Update: Employee Share Ownership Day 2024
Ireland’s leading share plan conference, Employee Share Ownership Day 2024, takes place in a week. The theme of ESOD24 is Shifting Sands: Innovation and Disruption in the Share Plan Sector, and we have a great line-up of speakers to provide insight into current and future trends across the industry’s landscape in Ireland and beyond. Learn a little bit about them below.
Martha Parkhurst – Strategic Communications Lead, Eximia
Martha has worked in content and communications for more than a decade in various industries, including insurance, education, and the railway safety, winning multiple awards for her campaigns. Her passion is for communicating complex subjects that need to be engaging but also accurate. She takes people on a seamless journey with a compelling message. Since joining Eximia’s leadership team as Head of Strategic Communications in 2021, Martha has created communications campaigns for clients that align their share plans with their purpose and values. She has crafted ongoing communications that engage, educate and empower colleagues to improve their financial resilience.
Cara Culleton – Group Reward Business Partner, Kerry
With more than 15 years of experience in corporate HR, Cara is currently Group Reward Business Partner with Kerry where she has worked for the past 6 years. Cara specialises in global reward processes, including equity awards and year-end compensation, as well as data governance and HR reward system governance and development. Among Cara’s more recent achievements is the successful deployment of Kerry’s All Employee Share Plan, ‘OurShare’, to 94% of the global employee population, which encompasses approximately 20,000 employees.
Martha and Cara will present ‘Engage, Educate, Empower – When Kerry launched a global share plan’ at ESOD24.
Nick Foody – Assistant Principal, Revenue
Nick Foody is an Assistant Principal in Revenue’s Personal Division Compliance Branch. This role includes case selection function, maximising the use of third-party information and trends analysis for the Division. Nick is the Personal Division Compliance lead on the National Share Schemes Compliance project.
Martin Hunt – Assistant Principal, Revenue
Martin Hunt is an Assistant Principal in Revenue’s PAYE Information Modernisation and Support Branch (PIMS). This role includes Change Management and Communications, Data Analytics (PAYE) and IT maintenance and enhancements for the PAYE online services. Martin is the Change Management Lead on the Enhanced Reporting Requirements project.
Nick and Martin will provide an update on share plans, Revenue interventions & ERR.
Laura Whelan – Director, PwC
Laura is a Director in PwC Ireland’s Workforce Tax Practice, specialising in employment taxes. She advises Irish and multinational clients, across a wide range of industry sectors, on complex employment tax projects. This includes cross-border taxes, social security, reward planning, workforce reshaping issues as well as other associated employment tax and payroll matters. Laura is a graduate of Dublin City University and an AITI Chartered Tax Adviser as well as a Chartered Accountant.
Laura Harney – Director, PwC
Laura is a Director in PwC’s tax risk and controversy team. Immediately prior to joining PwC, she spent over 4 years managing and developing the CPD programme for qualified members of the Irish Tax Institute. Before this she worked in practice for more than seven years assisting a diverse portfolio of clients including partnerships through a wide range of Revenue interventions and risk reviews. Day-to-day, Laura works with businesses assisting them with Revenue risk reviews, pre-risk review health checks and helping them to proactively manage their tax risk.
Laura Whelan and Laura Harney will provide an update on ‘Employer reporting, AI & Revenue interventions – an advisor perspective’
Paul Rice – Senior Relationship Manager, Computershare
Paul has worked for Computershare for 16 years. Paul has vast experience in all aspects of employee share schemes and currently acts as a Senior Relationship Manager. Paul’s clients include large multinational corporations as well as locally established companies in the financial services, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing sectors. This has given him a wealth of experience in managing complex share schemes and understanding client requirements.
Paul will present an update on the SAYE share plan at ESOD24
Deborah McMahon – Director of Finance, Wolfgang Digital
Deborah has worked at Wolfgang Digital since 2011 and served on the board as Director of Finance for 10 years, overseeing the finance of the company as it grew from 5 to 70 people. Outside of her role in Finance, she has responsibilities in the People & Culture team at Wolfgang. Both these disciplines were important in moving the organisation to Employee Ownership.
Barry Lennon – Head of Finance, Wolfgang Digital
Barry is a Chartered Accountant and the Head of Finance at Wolfgang Digital. With a background in accounting practice and experience as a business owner, Barry brings a wealth of expertise to his role. He played a pivotal role in transitioning Wolfgang Digital to employee ownership and is passionate about expanding this model across Ireland to promote shared success and business sustainability.
At ESOD24, Deborah and Barry will present a case study of Wolfgang Digital’s transition to employee ownership.
Jane O’Grady – Partner, LK Shields
Jane is a Partner in LK Shields Technology & Innovation Group, specialising in Technology, Privacy and Intellectual Property. She is a recommended lawyer by Legal 500 in the areas of Information Technology, Data Privacy and Data Protection and Intellectual Property. Jane’s experience includes advising national and international clients on a broad range of technology, intellectual property, and complex commercial contract matters. Her practice also covers privacy and e-commerce law, including GDPR compliance projects and security risk management. Jane is the author of the Ireland chapter in the 2024 edition of AI, Machine Learning & Big Data Laws, which focuses on application of the new EU AI Act to regulation of AI in Ireland.
