Agriculture and Climate Change – Science into Action Conference

Maciej Golubiewski is the Head of Cabinet of Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Janusz Wojciechowski. He holds degrees in Philisophy, Politics and Economics and an MA degree in Political Science from the Johns Hopkins University. His career includes roles as Deputy Chief of Mission and the Head of the Political Section at the EU Delegation to Lebanon in Beirut and between 2017 and 2019 as the Consul General of the Republic of Poland in New York.

He has previously served in a number of senior leadership roles in the Department, with responsibility for areas such as International Trade, Brexit, Common Agricultural Policy Development and Sectoral Policy Development in the Meat and Livestock Sectors. He has also had responsibility for governance in a number of State Agencies, served as a Member of the Teagasc Authority, and in policy and operational roles in the Department of Industry and Commerce and the European Commission.

Martin was Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party from 2016 to 2020. He previously served as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and was a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action which produced the cross-party report on Climate Action ‘Climate Change: A Cross- Party Consensus for Action’. He has also served on Oireachtas Committees on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs, and Petitions.

Donagh Berry is a senior principal investigator in statistical genetics at Teagasc holding professorships at several (inter)national universities. He is also director of the VistaMilk SFI research center on AgTech. Following his BAgrSc at University College Dublin he undertook a PhD in quantitative genetics in a collaboration between Teagasc, Wageningen University and University College Dublin. Working across species, his research interests are in breeding goal development, genetic evaluations, and genomic predictions with a particular interest of late in breeding animals with a lower environmental hoofprint.

Professor Kevin O Connor is director of BiOrbic SFI bioeconomy research centre, headquartered at UCD.  He is a member of the scientific committee for the public private partnership CBE JU, a former member of the EC Mission board for Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation. His research interests are sustainable production and consumption, integrated biorefining, and biobased products, He is a key driver behind the development of the €6M rural Bioeconomy campus at Lisheen, Co Tipperary and the development of a climate neutral dairy farm in West Cork in collaboration with Carbery Group. 

Marie is the Chairperson of the Climate Change Advisory Council.
She spent thirty years with the European Commission, ultimately as Director for Renewables, Energy Efficiency and Innovation, is a member of the Governance Committee of MaREI, and an Advisory board member of UCD Energy Institute.
Marie is also a Senior Advisor in Brussels to Penta, a global Communications Agency.

Prof. Peter Thorne is the director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University. He was a Coordinating Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sixth assessment report working group I contribution (physical science basis) and a section facilitator on its synthesis report. He is Chair of the Global Climate Observing System Atmospheric Observations Panel for Climate and sits on several World Meteorological Organization standing committees and task teams.

Stan Lalor is currently the Director of Knowledge Transfer with Teagasc and is responsible for the Advisory and Education activities and programmes in Teagasc.
He has previously worked in both advisory and research roles in Teagasc, and also has experience working in private industry working in the agri-supply sector.
He graduated from UCD with a B.Agr.Sc in Animal & Crop Production followed by an M.Agr.Sc in Soil Science. He later completed a PhD with Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

Tommy is Co-chair of the Livestock Research Group of the Global Research Alliance and he leads the Climate Neutral Animal Agriculture Challenge in BiOrbic SFI research Centre. Tommy has published in excess of 150 peer reviewed papers, and sits on numerous national and international steering groups and expert committees.

Prof. Waters leads a research programme focussed on understanding the rumen microbiome and its role in nutrient digestion and production of methane emissions in ruminants. A current focus is on the development of feed additives to reduce enteric methane emissions. Having published over 140 peer-reviewed papers she represents Ireland on the EU Commission (DG-AGRI) expert-group on agricultural methane emissions.

Laura Burke is the Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), appointed in 2011 and served as a Director within the EPA since 2004.
As Director General she has the responsibility to lead and strategically manage the EPA.
Laura is a graduate chemical engineer of University College Dublin (UCD), holds an MSc from Trinity College, Dublin, is a Fellow and is a Vice-President of Engineers Ireland and is a Chartered Director.

Hayden Montgomery is the Agriculture Program Director at the Global Methane Hub. Formerly, he held the roles of Special Representative of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and New Zealand’s Ambassador to Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. He’s an expert in international agricultural climate change policy development and has spearheaded New Zealand’s research cooperation on greenhouse gases.

Senator Pippa Hackett is Minister of State for Agriculture with responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity. She was appointed to this role in June 2020.
Senator Hackett was elected to the Agricultural Panel of Seanad Éireann in a by-election on 1 November 2019 and was re-elected in 2020. She is also a former member of Offaly County Council.
She holds a BSc in Agriculture from the University of Essex, a postgraduate diploma from University College Dublin, and a PhD from the University of Limerick.

Padraig is the Chairperson of the Organic Strategy Forum and is currently focused on driving the development of a strategy to grow the organic farming and food sector to 2030.
Formerly Sectors and Markets Director with Bord Bia and now working as an independent consultant, Padraig has over 25 years experience in assessing food markets and delivering growth strategies.

Kevin is currently the Managing Director of ABP’s Ireland and Polish Operations having joined the group in 2021. ABP is one of Europe’s leading agri-business companies with manufacturing plants across Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe. The company also operates sustainable renewables, pet food and protein divisions.
Kevin has worked in the Agri sector since graduating UCC in 1991, including a recent 5 year stint internationally as head of a Global Food companies European division.

Bob’s research is focused on the measurement and mitigation of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. A soil and environmental scientist, with a long-established history of research in nitrogen and carbon cycling and soil management in a range of crop and soil systems. Currently expanding research activities on greenhouse gas mitigation in China and South Asia.

Dr Karl Richards is a Senior Principal Research Officer and the Head of the Teagasc Climate Centre. His research is focused on the investigation of options to mitigate emissions from soils (such inhibitors, cover crops and the low emission fertilisers); understanding landscape scale nitrogen dynamics; investigating N2/N2O partitioning in soils and aquifers and ammonia emissions. He is a member of the EU Nitrogen Expert Panel and an Irish representative on the Global Research Alliance.

Farmer – beef and tillage in Co . Kildare
Chairman of the Agricutural Trust. Owner Of The Irish Farmers Journal, The Irish Field Irish Country Magazine and The Irish Garden.
2013-2023 chairman of Irish National Stud.
2013- 2016. President of Royal Dublin Society (RDS)
2010- 2016 Board member and subsequently chairman of National Gallery
1988- 2013 Editor of Irish Farmers Journal
1993-2013 Chief executive Agricutural Trust.
1985- 1988Chairman ACOT ( National farm advisory and education services )and Chairman AnForas Taluntais ( The Agricutural Research Institute).
Awarded Hon degree of Dsc by UCD. And D.Litt by Harper Adams University in UK.
Graduate in Ag Science. UCD.

West Cork Farmer ,Vanessa Kiely O’Connor runs her family dairy farm milking 65 cows,she has a total herd size of 80 animals on 84 acres (34ha). Over the past number of years Vanessa has been adapting her farm practices to try to keep up with the ever changing environmental requirements facing the agricultural sector.

Prof. Pat Dillon has responsibility for leading Teagasc’s research programme which has an annual budget of over €60 million, with over 700 researchers, support staff and graduate students. He provides a strong national leadership role to the Irish agri-food industry.

Pat qualified with a Master’s Degree in Food Chemistry from University College Cork in 1986. He has worked with Kerry Group for over 35 years in various senior roles in Operations, Business Development and General Management.
He currently heads up the Kerry Dairy Ireland division of Kerry Group where the milk from 3000 dairy farmers is processed into a wide range of dairy and nutritional ingredients and dairy consumer foods.