services Board, and Board member at St James Hospital, An Cosan, Focus Point, and the Homeless Initiative. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Womens Forum Ireland.

A graduate of UCC (BA) and Trinity College Dublin (MBA) Laura co-founded MCO PROJECTS in 2000, having successfully managed the rejuvenation of the Temple Bar area in Dublin City.

MCO PROJECTS is an award-winning company designing and delivering diverse projects across public, private and community sectors, including the largest public healthcare development in the State.

Laura is a Chartered Director, Fellow and past President of the Institute of Directors, and Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland. She has served on many Public, Private and plc Boards as Chairman, Non-Executive Director, and Executive Director, and is currently Chair of the Crafts Council of Ireland.

Paula leads the Public Bodies Reform programme within the Efficiency and Reform Group of the Cabinet Office, working with departments to introduce new legislation (the Public Bodies Act) and coordinate policy delivery across Whitehall to improve the governance, sponsorship, accountability and efficiency of the public bodies landscape.

Paula began her early career in the voluntary sector, setting up social and community enterprises, and went on to work as a senior manager in local government with responsibility for service quality improvement and business and resources management. 

In the Cabinet Office, Paula has worked for the Prime Minister’s Office for Public Service Reform and the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat on pay and workforce reform; and for the National School of Government on civil service leadership strategy. She has led the Public Bodies Reform programme since the formation of the coalition government in 2010. Having successfully steered through legislation through Parliament, Paula introduced new government policy to review the remit and governance framework for public bodies to ensure they remain fit for purpose. Her team coordinates the review programme, advising ministers, including the Chief Secretary and Prime Minister, on actions for improvement. 

Paula has served as a non-executive director for a London acute hospital trust, and continues to pursue her interests in voluntary and community action. She is currently a Board member of New Horizons, a charity for young vulnerable adults.

In 2009 Paula was made a CBE for her services to the Cabinet Office and public services.

Dr Ann McGarry studied physics at the Dublin Institute of Technology and University College Dublin.  She was awarded a Masters Degree in Applied Physics in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics in 1991 by University College Dublin. She has worked for the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) (and its forerunner the Nuclear Energy Board) since 1985 and was appointed Chief Executive in May 2002.  The RPII is the national regulatory authority in Ireland with regulatory, monitoring and advisory responsibilities in all matters relating to ionising radiation.

During her career, Dr McGarry has represented Ireland or served as an expert on various international committees with remits in radiation protection and nuclear safety.  She is currently serving as Chair of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH).  She is also a Member of Committee 4 (Application of the Commission’s recommendations) of the International Commission on Radiological Protection.  She represents Ireland on the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) and on the Heads of the European Radiation Protection Competent Authorities (HERCA).

Following the death of her son as a result of medical error, Margaret Murphy has been actively involved as a patient safety advocate.   Margaret is the External Lead Advisor, WHO Patients for Patient Safety (a network of 200-plus patient safety champions from 51 countries with 19 collaborating organisations), Chair of Patients for Patient Safety Ireland and in 2012 was designated as one of ISQua’s 70 global experts.

The focus of her work relates to seeing adverse events as having the potential to be catalysts for change as well as being opportunities for learning, identifying areas for improvement and preventing recurrence.

She promotes this viewpoint at local, national and international levels as an invited presenter to conferences, hospital staffs and students.  Her area of particular interest is education as a vehicle to achieve sustainable culture change.

Seán Ó Foghlú has been the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills since his appointment in February 2012.

From 2008 until 2012 he was an Assistant Secretary General in the Department of Education and Skills. He had responsibility for the Planning and Building Unit in Tullamore from 2010 to 2012 and prior to that he had responsibility for school transport, social inclusion, payroll and pensions. 

Having spent a number of years in private practice and as technical manager in the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland and the UK, Mr. Pat O’Mahony, M.V.B., M.V.M., A.M.D., M.B.A., M.R.C.V.S. worked in public health and was Director of Consumer Protection at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.  He joined the IMB as Chief Executive in 2002.

