Strategic Sustainability: Beyond Compliance

Eimear is an experienced board member and former CFO/COO with over 30 years’ international experience driving sustainable growth, governance, and transformation across financial services, engineering, and energy sectors. She is currently an Independent Non-Executive Director at Bord na Móna, where she also chairs the Risk and Audit Committee, and serves on the boards of Infinity Power (Egypt), Green Genius (Europe), and Goldbeck Solar (Germany). Across these roles, she supports organisations navigating large-scale transitions, strengthening governance frameworks, and embedding ESG at the core of long-term strategy. Her executive career includes roles as Chief Operating Officer at Frontline Ventures and CFO and Co-founder of Vivid Edge, a multi-award-winning decarbonisation business. She previously served as Group CFO at Mainstream Renewable Power, where she led global financial strategy and governance across multiple high-growth markets. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles with Deutsche Bank, NatWest Markets, and Arthur Andersen. In addition to her commercial work, Eimear is Chair of the Board of Trustees of ALONE, supporting older people in Ireland to age at home with dignity and connection. Eimear is passionate about accelerating the green transition and now focuses on non-executive and advisory roles, helping organisations scale sustainably, strengthen governance, and prepare for long-term, multi-jurisdictional growth.

Barry Gavin is a qualified accountant and full-time Independent Non-Executive Director. He has over 30 years executive experience in a range of sectors including Energy, Property, Healthcare, Fintech, Pensions, Leisure and Automotive. Barry is on the board of An Post, a member of the ARC and is Chair of the People and Sustainability Committee. He is the Chair of Future Energy Ireland, an INED on the Board of the City of Dublin Energy Management Agency (CODEMA), an INED with the Arjun Investment Clean Energy Fund and the Chair of the Shannon Chamber Sustainability Forum. Barry is also an adjunct lecturer in the UCD Smurfit Business School (Banking & Finance).

Johnny Meehan is Head of Sustainability Consulting at Forvis Mazars. He has twenty-five years’ experience in strategy, sustainability, supply chain management, commodity markets, energy and raw materials security, and risk management; in Kelloggs, Cadbury Schweppes, 3Com Technologies, Intel. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and University College Dublin with degrees in Sustainability, Environmental Science, Supply Chain, Business and Law. He has worked with NGOs on sustainable development in Ireland and internationally: convening UN Food System Dialogues and on Ireland’s Food Security Policy; working with Business in the Community on Ireland’s Low Carbon Pledge and Business Working Responsibly Mark; and with Fair Trade, RSPO, WWF on sustainable sourcing and climate adaptation in South America, SE Asia and West Africa. He is a senior practitioner and former teaching committee member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, is guest lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, and voluntary teacher at Educate Together. At Forvis Mazars, Johnny advises clients on strategy & transformation, climate & nature, sustainable finance, sustainable value chain, sustainability reporting and compliance.

Liam McKenna is a Partner in the consulting practice in Forvis Mazars. He has significant experience in delivering large change, IT and organisational transformation programmes. These programmes have typically been driven by mandated change in regulated industries or cost reduction and performance improvement and are enabled by changes to operations, organisation structures and technology in a range of sectors including financial services, public and private sectors. Some areas of recent focus include: GDPR/DPO services; information security, process improvement including through robotic process automation; payments services license applications.

Caroline Spillane CDir is Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Directors Ireland. She commenced the role in July 2022. Caroline has held several senior leadership roles including most recently as Director General of Engineers Ireland, the all-Ireland professional body for engineers, CEO of the Medical Council of Ireland, the independent statutory regulator of over 25,000 medical practitioners and Assistant National Director of the Health Services Executive. Caroline is an experienced Non-Executive Director serving as a board member of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), ESB Networks and Irish Manufacturing Research. She is also a member of the Advisory Group to Balance for Better Business, an independent business-led Review Group established by the government to improve gender balance in senior leadership in Ireland. Caroline's qualifications include a BA from UCC and an MA from TUD. She is currently undertaking a Doctoral programme with SETU.