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Gerry Maguire is a General Partner at Atlantic Bridge, a Deep Tech Investment Fund with over $1Bn of assets under management and offices in Dublin, London, Paris, Munich and Palo Alto. Gerry is an experienced investor, executive and design engineer with a 25 year career in the technology industry. He is focused on investments in technology areas such as AI, Quantum Computing, Health Technology and Semiconductors. Prior to joining Atlantic Bridge, he was Vice President at Parthus Technologies responsible for managing a business which included divisions in Ireland, UK and USA. Gerry joined the company in 1993 and played a key role in its transition from startup to successful IPO on Nasdaq. During this time he developed a deep knowledge of the semiconductor and software industries and built an extensive personal network of relationships in the international technology community particularly in Silicon Valley. Prior to this Gerry worked with several technology companies including Philips and S3.Since joining Atlantic Bridge in 2004, Gerry has played a key role in a number of its portfolio companies. His current focus is on investments in Atlantic Bridge Fund IV a €260m growth equity fund and the Atlantic Bridge University Bridge Fund a €60m fund focused on spinouts from Irish third level institutions. Some recent investments include Neurent Medical, Equal1, Siren, Ubotica and Spectricity. Notable successes include Movidius (Acquired by Intel), Navitas Semiconductor (Nasdaq IPO) Decawave (Acquired by Qorvo) and Axign (Acquired by Monolithic Power Systems) Gerry has a BA, BAI degree in Electronic Engineering from Trinity College Dublin and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors
Gillian Buckley is a seasoned investment leader with over 30 years of experience in investing, managing, and advising SMEs across a diverse range of sectors. As Head of Investment at the Western Development Commission (WDC), she played a pivotal role in bringing the WDC Investment Fund from concept to reality—negotiating its original exchequer allocation with the Irish Government and establishing its legislative framework. A key architect of the Fund’s Evergreen Strategy, Gillian ensured its long-term sustainability, enabling all returns to be reinvested into companies across the Western Region.
Under her leadership, the Fund has invested €100 million in over 300 SMEs, community projects, and social enterprises. She has served on the boards of several portfolio companies, including Loci Orthopaedics, HookeBio, Stamford Devices (Aerogen), Selc Ireland, Cambus Medical, and Neuravi. Gillian is a co-founder and director of CREW (Creative Enterprises West), a strategic initiative focused on the digital creative sector, as well as the WRAP Fund, dedicated to the AV industry. She was also Chair of WestBIC and Chair of Empower, a transformative program developed by ATU to accelerate female entrepreneurship. A director of NDRC, the national digital accelerator and Chair of its Audit and Risk Committee. Notable exits, include Neuravi acquired by J&J, Embo Medical acquired by Bard, Altocloud acquired by Genesys, Aran Biomedical acquired by Integer, and Temasek’s strategic investment in Aerogen.
Gillian has made history as the first female Chair of the Irish Venture Capital Association. She is a Chartered Director and member of the Institute of Directors.
Shane is a Director of MML Growth Capital Partners Ireland. Since joining the firm in 2014, he has worked on a number of investments at MML including Lowe Rental, IdentiGEN, Agenda Communications, Ashdale Care, Innovu, RelateCare, NWP, Mainport Shipping and EisnerAmper Ireland and from a portfolio perspective represents MML on the boards of these companies. Prior to this, Shane spent over six years as a Manager with Investec Corporate Finance and its predecessor NCB advising on a broad range of M&A and strategic assignments. Shane also completed an internship in the investment banking division of Citigroup, London, and for a commercial law firm in Dublin. Shane holds a BA and MA in Business and Economics from Trinity College, Dublin, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from Dublin Institute of Technology.
Andrew Duignan is a Partner and Chief Financial Officer of Seroba. Prior to joining the Seroba team in 2011, Andrew worked as Financial Controller of a large car dealership. Previously, Andrew was a tax consultant in RSM Farrell Grant Sparks and he hasalso held positions with AIB Bank of New York and Citco Fund Services. Andrew has an Honours degree in Accounting & Finance from Dublin City University. Qualified Chartered Accountant, Tax Consultant & Financial Advisor.
John graduated from UCD with a degree in Physics & Mathematics and has an MBA from Trinity College Dublin. John is a former chairman of the IVCA and has been venture investing for over two decades in Ireland, Europe and the US.
John has previously served on a number of Boards including Ekco Cloud Holdings, Decawave Limited and Corvil Limited.
Some of John’s current live investments include Cubic Telecom, Channelsight, Eblana Photonics, Ekco, Lime Microsystems, Madme Technologies, Greyscout, Mbryonics and Verodat.
John is a close partner with his founders along the journey and provides valuable insights to companies after 20+ years of seed to growth investing.
Caroline Gaynor is a Partner of Lightstone Ventures and focuses on new investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors out of the firm’s Dublin office. She currently serves as a board director for Parvalis Therapeutics, ProVerum, Carrick Therapeutics and FIRE-1 and as board observer for Volta Medical and Cerevance. She also previously served on the board of ALX Oncology. She is a council member of the Irish Venture Capital Association and a member of the BioInnovate Ireland Board of advisors.
