Drew Harris

Commissioner Drew Harris had 34 years policing experience with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) before joining An Garda Síochána. In his current role as Commissioner of An Garda Síochána he has responsibility for both Policing and State Security for Ireland. An Garda Síochána is comprised of approximately 18,000 personnel which includes over 14,500 sworn Garda members, approximately 400 Reserve Garda members and over 3,000 Garda Staff working in administration and support roles.

He was previously Deputy Chief Constable of the PSNI where he was specifically responsible for performance and change management.

He was also previously responsible for the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Crime Operations Department and is recognised as a national expert in dealing with high risk covert policing operations and critical incidents. He was appointed in 2013 as a high level expert to a European Parliament Committee reporting on organised crime and corruption.

He held the UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers Hate Crime portfolio for eight years where he has led on improving the criminal justice response to victims, improving detection rates and improving data collection. As an Assistant Chief Constable, Drew also led on PSNI initiatives where he took responsibility for the management of sex offenders and the introduction of Public Protection Units.

In 2002, he completed a two-year secondment in the rank of Superintendent to Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Scotland.

He is married to Jane and they have four grown children.

He was awarded an (OBE) in 2010 and a Queen’s Police Medal (QPM) in 2019.

Qualifications:

• BA (Hons) Degree in Politics and Economics, Open University (1997)
• Masters in Criminology, University of Cambridge (2007)
• Strategic Command Course (2004)
• Leadership in International Counter Terrorism Course (2006)
• FBI’s National Executive Institute programme for senior law enforcement officers (2010)

Dame Cressida Dick

Commissioner, London Metropolitan Police, Key Note Speaker

Cressida Dick has over 35 years of public service, the majority of which she has spent in policing. She has held leadership roles in each of the organisations she has worked in, the Metropolitan Police, Thames Valley Police, the National Police College and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Cressida has overseen a wide variety of high-profile and complex policing investigations spanning serious crime, organised crime and security and protection, including many major incidents in London, working alongside colleagues across the emergency services, and overseas.

Cressida was the first woman to be appointed a Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner in 2009. From 2011 to 2014 she was in charge of UK counter terrorism policing, and led the operational security and counter terrorist operations for The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 London Olympics.

After a period as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office senior leadership team, in April 2017 Cressida was appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, the UK’s largest police service. Cressida is the Met’s 28th Commissioner in its 190 year history and the first woman to be appointed to the role.

Cressida is former president of the British Association of Women Police and has a Master’s Degree in Criminology from Cambridge.

Nóirín O’Sullivan

Former Commissioner, An Garda Síochána and Former UN Assistant Secretary General for Safety and Security, Key Note Speaker

Nóirín O Sullivan is an accomplished executive leader in the international law enforcement, intelligence, and global safety and security environment.

She was the 20th Commissioner of An Garda Siochana (Irelands National Policing and Security Service) (2014-2017). This was an historic appointment because she was the first woman in the role in the history of the force and it was the first time the position was filled by open international competition. She joined An Garda Siochana in 1981and although the role for women was very different at that time, she rose through the ranks working operationally initially in drugs and organized crime. Her career is denoted by firsts – the first woman to serve in Detective branch in each rank, up to and including Chief Superintendent; first woman to be appointed as Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for Security and Intelligence; first woman appointed as Deputy Commissioner with responsibility for all national and international policing and security operations.

Following her retirement from AGS in 2017, Nóirín successfully competed for and was appointed as United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Safety and Security based in New York (2018-2021). The department was responsible for providing risk-based solutions and professional security advices to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel, premises, and assets, to enable UN program delivery, in some of the highest risk, complex and challenging environments around the world.

Nóirín is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute (NEI). She holds a B.A in police management and a Master of Business Studies from the Michael Smurfit School of Business, UCD. She is recipient of numerous recognitions and awards, including the UCD, Foundation Day Alumni Award in Business. She was named Irish Tatler Woman of the Year in Public Life, and twice received the WXN Ireland’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women Award. Nóirín was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Ulster for Distinguished Public Service.

