Forum leaders
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Tomás SercovichCEO Business in the Community IrelandTomás was appointed CEO of Business in the Community Ireland in January 2018. Previously, he was with Spain’s largest sustainability network, Forética as Director of External Affairs, where he increased the international profile of the organisation and its external reputation and impact.
Between 2002 and 2012 he held several positions with Business in the Community Ireland, among them Manager of the Membership Services Team. He is a member of the Board of Young Social Innovators and the Irish Association for Social inclusion Opportunities (IASIO).
Tomás holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Universidad de Belgrano in Argentina and a Master’s degree in International Relations and International Management from the Università di Bologna in Italy. He also holds a Certificate in Management from DIT.
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John AbrahamChief Operating Officer, Industrial, Water and Energy UK, Ireland and NordicsJohn Abraham is a Chief Operating Officer in Veolia leading Industrial, Water & Energy across the UK, Ireland and Finland where he is accountable for multiple Veolia services including FM, Water and Water Waste treatment, total waste management (TWM) and on site service and Heat and Energy solutions. Having joined Veolia in March 2015, his role has significantly expanded from that of Chief Operating Officer - Water UK.
At Veolia, John leads a very complex and challenging business running multiple contracts across Water, Energy and Waste operations, including Strategy, Business Development, Operational Service Delivery, Maintenance, Asset and Facilities Management. John's business area has over 200+ industrial and municipal customers with circa £500m revenue per annum and 3500 personnel
With long standing engineering and operational knowledge, John has extensive experience of being part of long term collaborative JV’s and Customer Alliances and managing large scale Asset capital programmes involving multi disciplined Design and Construction supply chains within conventional and industry leading integrated Alliances. He is a proven executive leader with extensive strategic and operational experience in growing organisations and creating & continuing operational excellence.
Your hosts
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Fergus ElebertRegional Director, Energy and FM Services, Veolia IrelandFergus, who joined Veolia in 2005, is the Regional Director with overall responsibility for a significant portfolio of energy and utilities operations and maintenance on our client sites. Fergus manages a large team of engineers and on-site staff. Prior to this, Fergus was Operations Director for the energy activity within Veolia.
Before joining Veolia Fergus gained extensive experience working with major multinationals in Ireland such as Tetra Pak Ireland Ltd., ABB Ltd. and Alfa Laval Ireland Ltd.
Fergus is a qualified electrical engineer, a member of ISPE (International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers) and a member of ISA (Instrumentation Society of America).
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Sinéad PattonChief Financial and Commercial Officer, Veolia Ireland and Regional Director, Veolia Northern IrelandChief Financial and Commercial Officer of Veolia in Ireland and its Regional Director for Northern Ireland, Sinead Patton is proud of the role her organisation plays as benchmark leader of the Ecological Transformation, focused on helping organisations to reduce their carbon footprint and sustainably manage their energy, water and waste resources.
Sinead joined the energy division of Veolia as its Financial Controller in early 2005, holding various positions before assuming her current responsibilities across the Group’s full remit of energy, water and waste management services in 2018.
Prior to joining Veolia, Sinead secured a Masters in Accounting from the Michael Smurfit Business School and worked in Georgia Pacific and KPMG. She sits on the board of Business in the Community Ireland and is co-chair of its Leaders Group on Social Inclusion. In her spare time she enjoys getting out in nature, whether walking, running or cycling.
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Declan WhiteRegional Director, Water, Wastewater and Hazardous Waste services, Veolia IrelandDeclan joined Veolia in 2006 and is the Regional Director with overall responsibility for all of our water, wastewater and hazardous waste services. This includes the design, build and operation of water services facilities and the management and disposal of hazardous waste for blue chip pharmaceutical and micro electronic industrial clients. Prior to joining Veolia, Declan had 15 years’ experience across the engineering and services industries in Ireland and the US.
Declan's teams across many projects include all the main engineering disciplines, along with environmental project management professionals who work together to deliver sustainable solutions to complex environmental challenges.
Declan is a qualified Civil Engineer from UCD and Chartered Engineer with Engineers Ireland.
