CPDStore Ireland

Having worked for a number of years in practice, and with one of the profession’s regulatory and support institutes, Des co-founded OmniPro to develop tools, techniques, products and services that make accountancy more profitable and rewarding.

Des is passionate about bringing innovation to the accountancy profession and enabling accountants to achieve what they want from their careers and business. His core belief is that when empowered to achieve their best, accountants can deliver transformative results for clients.

He holds qualifications from the ACCA Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, CPA Institute of Certified Public Accountants and ACIS Association of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.

Caroline Reidy, Managing Director of the HR Suite and HR and Employment Law Expert. Caroline is a former member of the Low Pay Commission and is also an adjudicator in the Workplace Relations Commission. Caroline is a Committee Member of CPA Ireland. The committee is responsible for setting policy and requirements for CPA members applying for practising certificates and the eligibility to audit. Top trainer and presenter, keynote speaker, expert investigator, mediator, WRC Adjudication Officer and owner of The HR Suite.

She has also completed a Masters in Human Resources in the University of Limerick, she is CIPD accredited as well as being a trained mediator. Caroline had worked across various areas of HR for over 20 years in Kerry Group and in the retail and hospitality sector where she was the Operations and HR Director of the Garvey Group prior to setting up The HR Suite in 2009. Achieved a Diploma in Company Direction with Distinction with the Institute of Directors.

Edel Walsh is the owner of Edel Walsh Coaching and Consulting.

She specialises in mental health and well-being coaching and workplace well-being coaching.
Edel is also a student mentor and coach supporting professional accountancy students through their exams. Edel supports her student clients get their exams as quickly as possible while maintaining balance and prioritizing their well-being.

Her corporate career started in KPMG where qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser. From there, Edel moved into professional education where she held senior lecturer and examinership roles within the professional accountancy bodies.

XpertDPO was formed by Stuart Anderson, a GDPR consultant, to provide market leading Information Security & Governance advisory and consultancy supports to its clients. XppertDPO’s proven methodology and approach is based on research, practical experience and a pragmatic ethos which delivers consistent added value to our clients.

Stuart has gained a unique blend of business and technical acumen in the areas of Information Security, Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC), Data Protection, Data Quality and implementing Regulatory Compliance processes. Stuart has been certified by ISACA and holds the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certifications.

In addition, Stuart has been awarded the Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) certification by ISC2. Stuart is also a Certified Data Protection Officer (CDPO) and has also achieved a Postgraduate Diploma in data protection from University College Dublin and an Advanced Diploma in data Protection Law from The Honorable Society of King’s Inns Dublin. Stuart is a member of the Association of Compliance Officers Ireland (ACOI) and a member of the Institute of Banking.

More recently, Stuart, as GDPR consultant, has had articles published in the International Journal for Data Protection Officers, Privacy Officers and Privacy Counsel with the latest article giving insight into the effect of Brexit on Data Protection.

Before founding XpertDPO Ltd. Stuart performed various roles within leading software providers, culminating as Director, Global Services for an Irish based multinational software development house. Previously to this, Stuart worked in Ireland and the UK as an implementation engineer specialising in CRM, ERP and Payroll software. Stuart embarked on his software career working for Sage UK as a Software Support Executive in the Accountants Division based in Manchester.

Swoop is a business funding and savings platform enabling accountants to discover the right funding solutions across loans, equity, grants and commercial mortgages, and to identify and easily make savings.

Swoop uses powerful technology alongside a team of experts to match businesses with funding from over 1,000 providers. In addition, advisors can boost their funding knowledge with funding education.

Andrea started her career as an accountant with KPMG before joining their Management Consultancy division in London, directing projects for a number of organisations such as GE Capital Aviation, Ryanair, Lloyds Bank and the FCA. Andrea left KPMG to start her own corporate finance consultancy, where for over 10 years she raised funding for businesses across loans, investment and grants. It is this experience that led to the launch of swoopfunding.com. Andrea is also a non-executive director Berkshire Hathaway European Insurance.

Conor began his career in Hedge Fund Accounting before spending several years in the US Venture Debt sector, where he successfully secured funds for rapidly expanding businesses. Subsequently, he gained experience in Import/Export finance over a period of five years. It was during this phase that he crossed paths with Swoop founders Andrea and Ciaran. In 2019, Conor aligned with their vision, assuming leadership of Swoop's Irish business. Under his stewardship, the Irish arm has facilitated the raising of over €150 million for Irish businesses to date.