She served two terms on the Governing Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland. She is a member of the North American Advisory Board of the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School, and currently serves on the Board of the National Maternity Hospital and acts as an independent consultant and advisor.

Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon

Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon is a senior criminal justice leader with 25 years of policing experience. She is the Deputy Commissioner of Strategy, Governance and Performance of An Garda Síochána, Ireland’s National Police and Security Service. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, one of the largest police modernisation programmes in the world. She also leads the development and co-ordination of corporate strategy, change and leadership programmes and oversees the Anti-Corruption Unit, Professional Standards, Risk Management and Culture and Ethics Bureaus. 

Prior to this appointment, Shawna Coxon was a Deputy Chief of Police with the Toronto Police Service in Canada, responsible for policing in the fourth largest city in North America. As a Deputy Chief of Police she led three different Commands at different times, specifically the Human Resources Command, the Priority Response Command and the Communities and Neighbourhoods’ Command. 

Deputy Commissioner Coxon has her MA in Criminology from the University of Toronto and her PhD in Criminal Law from Leicester University in the U.K. She has both published and spoken internationally.  She has a passion for policing, organisational design, innovation and futurism. 

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth was appointed NPCC Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls on 11 October 2021 with responsibility for overseeing the national policing response to violence against women and girls.

Maggie’s previous role was Assistant Chief Constable with Hampshire Constabulary with responsibility for all matters relating to local policing (response and patrol, neighbourhoods) and public protection. This includes the safeguarding and protection of vulnerable people and the Force response to VAWG.

Maggie has over 30 years experience in safeguarding and public protection. She initially worked in the probation service across London and Thames Valley in the 1990s and then worked throughout her career in youth justice services and within child protection prior to joining policing as a Superintendent in 2016 and becoming the Portsmouth City Commander in 2017. She set up the Oxfordshire youth offending service in the late 1990s going on to work at the National Youth Justice Board with oversight of youth justice services for England and Wales during the early 2000s. She then spent a decade as an Independent Chair of Kent, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children Boards alongside a Ministerial appointment as an independent Member of the Parole Board for England and Wales. She has published several books on children at risk, completed post graduate qualifications in education and criminal justice/policing and is particularly interested in how public services work together to protect communities effectively from high risk and high harm crimes to reduce vulnerability. Maggie completed the national police Strategic Command Course in 2019 becoming a chief officer of policing. 

Presentation title: Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls – A Watershed Moment.

Dr. Marie Keenan

Marie Keenan is an Associate Professor at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin (2000-present). She is Chair of the Advisory Board of UCD’s Sexual Exploitation Research Programme; Member of the Gender Based Violence Working Group and the Historical Institutional Abuse Working Group of the European Forum for Restorative Justice; Member of the Global Advisory Council for Restorative Justice International; Member of the Advisory Board of UCD’s Criminology Institute and a Member of UCD’s Geary Institute for Public Policy. She is an accredited psychotherapist, restorative justice practitioner and a registered social worker. She has practiced in the area of sexual violence and crime for most of her professional life. Her main publications include Keenan, M. (2017) (with E. Zinsstag ) (Eds). Restorative Responses to Sexual Violence: Legal, Social and Therapeutic Dimensions, London: Routledge; Keenan (2014) Sexual Trauma and Abuse: Restorative and Transformative Possibilities? Dublin: UCD; Keenan, M. (2013) (with P. Claffey & J. Egan) (Eds). Broken Faith: Why Hope Matters, Bern: Peter Lang; Keenan, M (2012) Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Gender, Power and Organizational Culture, New York: Oxford University Press; and Keenan, M. & Zinsstag, E. (forthcoming). Sexual Violence and Restorative Justice: Addressing the Justice Gap: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dr. Monica O’Connor

