Meet the Panellists – WWMB Diversity and Inclusion Event

Ahead of our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) event this coming Thursday, we sat down with our panellists Mark Fenton, Andrea Dermody, John Clark, Lisa D’Arcy and our MC Breda McCague to find out a bit about their background.

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Mark Fenton is the CEO & Founder of MASF Consulting Limited, a specialised advisor on Inclusion & Diversity, established in 2016. MASF support large and small organisations within Europe, across all sectors, in designing and delivering sustainable Inclusion & Diversity strategies and learning solutions (from bias awareness to inclusive leadership) to future-proof their success

Mark has over 20 years’ experience in global financial organisations, with a proven track record in finance, audit and business strategy. He is also a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. However, more recently (2014-2016), he has managed global diversity and inclusion programmes for the world’s most valuable insurance brand, AXA.

Mark has lived and worked in several global capitals (including 9 years in London and 6 years in Paris). He also holds a First-Class Honours in Executive Coaching from the Irish Management Institute and has worked with dozens of mid-level and senior executives to support their personal and professional success.

Since March 2017, Mark has sat on the board of Screen Ireland (formerly the Irish Film Board), driving the gender equality and diversity committee and chairing the audit & risk committee.

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Andrea Dermody has over twenty years’ experience working across the Global Financial Services marketplace. With experience in Talent Management, Learning and D&I, most recently Andrea led inclusion and diversity for State Street in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Andrea holds a BA from UCD and a Masters in Human Resource Development from Sheffield Hallam University. She is a qualified executive coach and a chartered fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Andrea helps organisations build inclusive cultures that embrace multiple points of view to drive business success. A member of the financial services sub-committee of the 30% Club in Ireland, Andrea led their pivotal research project, “Making the Change Count” and she was also a founding member of the country steering committee for OUTstanding in Ireland at its inception in 2017, driving LGBT+ inclusion across Irish industry.

She has recently joined the DCU and Aviation Industry Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee and is a Senior Consultant with the DCU Centre of Excellence for Diversity and Inclusion.

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John conceptualises and scales businesses. A catalyst for growth, expansion, and profitability, he has a track record of transforming ideas into reality across multiple geographical regions and market verticals.

His experience as a leader in business operations, commercial strategy, and innovation make him skilled at identifying market needs, conceptualising ways to meet the demand, and turning raw ideas into viable solutions.

Most notably, John founded and exited an international outsourced operations and project management firm that supported such clients as the United Nations, the US Department of State, and UK MoD to name a few.

Blending negotiation skills and business acumen, he has succeeded in commercial leadership roles with established multi-national enterprise software firms. John achieved a near 100% closing rate with Blackstone-backed, IBS – a leader in the travel, transport, and logistics sector – managing an active pipeline of USD50mm with average ticket sales of USD10mm. Following this, he led the North American business for an Australian HQ’d enterprise software firm that provides strategic planning and business intelligence solutions to municipal government.

John has served as an advisor to Singapore-based PE/ VC fund and supported the launch of ventures in Edtech, Fintech, Recruitment, and Alcoholic Spirits.

Currently, he is the Managing Partner at thinkHRX, where he is building a tech platform to disrupt traditional Resumes/ CV and Job Boards, by putting personality and EQ at the forefront. In parallel, he recently co-founded Ireland’s fastest-growing tech network: Leadersoftech.ie.

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Lisa D’Arcy has 20 years in the IT industry and is a Global Inclusion and Diversity Lead and Business Operations Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Lisa sits on the HPE Hybrid IT Executive Inclusion and Diversity Council and is Chairperson of Connecting Women In Technology (CWIT).

A keen advocate for Inclusion, Diversity and Equality in the workplace, Lisa is passionate, cultivating and mentoring female talent in the technology industry. Lisa regularly volunteers in secondary schools in educating students to pursue science, Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers into 3rd level university/college education, with the view to continually increasing the future talent pool for the Irish Technology sector.

Lisa holds an MBA, is a member of Ibec’s Diversity Council and a certified ‘Leader of Impact’ for Women in Global Organisations with the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland.

Lisa is the winner of the inaugural HPE’s Women’s Excellence Award and was nominated and shortlisted for ‘Business Role Model of the Year’ in the 2019 Global Women in IT Awards. On International Women’s Day, she was invited by President Michael D. Higgins to attend a reception in Áras an Uachtaráin to celebrate ‘Women in Sciences’.

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Breda McCague is an energetic, driven, impressive Transformation Specialist whose biggest passion is Motivating and Engaging People!

She delivers authentic keynote presentations to large groups on Motivation, Empowerment, Emotional Intelligence, Branding and Networking. She also delivers inspiring innovative talks on Culture Change, Diversity and Transformational Change Delivery.

Breda Co-Founded and leads the Lean-In-Ireland organisation. Lean-In is an international organisation, founded by Sheryl Sandberg COO of Facebook in the United States. As part of the roll-out of Lean-In-Ireland, Breda has successfully created a number of peer mentoring networks across large corporates, industries and a variety of communities.

Having also worked across Financial Services for almost 20 years, Breda has driven and overseen extensive technical change programmes across several institutions in Ireland and the UK. She delivers talks for companies and conferences on using ‘Wagile’ methodologies.

Breda is now based in Ulster Bank Dublin, where she oversees technical European Payments change projects with her stakeholders across India, the UK, Ireland and Europe. Breda is a Qualified Financial Advisor & Wealth Manager via the Institute of Bankers and a qualified Prince 2 Practitioner.

Breda spent 20 years in the Reserve Defence Forces and is now an active Veteran with her Battalions veterans organisation. She also plays music with the U Band which is a Dublin based Rock band that plays gigs for charity fundraisers and is also playing with a Celtic traditional Monaghan band called RU4Reel. Breda loves innovation, shooting, social media and people. She lives in Monaghan and is Mum to 3 young boys, Darragh 10, Jamie 6 and Kyle who is 2.