
Lauren Eskreis – Winkler is among a select group of people who can speak authoritatively on grit: steadfast resilience that predicts success better than talent. Lauren has worked closely with Angela Duckworth—the world’s preeminent grit researcher—to do what they call “grit interventions” with Major League Baseball teams, the World Bank, and other leading organisations. Her customisable and interactive talks draw on this unique, hands-on research to teach you how to practice (and benefit from) grit on every level.
Lauren is a leading researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Character Lab and an expert on the conscious building of grit, having designed and implemented grit interventions across the globe. Developed with #1 New York Times bestselling author Angela Duckworth—who calls Eskreis-Winkler “a terrific speaker”—these interventions have reached everyone from struggling athletes, to students in grade school and college, to individuals at every level of the workforce.
Grit is a field of study with sweeping real-world ramifications, Lauren says. It’s about pursuing long-term goals with passion and perseverance, and it has been shown to predict success over and beyond measures of talent.

Eduardo Briceño is the Co-Founder & CEO of Mindset Works, the leading provider of growth mindset training, which he co-founded in 2007 with Carol Dweck, Lisa Blackwell and others to help people and organisations develop learning-oriented cultures and systems.
Eduardo’s highly rated growth mindset TEDx talk has been viewed by over two million people. His more recent TED talk, How to get better at the things you care about, was released as the TED.com talk of the day. It presents a framework to enhance both improvement and performance. Eduardo has been featured in several publications and news media, including Education Week, NPR, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, KQED MindShift, EdSurge, and others.
Prior to Mindset Works, Eduardo was a Principal at the Sprout Group, a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, where he was part of the technology investment team and served on several for-profit and non-profit boards.
Eduardo grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an MBA and M.A. in Education from Stanford University. Most important, he continues to enjoy lifelong learning every day.

David Collings is Professor of HRM and Associate Dean for Research at Dublin City University Business School in Ireland. He previously held faculty positions at the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Sheffield and visiting positions at King’s College London, Nanyang Business School in Singapore and Cornell University as a Fulbright Scholar. He is a leading international expert on talent management and global mobility and his recent work is focused on future proofing the workforce in the context of the future of work. He regularly consults with leading national and international firms in these areas. He has been named as one of the most influential thinkers in the field of HR four times by HR Magazine. He has published numerous papers in leading international outlets including the Harvard Business Review and eleven books and his work is regularly cited in media and other outlets.
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Niall is a Professor in the School of Health and Human Performance and a member of the Centre for Preventive Medicine in DCU. He received his Master's degree from Purdue
University, Indiana, USA and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He completed a three year National Institute of Health Post Doctoral Research Fellowship in immunology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He was Director of the Clinical Exercise Research Laboratory in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre and later moved to Connecticut to take a position as a Senior Research Scientist in Nuclear and Preventive Cardiology at Hartford Hospital.
He has published over 90 research papers in international peer reviewed journals and presented his work at international conferences. Niall has held the positions of Head of the
School of Health and Human Performance and Associate Director of the Vascular Health Research Centre at Dublin City University. He is currently a Principal Investigator
on the Science Foundation Ireland funded CLARITY research centre. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and has a keen interest in
Gaelic football and athletics.
Niall was Manager of the Irish U-17 International Rules team that toured Australia in 2006. In recent years he has managed the DCU senior football team to 3 Sigerson Cups, 2 O'Byrne
Cups and a Ryan Cup. In addition, he was a selector on the St Vincent's team that won the All-Ireland Club Football Championship in 2008, and was part of the Dublin senior football backroom team that won 3 Leinster senior football championships and the All-Ireland senior football title in 2011.

“Being open to different approaches and ways of thinking is critical in employer relations as the pace of change in our workplaces accelerates driven by new technology, increasing diversity and globalisation.”
Director of Employer Relations (2015 to date). With Ibec since 2000 in senior positions including Head of IR/HR Traded Services, and Director of the North East Region. A graduate of Trinity College, prior to joining Ibec, Maeve McElwee worked with the World Bank in Washington DC.

Neil O'Brien is a hugely popular motivational speaker on
the subjects of Mindset and Mental Fitness and in building and nurturing an
organisational culture that is healthy. He understands the importance of paying
attention to the interconnectedness of everything in an organisation and
encourages people to think about all the possible impacts of their actions far
beyond their own team or area of the business.
In his engaging and humorous talks Neil loves to take the
audience out of their comfort zone and into their growth zone. He equips
attendees with tools for a growth mindset and has built a stellar reputation
for helping business leaders and their teams through transformation by teaching
them to embrace the small steps that lead to big changes.
Neil set up Time To Fly in 1998 to bring his skills and passion
for human potential and growth to organisations. Prior to that he worked in
banking for 23 years - in sales and then L&D where he realised his innate
ability to motivate and coach others to be their best.
Neil has built an award winning performance programme for the
banking sector and continues to develop and deliver development programmes as
well as speak at conferences throughout Europe. His clients include Accenture,
Abbott Labs, Airtricity, AIB Bank and Group, Allianz Capital Partners, Bank Of
Ireland, Google, Grant Thornton, IBM, 3M, Irish Life Corporate Business, Irish
Life Investment Managers, KPMG, Microsoft, Pfizer, RBS, Sales Institute of
Ireland, Institute of Bankers, Zurich Insurance and many others.
Neil is also one of Ireland’s top sport coaches and he has
worked with professional and amateur golfers including Ryder Cup and Walker Cup
players. He has coached at inter-county and club level with GAA teams and he is
currently coaching some of Ireland’s elite athletes.
To summarise, Neil has helped psychiatrists with their stress
management, psychologists with their personal development, directors with their
sense of direction, sales people sell more, footballers score more and golfers
score less!

