Ali has held a range of senior climate leadership roles and has supported the development and growth of climate programmes including at the UN High Level Climate Champions, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, IKEA, and Bord Bia, as well as previous roles with the Sustainable Agricultural Initiative and An Taisce.

She has supported a diverse range of organisations and sectors to develop credible and just climate transition strategies, has designed and delivered climate related programmes for a range of universities, and is an occasional lecturer.

Ali holds a MSc Business Sustainability, MSc Sustainable Development, and BSc Environmental Management. She sits on
the Advisory Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Advisory Board of the DCU Institute for Climate and Society, and the Board of Common Knowledge. On a local level, Ali has supported her local Sustainable Energy Community, and acted as a Public Participation Network representative.

Conor Minogue is a senior policy executive in the business group Ibec. Since joining the organisation in 2012, Conor has held several policy roles. He now works with Ibec members to develop and promote the energy and climate policy agenda for Irish business. He also provides guidance to industry on climate action and sustainability reporting. He was the lead author of Ibec’s Climate Action Toolkit for Business and Ibec’s 2019 Low Carbon Roadmap.

Before Ibec, he worked at the EU Embassy in Washington DC. Conor studied history and international relations at University College Dublin, University of California Berkeley, and Cambridge University. He also holds an Advanced Diploma in Planning and Environmental Law from the King’s Inns.

Dr. Diarmuid Torney is Director of the DCU Institute for Climate and Society and an Associate Professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University.

His research focuses on climate change policy and governance. He is coordinator of a Horizon Europe project called RETOOL, which aims at strengthening democratic governance for climate transitions in Europe, and leads DCU’s participation in the Research Ireland funded Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water. He is an independent expert member of the National Economic and Social Council and a member of the Executive Group of the All Island Climate and Biodiversity Research Network.

Dr. Evan Boyle is a Senior Postdoctoral researcher with the MaREI Centre Energy, Climate and Marine co-ordinated by the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork.

His research focuses on community engagement for energy transitions and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability. His work has centred on implementing action research methods for co-creating climate action solutions with stakeholders beyond academia through involvement in a number of projects including Dingle Peninsula 2030 (2018-2021), Imaginging2050 (2018-2020), and STEPS (2022-2024), and has sought to inform policy on just and inclusive methods for achieving the energy transition.

Michelle Murphy is a Research and Policy Analyst with Social Justice Ireland. Michelle provides research, policy analysis and strategic engagement on sustainability, rural development and the impact of policy on income distribution and social inclusion.

She has produced several pieces of social policy research on sustainability and just transition, including policy options to deliver on our climate targets through a just transition framework, the impact of Brexit on a just transition in rural communities in Ireland, the impact of our climate targets on regional development, and trends in income distribution, poverty and social inclusion.

Oisín Coghlan is a public policy analyst and advisor, specialising in climate and environment. He currently works with the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, the Irish Environmental Network and The Wheel. Until recently he was the chief executive of Friends of the Earth, where he led the 14-year campaign for a strong climate law which culminated in the 2021 Climate Act.

Previously Oisín worked for 10 years in the overseas aid, human rights and global solidarity sector. He holds an MA in International Relations from DCU and a BA in Sociology and Political Science from Trinity College Dublin.

Ryan McKinney is currently Head of Strategic Change at Fórsa, Ireland’s second largest union. In this position, he oversees an ambitious and diverse change programme, leads groundbreaking initiatives including a multi-million-euro investment in a bespoke membership system, designing and implementing internationally developed methodology to transform member participation and delivery on the union’s current strategic plan.

Ryan has over twenty years’ experience in industrial relations and campaigning having held senior roles in the trade union movement in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland

Suresh Kumar is the Deputy Director for Innovation, Industrial Transformation and Office of Chief Scientific Advisor for the Scottish government and was previously the Chief Operating Officer for the Max Planck Research Society.

Suresh is an experienced senior leader who worked across policy, strategy and operations in the Universities, Research and Innovation sectors focusing on capital projects, talent, skills, entrepreneurship and job creation pathways and state of the art Industry-University infrastructure. He is an expert in public private partnerships, and a strategist in setting future directions for scientific/technological domains at national, European, and international levels in partnership with Business, Industry and SMEs.

Tanya Ward is the Chief Executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance. Previously, she was the Deputy Director at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and also worked with the Irish Centre for Migration Studies, the Irish Refugee Council and the Curriculum Development Unit.

A former lecturer in human rights at TCD and the UCD School for Social Justice, she is a graduate from UCC and has a LLM in Human Rights from Queens University Belfast. Tanya has served on the boards of the International Federation of Human Rights, Mental Health Reform, the Law Centre for Children and Young People and is currently Vice President of Eurochild. She was Chair of the National Advisory Council for Children and Young People and is currently a member of the Programme Board on Senior Cycle Reform. Tanya was awarded the Excellence in Leadership Award in 2024.

Vanessa Kiely O’Connor is a farmer from Innishannon, County Cork. She has graduated with a Diploma in Environmental Science and Social Policy and holds a Diploma in Corporate Direction (Food Business), from UCC. She also holds a Certificate in Business Strategy from UCD.

Appointed as ICOS representative to Teagasc and chairs Teagasc’s Advisory and Education Committee. She is a board director at Bandon Co-operative and also serves on the board of Clona Dairy Products. She is a member of the Women in Agriculture Stakeholder Group and is an ICMSA National Council member, previously serving on their Farm Business Committee.