Do Firms Effectively Communicate with Financial Stakeholders?

Speaker biography

Niamh Brennan is Michael MacCormac Professor of Management at University College Dublin (Ireland). She qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, holds a PhD from the University of Warwick and is a Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors (London). She is also an Inaugural Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Directors in Ireland.  With 100+ publications, Professor Brennan has a h-index of 23 (measures scientific productivity based on published articles and citations) reflecting 3,000+ Google Scholar citations. She has received a number of awards for her research, such as the 2010 British Accounting Review Best Paper Award and the Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal's (AAAJ) Mary Parker Follett Best Paper Manuscript Award 2011. She is also associate editor ofAccounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, the British Accounting Review, Accounting Forum and International Review of Financial Analysis.

Having established the UCD Centre for Corporate Governance in 2002, Professor Brennan plays a leading role in the public discourse in Ireland and internationally on corporate governance. Chairman of the National College of Art and Design and former chairman of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, she has held non-executive directorships with the Health Service Executive, Ulster Bank, Co-operation Ireland, Coillte (Irish state forestry company) and Lifetime Assurance (Bank of Ireland's life assurance arm). She serves/has served on the audit committee of An Garda Siochana (Irish police force), Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the Department of Agriculture and Food and is former chairman and member of the UCD Audit Committee. Appointed by the Minister for Finance, she chaired the Commission on Financial Management and Control Systems in the Health Services. Appointed by the Minister for Trade Enterprise and Employment, she was also vice-chairman of the Review Group on Auditing. Professor Brennan has completed financial reporting, forensic accounting and corporate governance consulting assignments for some of Ireland's leading organisations and has served as expert witness in cases involving financial reporting, forensic accounting and corporate governance issues. She is also a regular TV, radio and newspaper contributor.