Caroline joined Lightstone Ventures in 2017, bringing 15 years’ operational experience in the pharmaceutical industry and early stage medtech companies. Caroline spent 9 years at Bayer Healthcare, most recently serving on the board of senior management of Bayer Ltd. Ireland as head of market access, pricing and reimbursement. During her time in pharma she held a number of operational roles, predominantly focused on oncology, such as product management, strategic marketing, business development and regulatory/clinical affairs. Prior to Lightstone, and following completion of her BioInnovate fellowship in 2013, she co-led R&D on a device targeting Acute Pancreatitis and was subsequently involved in early pre-clinical, strategic clinical and commercial development at Vetex Medical.
In 2002 she received her degree in Pharmacy from Trinity College Dublin and subsequently went on to receive an M.Sc in Pharmaceutical Medicine in 2010 and M.Sc in BioInnovation in 2013.
Ger is Partner and Finance Director of Kernel Capital, a Central Bank of Ireland regulated and UK Financial Conduct Authority authorised venture capital firm. Kernel Capital is focussed on investment and international M&A engagement with IP-rich companies that innovate through silicon chip design, photonics, microfluidics, sensors & systems; and enterprise-software companies focussed on data management, education and financial services.
Ger is a Kauffman Fellow (Class 17), a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a B. Comm (Economics major) from the National University of Ireland. As a senior member of Kernel Capital’s investment team Ger takes a lead role in mid-market corporate transactions (€25M to €125M) and has led multiple portfolio company fundraisings, trade- sales and two IPO’s. He is an active board member of portfolio companies Code Institute Limited (Dublin) & Datactics Limited (Belfast) and recently led the trade sale of DisplayNote Technologies Limited (Belfast) and the MBO at BioAtlantis Limited. His portfolio realisations have an enterprise value in excess of €500M. Ger has overseen the full divestment of two Kernel Capital Funds, delivering all cash returns on Gross IRRs over 20%. Ger takes an active role investing the firm’s current Growth Capital Fund RoI & NI, and as a key member of Kernel Capital’s leadership team, maintains active engagement with the firms Irish and international limited partners from across State Agencies, Pension Funds, University Foundations and Family Offices.
Esmond has been with Melior since its foundation and has over 15 years of experience across private equity investing and corporate finance. Prior to Melior, Esmond worked for The Carlyle Group where he spent over six years investing an Irish focussed fund (CCI).
Prior to joining The Carlyle Group in 2013, Esmond worked in the M&A teams at Evercore Partners and J.P. Morgan Cazenove in London. Esmond holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, a Masters in Law from Cambridge University and a Bachelor of Business and Legal Studies from University College Dublin.
Maurice has over 30 years of experience as a venture capitalist, he has been involved in more than 140 investments, leading over 50 of them. He currently serves as a Board member and am a former Chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA). In addition to his professional roles, Maurice is a guest lecturer at IESE Business School in Barcelona and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. He holds a Bachelor of Business Studies from the University of Limerick.
Dr Manus Rogan is a Managing Partner and co-founder of Fountain Healthcare Partners. He has over 27 years of investment and operating experience in the life science sector in both the US and Europe. Manus earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of York (sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline) and an MBA from Trinity College Dublin.
Manus began his career in product development at GlaxoSmithkline in the UK and in 1996 joined Elan Corporation’s business development group. For four years he was responsible for licensing products and drug delivery technologies in Europe and Japan. In 2001, Manus joined Elan’s Corporate Venture Capital group in New York where he invested in private and public biotechnology companies. Investments included Sirna (acquired by Merck, 2006) and Beyond Genomics (IPO, 2011). In his 7 years at Elan, Manus concluded over twenty five investment and technology licensing transactions involving companies in the US, Europe and Japan.
Manus led Fountain’s investment in Innocoll Inc. and currently serves on the boards of Priothera ltd and Neuromod Devices. He was formerly Chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association (‘IVCA’) and previously represented Fountain on the boards of Amarin Corporation, Opsona Therapeutics, Inflazome (sold to Roche, 2020) and Mainstay Medical (IPO, 2014).
Richard is Managing Partner of Furthr VC, one of the most active early-stage VC investors in the country. He has been in VC for almost two decades and prior to this held positions with a number of medical device and tech companies internationally and in Ireland. Richard has invested in over 60 start-ups through several seed funds in Ireland and the UK, with his main of areas of focus being medtech and enterprise SaaS across a range of verticals.
Richard started out in R&D and business development with two medical device start-ups in Sweden, one of which was acquired by Medtronic. Subsequent to this, he worked in operations with Intel in the establishment and scale-up of one of Intel’s leading global fabs.
Richard has a 1st class BA BAI in Electronic Engineering from Trinity College Dublin, a Research M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Trinity College Dublin and a 1st class MBA from Durham University.
