With just weeks to go to the IPU National Pharmacy Conference 2026, the agenda is now complete and an excellent range of speakers are confirmed. The speakers represent many of the key organisations aligned with, and supporting, the pharmacy industry, including the Department of Health, the HSE, ICGP and other pharmacy and IPU committee representatives.
The following biographies highlight our individual speakers who will share their knowledge on a wide range of topics, which should assist you in your pharmacy on a day-to-day basis (speakers displayed alphabetically).
Dr Edel Burton is a Clinical Pharmacist at Bon Secours Hospital Cork and a Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy Practice at the School of Pharmacy, University College Cork (UCC). Her work spans clinical practice, education, and health services research, with a particular focus on optimising medicines use across hospital and primary care settings. Dr Burton’s research interests include pharmacoepidemiology, rational prescribing, and the use of real-world data to inform safer, more effective, and more sustainable medication practices. A central theme of Dr Burton’s work is the translation of research into practice and policy. She has extensive experience working with clinicians, patients, professional bodies and policymakers to ensure that evidence is not only generated but meaningfully applied to improve patient care. Her approach is strongly practice-informed, drawing on her ongoing clinical role to identify relevant research questions and implementation challenges.
Ms Danaher qualified as a pharmacist over 20 years ago and has worked in both community and hospital pharmacy settings. For the last 10 years she has worked in the Phoenix Pharmacy, which supplies medication and clinical services to a variety of settings including the Phoenix Care Centre, St Ita’s Hospital Intellectual Disability Service and the programme for the homeless. Ms Danaher is an active member of the multi-disciplinary team at each of these sites and is a member of a number of hospital committees, including the Drugs and Therapeutics, Audit and Quality and Safety committees. She has presented lectures to medical and nursing staff on patient safety, prescribing and polypharmacy.
Professor Mary Horgan is interim Chief Medical Officer and Professor of Infectious Diseases at UCD and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. She is the immediate past President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and is the first woman to hold this position since the College’s foundation in 1654. She is the former Dean of the School of Medicine at UCC and was the first woman to be appointed to this position.
She was a graduate of the UCD School of Medicine in 1986 and was awarded the UCD Alumni Award for Health in 2019.
She is a Director of Education of the European Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (ESCMID), served on the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), led the Expert Advisory Group on rapid testing and chaired Ireland’s first National Research Ethics Committee.
Dr Kirby has worked at the highest level of sport for almost 20 years and has attended the London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games as a psychologist with Team Ireland. Through her position as a senior psychologist in the Sport Ireland Institute, she has worked directly with medal-winning athletes from Olympic rowing, Olympic sailing and Paralympic swimming. She has also supported World and European medalists from a range of sports such as athletics, women’s hockey, taekwondo, badminton and modern pentathlon.
Dr Kirby also works privately with athletes from individual sports such as golf and tennis and is actively supporting a number of successful touring professionals in both sports.
She also possesses considerable expertise in the area of athlete career and lifestyle management. Through her previous work as a personal development consultant for the Gaelic Player’s Association and at Rugby Players Ireland, she has supported the dual careers of many high-performance athletes and helped them through their transition out of elite sport and into the next phase of their working lives. Dr Kirby also acted in the role of psychology lead on the National Sports Science Working Group for Gaelic Games for a number of years.
More recently, she has transferred her high-performance expertise from sport to business, and regularly speaks at corporate events throughout Ireland and abroad.
Ms Lanigan has worked in community pharmacy for 25 years and is currently working as a community pharmacist in Dublin city centre. Having trained and worked in the UK, Ms Lanigan developed a strong background in service provision. She has worked within community service teams to help support the tailored needs of services within certain communities and is currently an active member of both the Employee Pharmacists’ Committee (EPC) and the Community Pharmacy Committee (CPC) in the IPU.
Frank Olden is a community pharmacy owner. He started his career as a pharmacist in pharmaceutical industry, community practice, and academia. Starting as a technical specialist at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Mr Olden gained early exposure to lean methodologies before moving into community pharmacy. Five years of locum work across Dublin highlighted the stark contrast between chaotic dispensaries and those that ran efficiently, sparking a lasting interest in operational excellence.