Dr Monica O’Connor has worked on gender-based violence for over thirty years, as a practitioner, policy analyst and researcher. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications on violence against women including the first major study of the sex trade in Ireland: Globalisation, Sex Trafficking and Prostitution: The Experiences of Migrant Women in Ireland (Kelleher Associates, O’Connor & Pillinger, 2009). She has recently published a book The Sex Economy with Agenda Publishing UK, which challenges the framing of prostitution as a legitimate and acceptable form of work for women that should be legalised and regulated as a normal part of the market economy. Dr O’Connor is currently a senior researcher at the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP), School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin and a Research Fellow at the WiSE Centre for Economic Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Ruth Breslin

Ruth Breslin has over twenty years of research experience in both NGO and academic settings in Ireland, the UK and the USA. The focus of Ruth’s work has been efforts to tackle violence against women and girls. Over the last fifteen years, Ruth has developed particular expertise in research and policy development on prostitution and trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Ruth is regularly called upon to input into the development of policy, legislation and practice on issues of commercial sexual exploitation, and has given evidence to legislators in numerous jurisdictions. Since 2018, Ruth has been a core member of the research team at SERP – the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme in the Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin. Ruth is the lead author of SERP’s studies on the health impacts of prostitution and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on Ireland’s sex trade. Ruth is co-author (with Dr Monica O’Connor) of SERP’s comprehensive study on the commercial sex trade in Ireland with regard to the application of current prostitution legislation. Ruth’s work with SERP strives to bridge the gap between academia and frontline practice in generating new knowledge, insights and solutions on issues of sexual exploitation in Ireland and beyond.

Dr. Sheila Willis

Sheila Willis studied at UCD where she received a Ph. D. in Chemistry. She spent her career in Forensic Science Ireland where she was Director General  from 2002-2017. Her casework was mainly in the Chemistry area and she had a strong interest in how forensic science findings should be communicated. She chaired the group who produced the guideline for evaluative reporting for the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI). In 2017, she spent two years at the National Institute of Science and Technology in the USA as a guest researcher. She remains active in professional affaires, acting as a consultant in various projects and is the current President of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences.

Dr. Maureen Smyth

Maureen Smyth spent her career in Forensic Science Ireland. She completed her education in UCD whence she received her Ph.D. She spent some time as a researcher in the Netherlands before starting work as a forensic scientist. Working as a biologist on many high profile murders and sexual assaults, she was a regular expert witness in the Central Criminal Court. She had great skill in identifying the critical aspects of a case to be investigated and communicating the value of her findings to the police and court. When DNA analysis became a tool in forensic science, she trained in Trinity College Dublin and in the Home Office Aldermaston laboratory before overseeing the establishment of a DNA service in FSI. She was active in the ENFSI DNA group where her colleagues from across Europe held her in high esteem. She retired as head of the DNA section.

Mr. Rory Corcoran

Rory is seconded from the Irish Police (An Garda Sìochàna) to INTERPOL since 2018, where he currently holds the position of Interim Director of INTERPOL’s new Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre (IFCACC). He has responsibility for a number of INTERPOL’s crimes programmes including financial crime, Anti-Corruption, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery, while also overseeing INTERPOL’s Global Financial Crime Task Force (IGFCTF).

Previous to that, Rory held the position of Assistant Director at INTERPOL’s Organized and Emerging Crime Directorate, having overall responsibility for Environmental Security (ENS) and Illicit Goods and Global Health (IGGH)

He has 30 years’ experience in Law Enforcement having served the majority of his career in the Garda Counter Terrorism Unit and most recently in the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. He hold a Master’s and Post Graduate Degree in Legal Studies and also holds academic qualifications in Cyber Crime, Financial Crime Investigations and Corporate Risk and Governance, from University College Dublin, Ireland.

Detective Chief Superintendent Patrick Lordan

Head of the – Garda National Economic Crime Bureau including the Irish Financial Intelligence Unit.