Mr. O’Mahony is a member of the Management Board of the European Medicines Agency where he served as Chairman from 2007 to 2011.  He is also a member of the Board of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the Irish National Accreditation Board and a member of the National Patient Safety Advisory Group.

Maura Pidgeon, RGNHons; RM; BSc Hons; MBA; PhD (QUB):

• Completed General Nursing Training with Hons in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin, and Midwifery training at the Coombe Hospital in Dublin.  Completed a post registration course in Neonatal Intensive Care at the National Maternity Hospital Dublin.  BSc (Hons) Nursing, ‘New University of Ulster’ at Jordanstownand  MBA Ulster Business School.
• Director of Nursing in the Mater Private Hospital, Ireland’s leading Private Acute Tertiary Referral Hospital. 
• Academic, teaching and management experience gained at Queen’s University Belfast and as Head of Department of Nursing & Health Sciences at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology. 
• 2009 - PhD in Leadership at Queen’s University Belfast. 
• July 2011 - CEO, AnBordAltranais (ABA).  Two major initiatives (i) implementation of Nurses and Midwives Act 2011, and (ii) participation in the National Review of Undergraduate Program.
• June 2012 – Adjunct Professor, UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems.
• December 2012 – Fellow Ad Eundem

Declan Purcell was a full-time executive Board Member of the Irish Competition Authority from 1998, and its Chairman from April 2010 to September 2011.

Külli Sarapuu is a research fellow at Tallinn University of Technology, Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance. Her research interests include administrative structure, coordination instruments within public administration, public service systems, and public administration in small states. She has recently published articles on the development of the Estonian administrative system and on small state theory. She is currently engaged in the EU 7FP research project “Coordinating for Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future – COCOPS” and

Marc Seale has been the Chief Executive and Registrar of the Health and Care Professions Council since 2001.

The HCPC is a UK statutory regulator of 310,000 heath and care professionals from 16 professions.  In August 2012 the HCPC became responsible for regulating social workers in England when the General Social Care Council was abolished.  In 2010 the Hearing Aid Council functions were transferred to the HCPC

Marc sits on the Department of Health’s Professional Standards Strategy Board.  He was a member of the Foster Review of non-medical professional regulation and the Social Work Reform Board.

A scientist by training he studied Physiology at the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1977.  He also has a Masters degree from the London Business School.  Marc’s career has been spent working in a variety of commercial organisations.  These have included Inmarsat, the satellite Inter Governmental Organisation (IGO), and British Gas.  His responsibilities have covered general management, finance and marketing.

After graduating from Cambridge University in 1968 and working for two years in the then UK Ministry of Transport, Michael Smethers spent twenty years teaching economics and business studies in secondary schools in London, before returning to Government service in 1990.

From 1996 he was Head of International Aviation and Safety Division in the UK Department for Transport, where his responsibilities included European aviation policy. In 2006 he joined the UK Civil Aviation Authority as Director of European and International Strategy. 

Else Smith, M.D. PhD., was appointed Director General of the Danish Health and Medicines Authority in March 2012.

Michael Starrett, a native of County Tyrone, was appointed as the Heritage Council's first Chief Executive in August 1996.

A graduate ecologist and biologist with post graduate qualifications in education and landscape management he has almost 30 years experience in the areas of heritage management and policy development.  His professional qualifications include membership of the Landscape Institute ALI(UK) and the Irish Landscape Institute as well as the Institute of Sport, Parks and Leisure (MISPAL).  In addition to a career path that has seen him work in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland he has extensive European experience through his membership of the Federation of National and Nature Parks of Europe, a pan European body with 400 members in 38 different countries.  He was the first Irishman to be elected as President of the Federation from 2002-2005.  He is also a member of the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas.  Michael has traveled extensively studying legislation and systems that allow the sustainable management and development of cultural and natural landscapes.  He recently completed a Masters in Management Practice at Trinity College Dublin.

Michael lives in Kilkenny with his wife Giliane and their three children.