This year’s Irish recipient of the prestigious International
Women of Courage Award, Sr Orla Treacy, from Bray, Co Wicklow is a member of
the Loreto Congregation. In 2006, Sr Orla joined other Loreto Sisters who
were starting a new mission in South Sudan — a country besieged by civil war,
inter-clan conflict, insecurity and starvation. Violence against women in
South Sudan is among the highest in the world. Girls and women are routinely
forced into marriages and subjected to sexual slavery or domestic servitude.
For the last 13 years, Sister Orla has worked with a diverse multinational team
of religious sisters, educators, nurses and others, who share a vision for
improving the lives of people and especially women and girls in Rumbek in South
Sudan. Their work in establishing schools, healthcare and food programmes has
helped to reverse the tide. Her story is one of steadfast commitment,
inner strength, and fierce dedication to female empowerment and justice. With
every contract signed, every meal provided and every diploma granted, Sr. Orla
Treacy advances the status of women and the cause of peace in South Sudan.

Anton is long established on both radio and television and has proven himself to be a highly versatile broadcaster and, most importantly, a firm favourite with audiences across the country. His Savage Sunday show took that slot to its highest ever ratings with 110,000 listeners. Anton is Managing Director of The Communications Clinic, one of Ireland’s leading communications training and advisory companies which he co-founded in 2008.
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Claire McGee is Head of Education and
Innovation Policy for Ibec. Claire's role is to promote the business sector’s
priorities for developing the education system for a 21st century
Ireland and boost Ireland’s capacity for innovation. She works mainly on
the innovation and education and skills agenda, with a particular emphasis on
promoting greater investment in research and greater industry-education
engagement to develop the necessary skills of the future.
A graduate of UCC and DIT.

Dawn is an experienced HR leader who has over 20 years’
experience working with executive teams and boards to design and implement
robust People and Culture Strategies. Dawn spent the majority of her
career to date in Financial Services working with the Senior Leadership
teams to transform through turbulent times. Since 2018 has been Group HR
Director in Ervia, a multi utility responsible for delivering high quality
water, gas and dark fibre infrastructure services through our businesses Irish
water, Gas Networks Ireland and Aurora Telecom.
A graduate from UCD, she has a Bcomm and Master’s in human resource
management. Dawn believes in the power of creating an environment
within the workplace that allows people to thrive, particularly in the context
of changing workforce and workplace dynamics.

Arlene has close to twenty years-experience working within executive education, higher
education, sport, and local government sectors and in multiple corporate arenas
including financial, tech and media, where one of her last roles was Head of
Learning and Development in an international media company.
Arlene is a highly experienced facilitator, programme designer, coach, consultant and
researcher. With a background in Sports and Cognitive Psychology and her
training in adult learning, Arlene has designed and delivered tailored
programmes focused on many topics related to leadership, development and
performance which include innovation, creativity and critical thinking and has
recently released her new book aimed at third level educators entitled ‘Confidence
in Critical Thinking’.
In 2006, Arlene was awarded a PhD from University College Dublin in Psychology for her
work on designing, implementing and evaluating initiatives to enhance critical
thinking. This work which built on her MLitt in Sport Psychology provides
Arlene with a unique perspective on the link between thinking and performance
and provides her with a deep understanding of how thinking can be optimised to
promote focused performance. Arlene established a training and coaching
consultancy which focused on developing high performance teams, creative
strategies for problem-solving and fresh approaches to leadership.
In Roffey Park, Arlene works with Senior and leadership teams to identify the right
learning environment to promote engagement and development within organisations
and the promotion of high performance. She also works with developing
capabilities across organisations through her work with managers and aspiring
leaders. She has worked in a range of sectors including telecoms, food, education,
healthcare, tech and finance and is a certified Strength Scope practitioner and executive
coach that allows her to develop a deep insight into individual and team
strengths and needs.
Arlene has been a Non-Executive Director of an Irish mental health service and volunteers
to work with social entrepreneurs. She has a passion for learning, leadership
and transformation and remains an active research and writer in these areas.
When delivering keynotes or facilitating Arlene has a style that is engaging and
inspiring in line with her sense of creativity and innate curiosity.

Jackie Gilmore is a Partner in EY’s People Advisory Services practice. EY’s People Advisory Services helps clients support their people to transform their business. Jackie has over 20 years’ experience in leading Professional Services, Financial Services & Consumer Technology industries. She holds an MBA International Executive with First Class Honours from UCD Smurfit School and an MA from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
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