Pat who is originally from West Cork, joined An Garda Síochána in 1986 and has served in a number of Garda Regions. Pat has worked in Community Policing, Drugs, Prostitution Investigations, Serious Crime Investigations, Fraud and Financial Crime Investigations, Financial Intelligence and Cybercrime. He has held the position of Detective in all ranks and has been at the forefront of the investigation of serious crime for over 30 years. Pat is a Senior Investigating Officer (S.I.O.) and holds a B.Sc. in Management Law from Trinity College Dublin, Advanced Diploma in Corporate, White Collar and Regulatory Crime from kings Inns and has recently completed a Leadership Agility programme with the Institute of Banking.

In 2015, Pat took up his current position as Head of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau which includes the Irish Financial Intelligence Unit. The Bureau is involved in many high profile investigations and supports Gardaí throughout the country trained in Fraud/Cyber Investigation. Pat and his team have developed a Post Graduate Certificate in Fraud and E-Crime Investigation in association with University College Dublin. Pat was the lead representative from An Garda Síochána in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Review of Ireland and is trained as an assessor with FATF.

Fraud prevention and disruption, the recovery of victims finances and Money Laundering are at the top of his agenda.

Pat’s interests include: Hill walking, Sailing, Travel, Gardening and Motor Sport.

Presentation topic: The main types of fraud and associated money laundering seen in Ireland and the Global scale of such crimes.

Kevin Hyland OBE

Following 30 years in policing, including leading London’s Human Trafficking Unit, in 2014 Kevin Hyland OBE was appointed the UK’s first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and is now a Senior Inspector with the office of Inspector of Prisons.

He authored and led inclusion of Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 to eradicate human trafficking within the United Nations 15-year strategic priorities.

In 2018 Mr Hyland was elected and remains Ireland’s representative to the Council of Europe Independent Group of Experts for Trafficking. He was instrumental in establishing and remains chief advisor to the Santa Marta Group, a high-level partnership between law enforcement agencies, faith groups and civil society launched by Pope Francis at the Vatican. He was the instigator for Bakhita House, a London based residential project for women and children who have experienced human trafficking and is on the board of homeless charity The Passage, exploited women’s support charity Rahab and Sophie Hayes Foundation who provide employability training for trafficked women.

In recognition of his policing and human trafficking efforts in 2015 he was appointed OBE. In 2018 he was co-recipient of the ‘Path to peace Award’ in New York. In 2019 he was awarded the UN Women UK ‘HeForShe’ Leadership Award and in 2020 the UN Women for Peace Association Advocacy Award.

He chairs the Leadership Group of the Institute of Human Rights and Business and the Island of Ireland Human Trafficking Project and provided strategic leadership to the OSCE victim support guidance.

He is a visiting professor to St. Mary’s University, London. He has advised legislators in several countries in drafting new laws and provided training and lectured on human rights and policing in Europe, Australia, Central Asia, SE Asia, the USA, Pakistan, India, across the Middle East and South America. 

Ryan Hart

Ryan Hart is Co-Author of Remember Forever and Co-Founder of CoCoAwareness. Ryan Hart, and his brother Luke Hart, share their family’s story of coercive control and domestic homicide. In 2017 they released their book, Remembered Forever, and set up their organisation, CoCoAwareness, to increase the awareness of coercive control. So far, their work has taken them to over 13 countries and they have trained tens of thousands of professionals in identifying, understanding, and ending domestic abuse.

They are White Ribbon Ambassadors and Refuge Champions speaking out against male violence towards women and children. They have also worked with the charity Level Up to produce and advocate for the acceptance of domestic homicide reporting guidelines and have received a number of awards for their work in raising awareness – including the Lincolnshire Police Outstanding Contribution to Public Service 2018/2019, BBC Inspirations 2020 award and the Big Issue’s Top 100 Changemakers of 2020.

Detective Sergeant Alan McDevitt  

Alan is a Detective Sergeant attached to the Special Detective Unit, Irelands Counter Terrorism unit.

The Special Detective Unit engages in intelligence and investigation operations, targeting all forms of violent extremism from domestic Ethno Nationalist groups and Islamic Extremism to new and emerging threats and ideologies including Right Wing Violent Extremism.