Driven by a commitment to clinical quality, he completed a Master’s in Clinical Pharmacy at University College Cork (UCC). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Olden worked at establishing pharmacy departments at the Aviva, UCD and Gorey mass vaccination centres, later serving as Chief Pharmacist for the two Cork mass vaccination centres.
Currently, Mr Olden combines clinical expertise with a passion for lean principles and reducing ‘rework’ in community pharmacy, with a goal to utilise operational frameworks that minimise waste in medication preparation, ultimately reclaiming time for meaningful patient consultation. Prior to owning his own pharmacy, Mr Olden held roles with Uniphar at Hickey’s Pharmacy, Bakers Road, and spent three years as a Teacher Practitioner at the UCC School of Pharmacy.
Mr Ó Móráin is a prominent business broadcaster, MC, and podcaster, known for his extensive experience in Irish business media. He has hosted various shows, including the ‘Sunday Business Show’ on Today FM from 2005-2018, and currently produces and presents ‘That Great Business Show’, which features insights and success stories from Irish businesses. Prior to this, he served as RTÉ’s first business correspondent, contributing to both television and radio. His media commentary extends to platforms such as RTÉ, Raidió na Gaeltachta, TG4, BBC Northern Ireland, and various national press outlets.
Dr Quinlan was a founding partner of a seven-GP training practice in Glanmire. He undertook specialist GP training in Kent, England before working in Australia. He was a member of MPS Clinical Risk Management and Education team 2009-2018 and won the ICGP ‘Quality-in-Practice’ award in 2013 for a methotrexate safety initiative. He was a director of the HPRA from 2015-2024 and is a director of the charity, Diabetes in GP. He was awarded Fellowship of RCGP in 2015 and was Chair/Provost of RCGP ROI faculty from 2020-2024. He was ICGP-HSE Clinical Lead for T2DM 2018-2019. He was conferred a Master’s in Medical Law and Ethics (with merit, LLM) in Edinburgh University in 2018. He commenced an MD in UCC in 2024 focused on the safe use of isotretinoin in primary care. He accepted the role of Medical Director of the Irish College of GPs in 2020.
Mr Ryan has been a researcher for 35 years, and with B&A since 1997. He is a Director, former shareholder and part of the ownership team at B&A, which sold the business to IPSOS in November 2023. He has recently led IPSOS B&A’s consolidation to a new site in Ballsbridge, where its’ expanded team of 85 is now based. He focusses on qualitative and quantitative studies for clients across many sectors but with a specific interest in healthcare and on work with representative/members bodies (medical, legal etc.)
He served for four years on the Council of The Marketing Society (of Ireland), chaired its research committee, and has lectured on research at its seminars (as well as at UCD and TCD). He managed B&A’s previous global network affiliation from 1999 until 2023, serving as a global director of that network, Iris, for 10 years and leading multi-country health and wellbeing studies.
He manages many projects in the area of health and wellbeing covering areas like artificial reproduction, women’s health, mental health, health insurance and use of private hospitals and clinics. Pharmacy has been an area of major interest, and he has undertaken projects for the IPU since 2006.
He has worked with many leading pharma and healthcare clients including Pfizer, Novartis, Lundbeck, Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi Aventis, and Novo Nordisk, typically focussed more on general public/patient rather than HCP. He has also worked with other medical representative bodies (for GPs, Pharmacists, vets etc) and for a range of medical insurers, the HSE, Department of Health and other health promotion agencies.
Noel Winters is Corporate Finance Partner in Fitzgerald Power. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and has a comprehensive knowledge of the issues that matter to community pharmacy business owners. With over 20 years’ experience, Mr Winters has advised on a wide range of matters including turnover stabilisation and growth, profit performance and cashflow maintenance and contributes regularly to pharmacy sector publications and thought pieces.
Having advised on numerous acquisitions and disposal cases, Mr Winters has particular expertise in business valuations, finance raising and strategic investment appraisal.
As a business operator, he has a deep understanding of the importance of timely and accurate management reporting and focuses on providing this to business owners.
Don’t miss out — book your attendance ticket now at ipu.ie/conference.
Ailbhe O’Briain
Communications and Marketing Manager, IPU
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