Meet the Irish delegates who will rub shoulders with the global elite at Davos

FIVE POLITICAL AND business leaders from Ireland will rub shoulders with the world’s elite at the World Economic Forum this week.

The annual four-day event, now in its 47th year, kicks off today and will see 3,000 people from nearly 100 countries flock to the Swiss town of Davos, which is where the conference gets its nickname.

Political, religious, tech and business leaders – with a few celebrities like Matt Damon and Will.i.am thrown in – will attend the summit, which is basically a get-together for the rich and powerful to have a chinwag about the key problems they see affecting the world.

Under the theme ‘Responsive and Responsible Leadership’, around 400 sessions will take place across the four days, addressing topics such as gender balance and climate change.

However the election of Donald Trump, whose inauguration clashes with the event, and Brexit are also likely to dominate discussions. Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be joined by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, a regular attendee for the sessions.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan

Notably, one of Ireland’s richest men, Denis O’Brien, won’t be there after attending the last two conferences. That said, the official list released by WEF isn’t comprehensive, so there is a chance the billionaire media and telecoms mogul could still show up.

With that in mind, here’s who will be joining Noonan and Kenny as part of the Irish delegation at Davos 2017, according to the names on the official guest list:

Garry Lyons

Mastercard chief innovation officer Garry Lyons will participate in a panel discussion on improving agriculture for economic stability and growth.

Lyons also heads up MasterCard Labs, the company’s research and development arm, which is based in Leopardstown, Dublin.

He was chief executive officer of payments provider Orbiscom before it was acquired by MasterCard in 2008.

Rob Leslie

The chief executive of Sedicii, a Waterford-based company that makes data protection software, will be taking part in a round-table discussion on how Europe can “return to a stronger growth track” amid the fragile recovery of the eurozone.

Sweden’s finance minister Magdalena Andersson and the head of Italy’s postal system, Francesco Caio, will also take part in the discussion.

Founded by Leslie in 2013, Sedicii makes encrypted software to protect consumers’ banking details and other sensitive information. It also makes a product that monitors social media pages for negative comments.

Rob Leslie

Leslie is also the founder of fintech firm Kyckr, which announced last year that it raised AU$5 million as part of its initial public offering on the Australian stock exchange.

His CV includes working as a mentor for Enterprise Ireland and being part of the management team that helped Dell enter the Japanese market.

Andrea Bandelli

The Italy-born executive director of Science Gallery International, Andrea Bandelli, will take part in a number of panels at ‘Benevolent Machine’, an exhibition on how technology is getting better at mimicking human behaviour.

Andrea Bandelli

Based in Dublin, Science Gallery International is the body that oversees the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin as well as sister galleries that will open in London, Melbourne, Venice and Bengaluru, India.

Bandelli was appointed to his current role in March 2016 and has had a long history with Ecsite, a European organisation representing science centres and museums in 25 countries.