EY Funds Forum 2025

A great kick-start to the Christmas festivities on the circuit with the 10th EY Funds Forum in The Shelbourne on Tuesday 2nd December 2025. This year's theme was to "Think Bolder". Hosted brilliantly by Lisa Kealy, we were treated to an excellent range of fireside chats and panels. Biggest laugh of the day came when Lisa apologised for the Forum being held on a Tuesday, "because as we know Bob doesn't like Mondays".

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• First up we had Robert Troy, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, interviewed by David Bennett. They discussed the work already in play for the future of Ireland's funds industry and the threat of certain parties who may be perceived as looking to limit that growth (was he referring to the OTB)?

• Gina London, ex-CNN correspondence, drove Ireland's geopolitical heat map with Simon Coveney and British Ambassador to Ireland Kara Owen. With a large focus Ukraine, Coveney tried his best to steer clear when Gina drew comparisons between Israel's actions in Gaza to Putin's aggression in Ukraine. His message of "We can't reward brutality and aggression" was pushed by Gina who gave an excellent opening monologue on the changed dynamic since the second coming of Trump commenced, both for those in the US and international countries all over the globe

• The excellent industry leadership panel hosted by Ailbhe MacManus consisted of Ann Prendergast (Head of EMEA, State Street Investment Management), my old colleague Fearghal Woods (Managing Director, J.P. Morgan), Emily Davy (CEO, Prescient Ireland) and John Ruane (Ireland Site Lead & VP Ops for Fidelity Investments). Key aspects of the panel included support from the CBI on Outsourcing arrangements, what level of roles do we ultimately want here in Ireland (as many junior roles continue to be filled in offshore locations), simplification agenda and how they structure for growth, plus getting products to market quickly when launching funds with increasing investor demands.

• Bob Geldof gave us a compacted life-story which included:

• losing his mother at a young age and the challenges he experienced with his Father

• memories of almost being kicked out of Blackrock College for importing Mao's little red book, before his Father came to his defence and changed his perspective on their relationship

• having Pope Leo XIV (known as Robert Prevost back then) working as an intern in Chicago stapling rats to the Boomtown Rats first single release in the US

• creating Band Aid/Live Aid and his philanthropic pursuits over the last 40 years

• before being presented with the inaugural "Think Bolder" award