Rabia Mirza is a "straight-talking" HR consultant with over 20 years of international experience across Ireland, Canada, and the US. A specialist in employee retention, Rabia helps organizations move beyond the surface of high turnover to identify the root causes - from systems to culture.
At our Cork B2B event, Rabia will present "How to Keep Your Best Employees in a Competitive Market." Drawing on her deep diagnostic expertise, she will break down the true cost of losing talent and provide a practical framework to help SME owners and leaders build more engaged, stable, and high-performing teams.
With 38 years’ experience running his own practice, Michael Murphy has spent his career advising small and medium-sized businesses, sole traders, and limited companies on tax and accounts preparation. A long-time member of the Small Firms Association, he valued the network’s support—particularly when navigating the people and HR challenges that come with growing a business. In January 2026, he joined the IFAC Group through acquisition, returning to a firm where he worked earlier in his career. His experience of building, running, and ultimately transitioning his own practice gives him a practical perspective on preparing a business for long-term value and potential acquisition.
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Rob Horgan is the founder and owner of Velo Coffee Roasters, a multi award-winning coffee roastery in Cork, supplying speciality coffee to retail and foodservice customers across Ireland and internationally. Velo has grown from a small café-based roastery into a nationally recognised brand, with its products stocked in major retailers and exported to markets around the world.
Originally from Cork and a graduate of the Royal Agricultural College, Rob has spent his career working across various areas of the food industry in both Ireland and the UK. Seeking to improve the quality of coffee served to café customers, he began roasting his own coffee in 2018—an initiative that led to the creation of Velo Coffee Roasters.
Today, Velo is known for its focus on high-quality specialty coffee, strong farm-level sourcing relationships and a commitment to innovation in the Irish coffee sector. The company has received multiple industry recognitions, was the first B Corp certified coffee roastery in the Republic of Ireland and was listed in the Sunday Business Post “EI Top 100 to Follow.”
Rob is also deeply involved in the wider business community, where he advocates for entrepreneurship, regional economic development and the continued growth of Cork as a leading international business hub. Through both his business and civic roles, Rob is passionate about supporting Irish enterprise, building strong local supply chains and helping ambitious small firms scale their ideas into successful businesses.
Veronica has over 30 years’ experience with international and indigenous companies across Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, Technology, Retail, and Banking sectors. She has extensive global C-suite management experience, including 17 years in merchant banking, ICT manufacturing, and life sciences, with leadership roles in Europe, South America, and China.
An established growth organisational strategist and change management expert, Veronica has 15 years of experience in SME consultancy, leading teams through coaching, mentoring and training programmes that drive HPSU progression, SME growth and productivity enhancement through competitive growth and successful scaling strategies. She is a partner in The Discovery Partnership, a specialist SME consultancy practice specialising in SME growth and scaling.
Veronica specialises in SME mentorship, growth, and scaling, with expertise in business acquisition, commercialisation, and export strategy across 36 countries. She is an award-winning futurist, SME advocate. She has been appointed by government and minister to the SME Growth and Entrepreneurship Taskforce (Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment), in recognition of her advocacy for SMEs and Entrepreneurship, and she is regularly consulted on upcoming legislation and white papers on SME enterprise and enterprise eco systems.
Veronica is recognised as a thought leader in the development of SME benchmarking and SME measurement and productivity.