Joan Ballantine

Joan is an accounting graduate and Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA). After working in industry and gaining her professional qualification, she moved into academia, holding positions at Warwick Business School (where she earned a PhD) and Queen’s University, Belfast. Since 2008, she has been Professor of Accounting at Ulster University, teaching a range of subjects including strategic management accounting at undergraduate and Masters levels.

An active researcher, Joan work focuses on accounting education (including sustainability), entrepreneurship and gender equality, including gender budgeting and women in senior management. She has secured around £600k in research funding as principal investigator and currently leads a work package for the £4.8m EPIC Futures NI Local Policy Innovation Partnership (UKRI-funded) supporting economically inactive individuals back into work.

Professor at the University of Dundee (Scotland), specialising in Accounting and Sustainability.

He has previously lectured at Birmingham Business School, the University of Strathclyde, and Heriot-Watt University, and served as Director of the Centre for Responsible Business and convenor of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting.

For over 30 years, he has conducted research into matters relating to responsibility, sustainability, and accountability.

Chair of the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) since 2022.

Chair of the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), from 2016 to 2022, where she was the first woman to lead the Portuguese markets regulator.

With a background in Law from the University of Coimbra, she has extensive international experience in auditing standards, ESG, and regulatory policy.

Ricardo Costa is an entrepreneur, international speaker, and author of the book "A Felicidade é Lucrativa" (Happiness is Profitable). He is the Chairman of the Bernardo da Costa Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kuantokusta, holding leadership positions in various companies and acting as a Board Advisor in different sectors.

Holding an International MBA from Católica Porto Business School and a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management, he is also a visiting professor at business schools and a leading advocate for the importance of happiness in the workplace.

Beyond his business activities, he is a columnist for the newspapers Expresso and Record, Honorary Consul of Kosovo, and President of the General Council of AEMinho. His experience and strategic vision make him a reference in the world of leadership, innovation, and corporate happiness.

Juliana holds a degree in Journalism and Communication from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Coimbra and a Master’s in Communication Sciences with a specialisation in Strategic Communication from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Nova University of Lisbon. She also completed a Post-graduate degree in Sustainability Management at ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management.

She has been part of the PwC team for about four years, during which time she has collaborated on various sustainability consulting projects in the areas of strategic definition and sustainability reporting. Her work has particularly focused on reporting in alignment with emerging legal requirements, frameworks, and ESG indices, for clients such as Altice, REN, Grupo José de Mello, SCML, Millennium bcp, Fidelidade, The Fladgate Partnership, and Grupo Lusiaves.