Sophie is an experienced HR legal professional who is particularly adept at managing individual situations to achieve a desired outcome.
Sophie works as a Regional Director for the South within Ibec’s Employer Relations Division. Sophie is a qualified barrister and Australian Lawyer and holds post graduate qualifications in both mediation and coaching. A highly experienced employee relations practitioner with a demonstrated track record in both Ireland and Australia, Sophie works extensively with Ibec members devising and implementing strategies to identify and overcome employee relations and human resources challenges. She has extensive experience in Employment Law, Industrial Relations, and Advocacy Services.
Jo Leddy is a highly motivated experienced Occupational Health and Safety professional. She has worked as an Occupational Health &Wellbeing Lead and OH&S manager in multi-national manufacturing industries for the past 23 years.
Jo is an experienced lecturer and tutor in Safety, Health and Welfare at Work in UCD, NISO and the Ibec Academy. Jo designed the Ibec Academy Wellbeing Programme and has been delivering this workshop face-to-face and online for the past 3 years.
She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Promotion –Workplace Wellness (NUIG); MSc SHWW (UCD); BNS (DCU); Diploma in Management and Industrial Relations (NCI); Diploma in Mediation Studies (UCD).
Paula Cogan is CEO at Cognate Health a role which she commenced during a global pandemic in September 2020. Cognate Health is a leading provider of Occupational Health Services throughout Ireland and is currently expanding into UK and EMEA. Services include a range of on site and virtual medical services for employees of large MNCs, SMEs as well as Government bodies and Educational Institutes.
Paula has recently been appointed to the board of daa and sits on the governing body of MTU (Munster Technological University) and The Glucksman Gallery at UCC. She completed her primary and postgraduate studies at UCC and in 2015 undertook a Diploma in International Sales and Marketing at Cornell University. A huge advocate for lifelong learning, in 2021 Paula completed a diploma in Corporate Governance and is currently completing a certificate in Diversity and Inclusion at MTU.
She served as President of Cork Chamber from 2018 to May 2022 and is the second female to serve in that role for 205 years.
Niamh Tokins has over 25 years’ experience working at Director level in organisations in the field of Human Resources, Industrial Relations and Leadership Development. She believes that when People Leaders and their teams have a culture of sharing and building on their skills and strengths there is no limit to what they can achieve. Niamh’s focus is to develop programmes in partnership with organisations to build leadership competence and ensure the clients are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to lead in their context. She has widespread experience advising organisations in the area of industrial relations and best practice in this area.
Niamh holds a Diploma in Executive & Leadership Coaching, Diploma in Team Coaching, National Diploma in Human Resources (NCI), and Post Grad Dip in Marketing Mgmt (COMAD).
Noreen O’Sullivan has helped organisations devise wellbeing programmes to cultivate engaged, happy and healthy employees for over 20 years. Having worked across a range of sectors including health, wellness and fitness and now Ireland’s leading homegrown provider of Business Process Management services, she’s had first hand experience in the complexities of managing multi-generational workforces and their diverse needs.
Noreen’s career in HR and people management started back in 2001 with a Degree in HR and later obtaining a Higher Diploma focused in Learning, Development and Workplace Training from University College Cork. A regular speaker, her passion for people and learning continues today and she collaborates closely with other industry experts, exploring new ways of building supportive work cultures which attract and nurture employees of all ages and backgrounds.