Alan has a Master’s Degree in Major Emergency Management and a Master’s Degree in International Relations, specializing in lone actor terrorism. He is a member of several working groups focusing on extremism and regularly attends conferences internationally. Alan is a Peer Supporter and has most recently become a Human Rights Champion in An Garda Siochana.

Alan has been a police officer for twenty two years and his wife is also a Garda Sergeant attached to the Criminal Courts of Justice.

Prior to working in SDU Alan worked on a surveillance unit and in his current role manages the Intelligence Unit in the Special Detective Unit.

Alan is passionate about developing networks to counter violent extremism and creating an awareness of extremist movements and hate groups.

Title of presentation: The Far Right – In our communities, smartphones and homes.

Detective Garda Deirdre Ryan

Deirdre is a Detective Garda attached to the Terrorist Financing Investigation Office at the Special Detective Unit, Irelands Counter Terrorism unit.

Deirdre joined An Garda Síochána in 2001 and gained extensive experience in operational policing before transferring to the Special Detective Unit in 2007. Deirdre has been involved in numerous counter terrorism investigations relating to the activities of dissident republican groups. Deirdre was previously attached to the counter terrorism (domestic) investigation office and Operation Enchant, which co-ordinated and investigated incidents involving Improvised Explosive Devices throughout the jurisdiction. Deirdre has given evidence and presented cases at the Special Criminal Court for offences such as Murder, I.R.A Membership, I.N.L.A Membership, Explosives, Firearms, False Imprisonment, and the counterfeiting of currency and assisted in the successful prosecution of senior members of the I.R.A.  Deirdre is currently the incident room co-ordinator for a large-scale International Terrorist Financing investigation, and has arrested, interviewed, charged, and prepared investigation files for the DPP to support prosecutions. Deirdre has liaised extensively with Interpol and Europol and delivered training on a CEPOL course in Lisbon, Portugal in September 2021. 

Janine Bosak

Janine Bosak is Professor in Work and Organisational Psychology and Director of Research of the Leadership and Talent Institute (LTI) at DCU. Janine completed her PhD with summa cum laude at the Department for Psychology, University of Bern (Switzerland). During her doctorate, Janine worked at the Northwestern University (USA) and at the University of Cambridge (UK) as a visiting research scholar. Prior to joining DCU as a lecturer in 2009, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer in Psychology at the Universities of Bern and Fribourg in Switzerland. Janine was also a visiting Research Fellow at Boston University/USA in 2015, a James M. Flaherty Visiting Professor at HEC Montreal/ Canada in 2016, and she is currently a Visiting Professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing/China. Janine conducts research, teaches and consults in the areas of 1.) Women and Leadership; and 2.) Employee Well-being in Organizations. She is also a certified and trained coach who advances the systemic and solution-focused approach to coaching. 

Ilana de Wild

Chief Superintendent Ilana de Wild carries more than 20 years experience in security and law enforcement, notably in managerial positions at both national and international level. During her career, she has been actively involved in capacity building towards a higher degree in fighting crime, for the Netherlands Police and organisations worldwide. She is acknowledged as a contemporary leader who steers in an inspiring and challenging manner.

In her current position as Director Organized and Emerging Crime at INTERPOL she leads the directorate in its important task to support member countries to disrupt activities of worldwide criminal networks.

Ilana de Wild is acknowledged as an original thinker focused on identifying opportunities towards improvement of organisations offering her employment. Her achieved results, strategic insight and strong problem-solving skills are intensified by highly effective intercultural communication and networking. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration obtained at VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands and an Executive Master of Tactical Policing from the Police Academy of the Netherlands. She has authored several publications.

