Our Team

CEO of PorterShed/Galway City Innovation District, Mary promotes tech ecosystem building activities to support the creation of high-value sustainable jobs in the West and North West of Ireland. An Entrepreneur Amplifier Mary nurtures a transformative culture at the PorterShed Galway, supporting globally-focused tech startups and facilitating technology innovation and collaboration. Mary is an accomplished executive with domestic and international experience in startup supports including mentoring, business development, scaling and fundraising. Mary has worked with both start-ups up and growth organisations throughout her career. She is results orientated with a focus on achieving excellence in dynamic demanding environments while remaining pragmatic and solution-focused. An impactful advisor and people manager, Mary has the ability to influence and deliver strategic business goals, she is progressive, positive and always open to new ideas. Mary is one of the most recognisable people in the Galway ecosystem and she is all about putting founders first.

PorterShed’s Office Manager Aoife joined the PoterShed team in 2018, and she has been at the centre of all operations ever since. Aoife wears many hats in her role at the PorterShed and she is one of the first faces visitors see when they come through the doors – at either of our locations. From accounting, to event management, to producing TikToks, she is across so many areas of what we do.

As the PorterShed’s Programme Manager, Rosemary works closely with start-ups and founders to foster innovation and creativity. She is all about guiding startups and founders along their journey through all sorts of informative and practical programmes. She works very closely with the NDRC to plan and deliver programmes such as Founder Weekend, Pre-Accelerators, and more.

Nigel Moran is a Community associate with a passion for cultivating a vibrant coworking community. Skilled in marketing, member relations, and creating a welcoming atmosphere for all.

Anthony is the PorterShed’s Community/Production Manager. By being constantly in tune with the PorterShed community, Anthony is able to help members experience what they love best about this co-working and innovation hub. Having started with the PorterShed in 2018, Anthony has built a rich understanding of the PorterShed community, whether he is connecting startups, offering his production skills in the podcast studio, or helping craft great events.

An individual holding experience working with startups and a master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I am passionate about creating and fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem by bringing key stakeholders to build a robust startup community; I love hearing innovative ideas and working towards bringing them to life using design thinking and an iterative approach.

Maurice is the chairperson of the GCID/PorterShed board. A former central banker and investment banker, Maurice is an experienced professional with decades’ experience in the entrepreneurship arena, and he also currently serves as the chairperson of the Conroy Group, chairperson at Galway Harbour Company, Director at NDRC and is an Investment Committee Member at the University of Galway.

CEO of PorterShed/Galway City Innovation District, Mary promotes tech ecosystem building activities to support the creation of high-value sustainable jobs in the West and North West of Ireland. An Entrepreneur Amplifier Mary nurtures a transformative culture at the PorterShed Galway, supporting globally-focused tech startups and facilitating technology innovation and collaboration. Mary is an accomplished executive with domestic and international experience in startup supports including mentoring, business development, scaling and fundraising. Mary has worked with both start-ups up and growth organisations throughout her career. She is results orientated with a focus on achieving excellence in dynamic demanding environments while remaining pragmatic and solution-focused. An impactful advisor and people manager, Mary has the ability to influence and deliver strategic business goals, she is progressive, positive and always open to new ideas. Mary is one of the most recognisable people in the Galway ecosystem and she is all about putting founders first.

Barry O’Sullivan is Executive Chairman at RxCopilot, a software company empowering pharmacists with AI to enhance patient care and improve healthcare outcomes. Previously, Barry was a Senior Advisor with Permira, a global private equity firm with over $80 Billion in assets under management. Barry specializes in artificial intelligence sector investments and served on the board of Lytx, a Permira portfolio company that uses computer vision and AI to improve vehicle safety. Prior to that, he was EVP and General Manager, AI and Digital at Genesys where he was responsible for all digital and artificial intelligence products. Prior to Genesys, Barry was CEO and Founder of Altocloud, an artificial intelligence software company. Altocloud was acquired by Genesys in 2018. He also served on the Genesys Board. Prior to Altocloud, he was Senior Vice President at Cisco Systems and has been General Manager of several multi-billion dollar divisions including Collaboration, Unified Communications and Voice over IP, which he led from number six to the number one market share position worldwide. O’Sullivan is a technology investor and is co-founder of the Irish Technology Leadership Group, a group of top Irish American technology executives. He also served on the board of Science Foundation Ireland, Ireland’s national science foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from University College Cork and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Limerick, as well as a master’s degree in business administration from Santa Clara University, California.