Jane will join the panel discussion – ‘Technology in the Workplace’ – at ESOD24
Aisling Curtis – Market Leader, PwC
Aisling Curtis joined PwC as Markets Leader, Strategic Alliances in July 2023. She joined with 25 years’ experience in Telecommunications and Technology Sectors, including most recently from Microsoft. She led global, regional and also in-country teams across the UK, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and South Africa. Her remits have included P&L Leadership, Strategy, Marketing, Technology, Sales, Operations, and Channel.
Aisling holds board seats with ESB and Shannon Airport. She previously held other non-executive roles in South Africa, Netherlands and the UK. Aisling was previously an advisor on the IMI Council, she sat on the Board of the National Maternity Hospital Foundation and is a dedicated member of the 30% Club.
Aisling did her Masters in Business Economics and Strategy at UCC, studied at the Insead Data and AI School and recently completed the Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership in 2021-2022. She selected and completed the Microsoft Leadership Development Programme 2018/19 and the Global Leadership Programme whilst in Vodafone.
Aisling lives in Co Kildare with Stephen, daughter Emily, two dogs, and a horse.
Aisling will join the panel discussion – ‘Technology in the Workplace’ – at ESOD24
Dexter Tang – Google
Dexter has more than a decade of experience in stock equity operations and compliance and mobility taxation and compliance in Malaysia, Australia and across Europe. He is currently the Global Equity Manager at Google, leading the international stock equity operations and compliance across EMEA, APAC and LATAM. Prior to Google, he spent more than 7 years with the PwC network of firms, specialising in Global Mobility Tax.
Dexter is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, with a focus on racial diversity and equity in addition to LGBTQ+ visibility and inclusion in the workplace and the wider society. He is currently part of the EMEA Pride@ Google Leadership group and speaks at various DEI events across the EMEA region. Dexter is passionate about people, their stories and how they can use them to inspire and advocate for marginalised communities. In his free time, he is also an aspiring podcaster with a dream of one day having his own talk show as he continues to explore his creativity beyond the world of finance.
Dexter will talk about his life and career as part of the This Is Your Life special segment at ESOD24
Darren Smith – Head of Business Development, UK and Ireland, JP Morgan Workplace Solutions
Darren has worked in the share plans industry for more than 20 years. During this time, he has worked across all operational teams including management, relationship management and most recently, business development. Darren is a regular industry host and speaker on topics including share plans, financial education and financial wellbeing, bringing a fun and engaging style to events. Prior to joining JP Morgan Workplace Solutions as Business Development Director, he held the position of UK National Sales Manager at YBS.
Darren is the host for ESOD24 and will present a This Is Your Life special with Dexter Tang
Marie Flynn – Tax Director, PwC, & Chairperson of IPSA
Marie is a tax director in the private client team of PwC Dublin with over twenty years’ experience in UK and Irish taxation, both in practice and with HMRC in the UK. She specialises primarily in advising management teams on all aspects of share incentivisation (including share valuations) and high net worth individuals/families and partnerships on a variety of planning/structuring projects.
A member of both the Irish and UK Institutes of Tax, Marie has written articles and presented in Ireland and the UK on a variety of topics including management incentivisation, tax issues for non-domiciled individuals, professional partnerships, real estate, etc.
Marie is a member of the PwC European Management Shareholder Network and the PwC International Private Wealth Network. Marie is also the current Chairperson of the Irish Pro-Share Association. Marie is also the author of the Irish Tax Institute 2023 publication “Valuations for Tax Purposes”.
Marie will host the panel discussion at ESOD24
Peter O’ Connor – Tax Director, EY, & Vice Chairperson of IPSA
Peter is a tax director in EY’s People Advisory Services (PAS) team, based predominantly in Cork. Peter has over 17 years’ experience providing tax advice regarding global mobility and advisory, international social security and global employment tax services including advising on the Irish tax treatment of share and stock option plans/schemes.
Peter previously spent seven years working in the Mercer Share Schemes department, working mainly in the Approved Profit Sharing Scheme (APSS) space. Peter has a degree in Government and Public Policy from University College Cork and is a Chartered Tax Advisor with the Irish Tax Institute. He is currently Vice Chairperson of the Irish Pro-Share Association.
Peter will close the ESOD24 conference
ESOD24 is brought to you by IPSA in association with PwC, and with support from Computershare, A&L Goodbody, and JP Morgan Workplace Solutions. It will take place on September 26 in Dublin and is a free event for IPSA members and their employees. Contact your company’s IPSA representative for information about booking your place. The price for non-members is €110 plus booking charge and includes a light breakfast and hot lunch.
