The Punt: Big names at Finance Forum

The Punt is most looking forward to the opening keynote address by Central Bank Governor Philip Lane, who has only spoken publicly in his new role a couple of times. The governor is discussing "post-crisis reforms: the lessons of balance sheets" with Andrew Bailey, deputy governor of the Bank of England and head of its watchdog, the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Bailey has had an interesting career. He joined the Bank of England 26 years ago, shortly after graduating from Cambridge University. He soon joined the fast track - landing plum jobs such as private secretary to the governor and head of international economic analysis. For a while, he was known to everyone in Britain; as chief cashier between 2004 and 2011, it was his signature that adorned the UK's banknotes, next to the picture of the queen.

He is said to be one of the few senior regulators that top bankers respect and are happy to work with.

Our own Central Bank is on the lookout for a new deputy governor at present; we're sure they will be playing close attention.

Web Summit's newest hire

Web Summit, the tech conference business pioneered by Trinity College graduates Daire Hickey and Paddy Cosgrave, has a new head of sales. The person is Giuseppe Vitulano, who was previously an EMEA sales manager at Google.

Despite doubling its staff levels in 2015, the company is maintaining an ambitious recruitment programme. It is on the lookout for a chief financial officer, as well as a senior data scientist and other roles. Whoever gets those jobs must be prepared for a bit of travel.

The company's newest conference is in Bangalore, India, and other events include conferences in the US and Hong Kong. Its flagship event has of course moved to Lisbon.

Vitulano's job may be easier than he thought. Speaking over the weekend, Hickey said that ticket sales for this year's event are better than they were at this time last year.

"We have sold more tickets for 2016 than we had at the same point last year. It will definitely be bigger this year."

Engineers' call to action

Engineers Ireland has called on schools, businesses and local authorities across the country to start planning and registering their events for Engineers Week 2016, which begins nationwide on Sunday, February 28.

The week-long series of activities, now in its 10th year, is a campaign held annually to promote engineering as a career and the importance of the profession to Ireland.

Last year, 527 events took place across Ireland during a week that included 37,500 participants and 175 organisations. Over 7,000 students also met with hundreds of volunteer engineers in the classroom.

"The theme of this year's week is 'Engineering Our Future', and in this context we will aim to spark enthusiasm about the engineering profession to people of all ages, especially students and their teachers and parents," said Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland.

"Engineering is at the forefront of innovation and during the week students will get to explore the exciting new developments taking place in the sector that will help meet the needs of a rapidly changing Ireland."

Engineers Ireland is one of the largest represe-ntative bodies in Ireland, with 23,000 engineers across all disciplines.