Among her many roles, Dera McLoughlin leads the delivery of services across cybersecurity, AI, IT auditing and digital consulting.
The regulatory landscape in the EU is fast evolving, with businesses left to play catch up – and quick.
In just the past year, we’ve seen transformative regulations such as the EU’s Network & Information Security 2 (NIS2) Directive and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act come into force. The AI Act will be rolled out over the course of a few years, with a new set of regulations ready to become effective this August.
Not to mention, businesses are being continually scrutinised under existing regulations such as the Digital Services Act and the GDPR. As this happens, organisations need constant support to transition and become compliant. That’s where consultancies such as Forvis Mazars come in.
The company provides audit, tax, advisory and consulting services in more than 100 countries. Its Irish operations employ more than 900 across Dublin, Galway, Cork and Limerick.
Dera McLoughlin is the company’s head of consulting in Ireland. Her role is multifaceted, she explains. She runs a large division at the firm with seven partners and 120 employees.
In addition to her role, McLoughlin leads the delivery of services across cybersecurity, AI, IT auditing and digital consulting among others.
Moreover, she is also a member of the Irish executive which runs Forvis Mazars in Ireland, where she spends much of her time focused on strategic decisions.
Although, on a day-to-day basis, much of McLoughlin’s time is spent with clients or her team, focused on delivering on projects. “Pretty much everything about my role comes back to clients,” she says.
McLoughlin is a trained chartered accountant, but she quickly moved to consulting, where she specialised on tech-related projects. She initially took up the role of partner at Forvis Mazars, before subsequently taking on her current role as well.
“Training as an accountant gave me structure and analytical discipline,” she says. In addition, she explains that an early sponsor in her career taught her the importance of questioning assumptions and building curiosity. This, she says, helped her on the journey she is on now.
Now, as a leader at her workplace, McLoughlin tries to empower her employees. “People are much more likely to be committed to ideas and initiatives that they came up with themselves and are passionate about that when they are imposed upon them.
“That and relationships – respectful supportive relationships are critical to getting the most out of a team in my view.”
Consulting on AI
Earlier this year, the European Commission’s AI Office began drafting the EU General Purpose AI (GPAI) Code of Practice.
The work was chaired by independent experts and involved nearly 1,000 stakeholders – including model developers, EU member state representatives, and international observers. McLoughlin was one of these contributors.
The GPAI code is a part of the AI Act. It was published earlier this month and is set to come into force early next month.
“The code is intended as a voluntary framework to help industry comply with the AI Act’s provisions on GPAI,” she explains. “These GPAI models are capable of performing a wide range of tasks and increasingly underpin AI systems used across the EU.
“The AI Act introduces rules to ensure transparency, address copyright concerns, and – where necessary – require providers to assess and mitigate risk.”
McLoughlin has also taken part in other EU-level projects, she says, “but this one stood out for its depth of collaboration”.
“It was a rare opportunity to align diverse perspectives on risk and design practical, forward-looking safeguards for the benefit of EU citizens.”
According to the consulting head, “you can’t accomplish what you don’t start”. This was something a former managing partner at the company, and her mentor early in her career, told her. It appears that she has followed suit.
“I am a great believer in starting something, acting on your ideas rather than thinking about them for too long, and whilst you may not know where it will get you, it creates positive energy and forward momentum and more than not someone will follow you and join in.”
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