She holds a BE degree from University College Dublin and MS and PhD degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, where her PhD thesis won the DJ Sakrison Memorial Prize for outstanding and innovative research. While at UC Berkeley, she also won the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. Her research is in the area of nonlinear circuits and systems, and she has been awarded research grants and prizes from a number of national, international and industry sources. She served as Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact at UCD from 2014 to 2023.

Professor Feely is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Engineers Ireland and the Irish Academy of Engineering.

She is President of CESAER (the Conference of European Schools of Advanced Engineering Education and Research), and has previously served as President of Engineers Ireland, as Chair of the Irish Research Council, the EU Advisory Group on Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions and the IEEE Technical Committee on Nonlinear Circuits and Systems, and as Board Member and Deputy Chair of the Higher Education Authority in Ireland. She is a member of the Board of Ibec and a member of the judging panels for the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition and the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

Pendo is Google’s Director of Sales for the Middle East & Africa. Based in Dublin, she leads a team driving growth for Google Ads advertisers across the region. With over 22 years of experience, Pendo began her career in Zimbabwe supporting a children’s non-profit. At Google, she’s worked with UK sales teams before embracing the challenge of developing nascent markets.

A passionate advocate for Diversity and Inclusion, Pendo founded Google Ireland’s Black Googler Network chapter (an Employee Resource Group) in 2014. She is also Google’s representative on the Dublin Chamber of Commerce’s Policy Council.

Mike Dockery has been a resident of Ireland for the past 28 years and has witnessed Ireland’s growth and change over this long duration.

Before moving to Ireland Mike was a Social worker in the UK, working with Children with learning difficulties.

Upon arriving in Ireland he transitioned into IT related sales where he has worked for various multinational organisations in multiple leadership roles since 1996.

Mike set up a Muay Thai Boxing Club in 2002, This club still exists today along with 3 others set up by his former students.

Following his desire to improve perspectives and prospects for his kids and others, he co-founded the Black Leadership Council Ireland. In doing so, Mike focused on his youngest daughter and a desire to ensure positive role models in the work place who look like her. Mike also works to actively support organisations to broaden their understanding of cultural and social diversity in Ireland.

Mike is a proud father of 5 children of ages 30,20,18 and his youngest 2 are foster children aged 12 and 20 months.

Nina joined Volunteer Ireland in November 2014. Her background is in the environmental non-profit sector where she focused on social inclusion, engaging new audiences and volunteering; as well as fundraising, campaigning and strategic development.

Nina is responsible for the overall strategic direction of Volunteer Ireland, and ensuring that we deliver our mission to promote, support and advocate for excellent, accessible and inclusive volunteering in Ireland. She works to secure diverse funding, implement good governance practices and ensure that Volunteer Ireland is an effective and efficient organisation.

Nina also represents Volunteer Ireland externally to raise the profile of volunteering, works with the public sector to emphasise the importance of volunteering in delivering the government’s strategic priorities, develops partnerships and explores new opportunities for growth and innovation in order to maximise our impact.