Des O’Neill – Co-Founder and Managing Director, OmniPro

Having worked for a number of years in practice, Des O’Neill co-founded OmniPro to develop tools, techniques, products and services, empowering accountants to achieve their best. Over 15 years, he has grown the company to a multi-million-euro turnover business and established OmniPro as Ireland’s largest independent provider of CPD for accountants.

Des speaks regularly, at national and international fora, on practice development, auditing, accounting, company law and regulation. He is passionate about bringing innovation to the profession and empowering accountants to achieve what they want in their careers and practice.

Mike O’Halloran: Practice Support Executive, OmniPro

Mike, a member of our Practice Support team, is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. He is responsible for carrying out hot file reviews, cold file reviews, annual compliance reviews, in-house training & supporting firms on a day to day basis.

Formerly a quality reviewer with Chartered Accountants Ireland, this role saw him visiting firms of various sizes across Ireland conducting audit, non-audit and anti-money laundering visits. Prior to this he spent 12 years working in small and medium sized practices. In these roles, Mike has gained a comprehensive knowledge of the profession and has worked with a broad range of clients across many industries.

John Murphy: Tax, Corporate Restructuring and Practice Support, OmniPro

As a lead member of our technical support team, John relishes problem-solving to help accountants develop innovative client solutions and sharing technical knowledge on tax, financial reporting and auditing. A Chartered Tax Adviser, he advises clients in practice on a range of issues from income tax, tax planning, restructuring and exit planning to Revenue audits.  In addition, he provides support on financial reporting, auditing and company law; conducts company valuations and advises on pre-sale restructuring. John also plays a key role as a researcher and subject-matter expert in developing OmniPro information products such as the CompaniesAct2014.com and FRS102.com. As a speaker at OmniPro CPD events, he brings these industry-leading insights to accountants participating in our training programmes. A Chartered Accountant and Qualified Financial Adviser, John has over a decade’s Big 4 experience with EY and PwC, providing tax and audit services for a portfolio of clients, ranging in scale from SMEs to multinationals.

Colm Owens: Practice Support Executive, OmniPro

As a member of our Practice Support team, Colm’s focus is on helping practices achieve on-going best practice compliance, prepare for monitoring visits and assist with post-monitoring visits follow-ups. Colm brings a unique insight into the whole area of monitoring and compliance having spent the last 6 years as a quality reviewer with Chartered Accountants Ireland.  In that role he has visited firms of differing sizes all over the country which has given him an insight into how firms operate, the challenges facing firms and how firms are responding to current issues facing them and the profession.  He has gained up-to-date knowledge of audit, accounting, money laundering and regulatory compliance issues relevant to the profession and knowledge of current audit methodologies. Prior to his time with Chartered Accountants Ireland, Colm’s roles included Audit Manager with Anne Brady McQuillans and Brophy Gillespie, both in Dublin, where he worked with a range of clients from small owner-managed businesses through to larger audit clients.

Tom Murray, Friel Stafford

Tom is partner in Friel Stafford, one of Ireland’s leading advisory firms. He specialises in the 4 key areas of Corporate Recovery & Insolvency, Corporate Finance, Forensic Accounting & Expert Witness and Personal Insolvency. He is also an experienced Non – Executive Director.

Tom qualified as an accountant in 1997 and is a member of ACCA and CPA Ireland.

Neil Hughes – Baker Tilly

Neil Hughes, Managing Partner at Baker Tilly, has many years’ experience in advising Irish businesses, but specialises primarily in corporate recovery.

Neil has extensive experience of examinership matters and is one of the leading experts in Ireland’s formal rescue process.  Neil has also lectured widely on the topic ‘restructuring’. He contributes regularly to the print and broadcast media on business matters.

Constantin Gurdgiev – Macroview

Constantin Gurdgiev is the Associate Professor of Finance with Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (California, USA) and an Adjunct Professor of Finance with Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland).

Constantin advises a range of institutional and professional clients in the areas of macro and geopolitical risks and uncertainty analysis through his consulting practice, Macroview.