Session 1: Macro view
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John SweeneyProfessor Emeritus of Geography, Maynooth UniversityEmeritus Professor John Sweeney has been a member of the Geography Department at Maynooth University since 1978. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Glasgow in 1974 and also his PhD in the Meteorology and Climatology of Air Pollution from there in 1980.
Over the intervening 42 years John has taught courses in climatology, biogeography, geomorphology and environmental resource management at Maynooth University and a number of universities in North America and Africa.
He has published over 100 scientific papers and authored/ edited/co-authored 4 texts on various aspects of climatology and climate change in Ireland. He has served as President of the Irish Meteorological Society, the Geographical Society of Ireland and An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland. He has been Editor, Treasurer, Secretary of several national associations as well as being the Irish representative on a number of European academic bodies. He has been involved in a number of international research projects and has led a number of nationally funded research projects examining various aspects of climate change in Ireland.
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/faculty-social-sciences/our-people/john-sweeney
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Laura BurkeDirector General, EPALaura 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 the Chair of the European Environment Agency (EEA) Management Board. Laura is a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) and a member of the High Level Implementation Committee of ‘Food Vision 2030’, the Irish Agri-Food Sector Strategy.
Prior to joining the EPA, she worked in the private sector. 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. In 2016 Laura was awarded the UCD Engineering Graduates Association (EGA) Distinguished Graduate Award.
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Edel WyseDirector, Carbon and Energy Fund IrelandEdel is a Director with the Carbon and Energy Fund working to support energy and carbon management primarily within the health economy across the UK and Island of Ireland. As part of a multidisciplinary Senior Leadership Team, Edel oversees the Governance and Finance function.
Edel is a firm advocate of knowledge sharing particularly as part of our national and global responsibility to meet the Green Agenda.
Session 2: Mindset change
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Gerard O'NeillChairman, Amárch ResearchGerard is a graduate of the London School of Economics and was previously Business Planning Manager in An Post. He leads the strategic consulting practice in Amárach, working with senior management teams to create resilient strategies for the future.
Gerard is also a Fellow of the Marketing Institute of Ireland. He is a director of AIMRO – the Association of Irish Market Research Organisations. He recently served two terms on the National Statistics Board, a statutory body overseeing the development of official statistics in Ireland.
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Debbie CaldwellClimate Commissioner, Belfast City CouncilDebbie Caldwell is the Climate Commissioner for Belfast City Council. She is an experienced climate change specialist with over 20 years’ experience working in international development in countries including Bangladesh, Nigeria and Rwanda. She leads the Council’s climate work and co-chairs the Belfast Resilience and Sustainability Board and the Belfast Climate Commission
Prior to joining the Council, Debbie led the design and delivery of climate investments in Asia and Africa. In Bangladesh, Debbie led a £5m development project supporting vulnerable communities living in the coastal zone and a series of scoping studies to support the design of a planned £200 million climate programme. She also advised the Government of Rwanda for several years on its national climate fund (now the largest national climate fund in Africa) and the Green City pilot project in Kigali. Debbie moved to Belfast in 2018 after 17 years living and working in Africa and Asia.
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Catherine RicouChief Innovation Officer, VeoliaA graduate of AgroParisTech, an engineering school in environmental sciences in Paris, Catherine has more than 25 years of experience in the field of environmental management, water, waste and energy recovery, with roles in engineering and operations, and finally strategy and innovation.
Since the acquisition of Suez by Veolia, Catherine has taken responsibility for innovation for the new scope of Veolia to develop solutions tackling challenges regarding: climate, energy, pollution management and circular economy.
Catherine just returned from the United States, where she worked 6 years for SUEZ, managing capital planning for the Regulated Water activity ($200 M/year), engineering services, innovation linked with US ecosystems and the monitoring of water quality & pollution management issues, in particular the management of lead program in drinking water.
Catherine launched in 2020 through organic growth and acquisitions, the SUEZ Smart and Environmental Solutions activity for North America with the aim of setting up a smart and digital solutions activity for municipal customers in the United States.
Earlier in her career, Catherine worked in the energy sector, for the French company ENGIE, where she managed business development plans in energy markets, marketing and innovation before moving to support the design & implementation of the strategic plan.
Catherine has a French-British nationality, grew up in the Alps where she developed a passion for the mountains, and has a family of 3 boys, 2 of whom are now in University in England and Switzerland.