Thomas Knape, MSc, Dipl-Winf, MIEEE, MACM

Founder | Director - Analytics Technology & Business Development.

A graduate of School of Economics and Management Science at University of Leipzig with a Masters in Business Informatics, as well as a Masters in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin in business process modelling, Thomas heads up Applied Intelligence Analytics business development and technology activities. He has over 17 years’ experience working on a wide range of commercial and research projects, including government security application design and development, EU research projects since FP4.

For over five years Thomas has worked with a number of European organisations on R&D projects funded through FP7 Security and European Defence Agency Joint Investment Programme on Force Protection. Thomas is a non-governmental R&T Expert for the European Defence Agency.

Bernard Allen, Dip. Chem. Tech. (National University of Ireland)

Director - Government Intelligence Solutions.

Bernard Allen oversees government related products given his extensive experience as a former Government Minister who was first elected to the Irish Parliament in 1981 remaining there until his retirement in 2011. He was Chairman of the very powerful and effective Public Accounts Committee of the Irish Parliament until 2011 which investigated spending in all government departments and semi state bodies. He acted as Shadow Minister for Health, Social Welfare, Environment and Local Government, Foreign Affairs, as well as Tourism, Sport and Recreation. He was Minister for Youth and Sport between 1994 and 1997. He was also Lord Mayor of Cork City between 1988-1989.

In his role as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, besides scrutinising government spending, he and the committee analysed potential risks in administrative systems.

He is currently a board member of the Irish Sports Council, a member of the Anti Doping Committee and a governor of the Cork Institute of Technology.