As a senior business leader with over 20 years’ experience spanning maritime management, finance and corporate governance, Conor brings a proven ability to lead organisations through transformation, growth and stakeholder engagement. As Director of Corporate Services at the Commissioners of Irish Lights, Conor has driven strategic regeneration initiatives, sustainable infrastructure development and high-impact collaborations across public and private sectors. His background as an Audit Director with KPMG underpins a strong financial and governance foundation, complemented by extensive experience in stakeholder management and business development. He is passionate about unlocking organisational potential, building high-performing teams and delivering measurable impact in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.

As a serial entrepreneur, Dave has long been in the start-up/tech/fintech game. He is also know for his role as founder at 36tdata. Leading institutional offerings across financial services, corporates and financial market infrastructure. Experience spanning traditional finance and digital asset innovation, with a focus on strategy, commercialisation and the adoption of next-generation financial infrastructure. Previously spent nearly four years at Citi leading the bank’s digital asset strategy and supporting the establishment and scaling of Citi Token Services. Background includes building global partnerships, working across complex organisations and engaging with senior executives, regulators and industry stakeholders. Focused on accelerating institutional adoption of tokenised finance and strengthening the bridge between established financial institutions and emerging digital asset ecosystems.

Professional experience includes senior business management roles in retail, commercial and corporate banking as well as enterprise change programmes. Evin has a background in business unit leadership and a track record of delivery across multiple business lines with a strong focus on business development, stakeholder engagement, sales, governance, compliance, credit policy and operational risk management. As a credit professional for most of his career, Evin has significant experience of large transaction management and have held a variety of leadership roles in business development, sales & distribution management, credit policy & underwriting, restructuring & recoveries, wholesale & corporate banking, international finance and project management. His general management skills were developed by recruiting and leading teams responsible for multiple businesses in challenging and changeable environments.

As one of the Directors and co-founders of the GCID/PorterShed, John is very involved in the work the PorterShed does with start-ups. Award-Winning and Highly Cited Established Professor of Electronic Engineering at the University of Galway; Programme Director of TechInnovate and AgInnovate; PI on SustAIn, ADT4Blue, ENEPORTS; Serial Entrepreneur, Startup Co-Founder and Board Member; Bestselling Co-Author of the “Old Ireland in Colour” Book Series. John Breslin is an Established Professor of Electronic Engineering in the School of Engineering at the University of Galway, where he is Director of the TechInnovate and AgInnovate (Springboard+) programmes. John has taught electronic engineering, computer science, innovation and entrepreneurship topics over the past 25 years. He is a PI on the SustAIn Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme. With a h-index of 60, over 15,000 citations, and various best paper awards, he has jointly written about 375 peer-reviewed academic publications, including books on The Social Semantic Web and Social Semantic Web Mining. He co-created the SIOC framework, implemented in hundreds of applications (by Yahoo, Boeing, Vodafone, etc.) on at least 65,000 websites with 35 million data instances. He has featured in 275 mainstream media items including articles from CNN, Forbes, New Scientist, Washington Post, and France 24, and has been on 35 panels and given over 80 talks at venues including Stanford, Tsinghua University, and the Library of Congress. John co-authored the Irish bestsellers Old Ireland in Colour (Nielsen BookScan Christmas #1 in Ireland 2020, Best Irish-Published Book Award 2020), Old Ireland in Colour 2 (#1 in Ireland, end of November 2021) and Old Ireland in Colour 3. John is Co-Founder of boards.ie (Ireland’s largest discussion forum website), adverts.ie (classified ads website), and StreamGlider (real-time streaming newsreader app). He has won two IIA Net Visionary Awards, an ITAG Outstanding Contribution to the ICT Sector Award, and a Galway Chamber President’s Award (Business Person of the Year). He is Co-Founder of the PorterShed (Galway City Innovation District), and serves on the Advisory Council of Scale Ireland. John is Cathaoirleach (Chair) of Gaillimh le Gaeilge, a Former Director and Past Chair of WestBIC, and a Director Emeritus of the American Council of Exercise. He undertook the Entrepreneurship Development Program with Bill Aulet at MIT in 2017. From Fanore in the Burren, he lives in Connemara, and holidays in Carcassonne.

Karen is the CEO of the Galway Chamber. With over 30 years industry experience. Karen has a proven track record in Strategic Management, Leadership, Project Management, Planning, Problem Solving, Stakeholder Engagement and Critical Thinking. Karen also serves as the President of Network Ireland.