ALAN GILSENAN

Alan Gilsenan is an award-winning Irish writer, film-maker and theatre director. His diverse body of film work extends across documentary, feature films and experimental work. His many productions include the feature film Unless; The Meeting, a drama based on a real meeting between a woman and her rapist; Meetings with Ivor, a cinema documentary about the radical psychiatrist Ivor Browne; the experimental film A Vision: A Life of WB Yeats; the documentary series Daniel O’Connell: Forgotten King of Ireland, and a film installation inspired by Joyce’s Ulysses for Dublin’s new MOLI (Museum of Literature Ireland) entittled ULYSSES | FILM. Gilsenan has just completed a new film dealing with memory and abuse The Days of Trees and a documentary The Seven Ages of Nöel Browne about the controversial figure who challenged conservative Catholic Ireland in the 1950’s.
twitter: @AlanGilsenan1
Instagram: alangilsenan

Maura Butler

Maura Butler BA (Legal Science), LL. B, MSc IT in Education is a solicitor with 37 years post qualification experience in a combination of practice, academic and professional training roles, as a criminal trial lawyer, lecturer, author, editor, legal practitioner trainer, Board member and conference speaker.

She has proactively volunteered that commitment and associated skills in civil society environments, to facilitate the dissemination of best practice in criminal justice and to champion parity democracy for women in all aspects of their lives.

Those organisations include:

·    Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development (ACJRD)

·    Irish Women Lawyers Association (IWLA)

·    National Women’s Council

·    European Women’s Lobby

·    European Women Lawyers Association

Deborah Friedl

Deputy Chief Deborah Friedl is a proud 30 year member of the International Association of Women Police. She has been a member of the IAWP Board of Directors for nearly 20 years having served as Regional Coordinator, Executive Director, First Vice President and now President. Upon assuming the role of President in August of 2018, she became the first US member to hold this position in more than 11 years. She continues to be a strong advocate to ensure police departments reflect the total diversity, including gender, of the communities they serve and works to strengthen, unite and raise the capacity of women in policing. Deputy Chief Deborah Friedl recently retired following a 33 year career with the Lowell, Massachusetts Police Department in the USA. She spent much of her early career as a detective and supervisor working with victims of violent crime. This experience served her well in later years when she was assigned to develop collaborative initiatives involving innovative strategies to prevent and reduce violent crime. One such strategy secured more than $1 million dollars in grant funds to enhance domestic violence services in the city. Most recently, Deputy Chief Friedl was in charge of Support Services which included such divisions of the department as Investigations, Juvenile Services, Gang Unit, Professional Standards, Finance, Records, Communications, Detention, Crime Analysis, Recruitment and Training. Additionally, Deputy Chief Friedl led the department during an 8 month term as Interim Police Chief. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Public Administration in Criminal Justice and Psychology as well as a Master of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice.

Lisa Gore

Lisa joined South Wales Police in 1997 and began her career in Wales’s capital city of Cardiff. She has had a varied career across the force including roles in neighbourhood policing, force planning unit, Chief Inspector for Operations, tactical firearms commander, head of initial Police learning unit. She has undertaken three successful secondments.  The first as an Inspector to the Welsh Government as an All Wales Substance Misuse Policy co-ordinator. The second as a Chief Inspector to the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office in South Wales where she was the Police lead for Violence against Women and Girls and led on the introduction across South Wales of ‘Drive’ a model of working with high risk/ high harm and serial perpetrators of domestic abuse. She is currently seconded to the College of Policing as a Senior Diversity and Inclusion Implementation Advisor, working at the moment around peer support to forces on the inclusion and race work and diversity and inclusion more broadly.

Lisa was part of the planning team for the IAWP annual conference in Cardiff in 2015. She was the chair of South Wales Police’s Gender Equality Network from 2015-2019 and remains on the executive committee. She became a member of the IAWP Board of Directors in 2018 when she became regional co-ordinator for region 13 (Western Europe and Israel). She is now in her second term of office as regional co-ordinator.  Lisa is also on the committee of the British Association of Women in Policing.

Lisa has an honours degree in Law, a Masters degree in Public Administration and is a qualified coach. Her spare time is spent raising her two ‘strong-willed’ teenage daughters.