MC, Noel Rock
Noel Rock is an experienced former politician and political advisor, having worked at a high level in the US Senate, European Parliament and Irish Parliament. A former Member of Parliament in Ireland, Noel was selected by the Taoiseach to become Chairperson of the Oireachtas Housing Committee.
As the youngest member of the Governing party from 2016-20, Noel set forward legislation on micromobility and e-scooters. In 2021, Noel set up Pixel, a strategic consulting firm specialising in liaising between technology companies, regulatory bodies and Government.
Jinél Fourie, Head of Central Public Policy, Tier Mobility
Jinél Fourie is Head of Central Public Policy at TIER Mobility, Europe's leading micro-mobility operator providing multi-modal, sustainable micro-mobility solutions in 100+ cities across Europe and the Middle East. In her role, Jinél oversees the centrally coordinated policy strategies, solutions, and partnerships relating to the globally applicable topics that positively contribute to TIER's mission of changing mobility for good. The topics she oversees include customer- and public-safety, sustainable mobility, smart cities, data sharing with authorities, and social inclusion.
Prior to her tenure at TIER, Jinél has worked in event production for the e-commerce and digital transformation sector, has led the international patent filing department for a boutique South African Law Firm, was an assistant lecturer for politics, as well as a researcher. Jinél holds two Masters degrees in Development Studies and International Relations, an honours degree, and a BComm in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics.
Alan Murphy, Regional Manager, Smart Dublin
Alan is passionate about doing things differently using new technology. He is the Smart Dublin Regional Manager working across all four Dublin Local Authorities to explore emerging technology to provide better public services in areas such as Sustainable Mobility, Environmental Controls, Energy Efficiency, Citizen Sensing, etc. He has extensive experience in developing new business models and delivering change via technology in many sectors such as the Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing and Humanitarian sectors. Most recently Alan has been exploring the topic of Mobility-as-a-Service as to the most appropriate approach for Ireland. He has previously worked for PwC, IBM and HCL Axon amongst others. Alan’s qualifications include a Business Studies Degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Computing from the University of Limerick
Ronan Furlong, Executive Director of DCU Alpha
DCU Alpha is Dublin City University's Innovation Campus, which is Ireland's leading cluster of IOT, Data Analytics and e-mobility companies. Ronan is also a co-founder of Luna Systems which emerged from the DCU Alpha ecosystem and acts as Luna's Chief Business Officer.
A qualified Architect and Smart Cities/Sustainability expert, Ronan sits on the steering committee of Smart Docklands and is a co-founder of Smart DCU, a Smart Dublin District. Ronan also advises governments, municipalities and real estate developers on innovation district and cluster development and has been responsible for bringing Talent Garden (digital innovation coworking platform) to Dublin.
Ronan has a B.Arch from UCD, a MBA from Trinity College Dublin and a Diploma in Sustainable Development from DCU.
Dr Suzanne Little, Associate professor ( senior lecturer) in the School of Computing at Dublin City University and a Principal Investigator at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics.
Suzanne works in the area of media analytics, computer vision, information access and retrieval across a variety of applications domains. She completed her PHD at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2006 examining and developing tools for analysing and managing scientific multimedia data. She has worked on a number of national and EU projects in the areas of multimedia, technology enhanced education, security, autonomous vehicles and big data including the H2020 funded Cloud-LSVA and VI -DAS projects in utilising big video and sensor data from instrumented vehicles. Dr Little is an Investigator in the SFI ENABLE Smart Communities Spoke and a co-director of the SFI Centre for Research Training in Artificial Intelligence