Further information is available on www.europarc.org and www.heritagecouncil.ie   

Dr Katherine Tonkiss is a Research Fellow in the School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham, UK.  She is currently working on a three year, ESRC funded project titled ‘Shrinking the State’, which explores the Coalition Government’s attempt to reform arm’s length bodies, from multi-level and cross-national perspectives.  Katherine has broad research interests in empirical and normative questions surrounding democratic governance and citizenship, conceived of in local, national and post-national terms.

Sandra van Thiel (1968) studied psychology and educational sciences at the Catholic University Nijmegen (graduation with honours in 1992). She worked for a local government for a short time, and then returned to academic life in 1994. As a Ph.D. student she studied quasi-autonomous governments, in particular Dutch ZBOs, with the research school ICS at Utrecht University (dissertation defended in 2000). From 1998 until 2012, she worked at the Department of Public Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam as an assistant and later associate professor. From 2004 until 2009, she was executive director of the Netherlands Institute of Government.

From November 2011 until October 2012, Sandra was the research coordinator of the parliamentary inquiry by the Dutch Senate into the effects of privatization and agencification on the relationship between citizens and government. As of January 2012, she is full professor of public management at the Faculty of Management Sciences of Radboud University in Nijmegen.

Current positions

·         Professor in Public Management at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

·         Chair of the MAGW VIDI committee

·         Co-chair of the permanent EPGA study group 6 on public sector organizations

·         Member of the Cobra network & Cost Action IS0601 on executive agencies

Previous positions and International activities

·         Research coordinator of the parliamentary inquiry by the Dutch Senate into effects of privatization and agencification on the relationship between citizens and the government

·         Co-chair and co-organizer 5th Transeuropean Dialogue, in Budapest 1-3 February 2012

·         Vice chair of the VENI committee for MAGW (2011)

·         Member of the peer review committee for the review of the bachelor and master PA programme at Gent College

·         Deputy member of the Management Committee for the Research Project 'COCOPS - Coordinating for Cohesion in the Public Sector of the Future', granted by the EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7), Collaborative Project, grant number 266887.

·         Executive director of the Netherlands Institute of Government NIG (2004-2009)

·         Associate professor at the Public Management Institute, Catholic University of Leuven (2002-2003)

·         Co-chair and co-organizer of conference sessions at EGPA, IRSPM, EGOS, ECPR

·         Member of the editorial board of IRSPM and Bestuurswetenschappen

Teaching

·         Management van het Openbaar Bestuur (BA)

·         Bestuurlijke Onderzoeksbenaderingen (M)

·         Vergelijkende Bestuurskunde (M)

Robert Watt is Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.  The Department has responsibility for public expenditure policy, capital spending and Public Private Partnership policy and overall management and reform of the Irish public service.  It also has responsibility for State assets and the Government’s disposal programme.

Robert is leading a major public sector reform programme in areas such as procurement, shared services, outsourcing and ICT.  The Department is responsible for the Government’s open and transparency agenda and is leading on the reforms of the Freedom of Information Act, Regulation of Lobbyists, Whistleblowers and the Open Data Partnership.

Robert is also a member of the Economic Management Council and is a key advisor to the Government on budget, financial and economic matters. He is an economist and has experience in both the public and private sectors.  He has worked in a range of roles within the Department of Finance as well as previously working with Indecon Economic Consultants and London Economics.

Pat Whelan is a former Director General of the Office of the Ombudsman for Ireland. He retired from that position just over a year ago and is now engaged as a business consultant with a number of public sector agencies.

Pat is a Science Graduate and holds a Masters Degree in Management Science from Trinity College, Dublin. After graduating, he worked with British Telecom in London, the Irish Telecommunications Service in Dublin, and in the Irish Civil Service with the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance. He also served with the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland.

Through his work in the Ombudsman’s Office he has had experience of developing and participating in various international networks such as the British and Irish Ombudsman Association (now called the Ombudsman Association), the International Ombudsman Institute and the Network of Ombudsmen of the member states of the European Union.

At the behest of ACESA, he is currently co-authoring a comprehensive guide for Chief Executives of State Agencies to all aspects of their roles and functions.