HelpUsTrade's Director
Leader in Project Design & Transforming Organisational Culture
Professor Dermot Cahill has over 25 years of experience in national and international project leadership, with a focus on helping governments and organisations transform their thinking and operations. His work ensures that public mission, values, and functions are aligned, creating organisations that serve both government and citizens effectively.
Dermot has been recognised as a trusted project leader by many international institutions, including the European Commission, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, and the African Development Bank. A lawyer by background, Dermot brings rigour, understanding, and an internationalist vision to every project, engaging closely with clients to bring out the best in them.
Qualifications & Awards
Dermot’s Credentials
Qualifications: Dermot is a graduate of:
- The National University of Ireland
- The Law Society
- The College of Europe, Belgium
Awards: The work of teams lead by Dermot has been recognised both nationally and internationally, whether by:
- Industry (Best International Project, CIPS 2013, London).
- International Expert Groups (Co-Recipient, Robertson-Horsington Prize for Transnational Education Excellence, British-Franco Juristes Association Paris, 2017).
- Academia: Invited Visiting Professor in leading Universities in China (2008-2019), USA (1997, 2003, 2008, 2022); France (2000-2010), Malaysia (2016) and Australia (2013-2015).
- Dermot’s expertise is also recognised by academia and professional bodies where he has served as External Examiner in over 10 Irish and UK Universities / Professional Bodies since 1996.
Career
Career Highlights
Dermot’s combination of professional expertise, leadership skills, and personal values makes him a highly sought-after advisor and expert consultant. A driving force behind HelpUsTrade’s success, helping businesses and organisations achieve their goals while making a positive contribution to society. Here are some additional highlights from Dermot’s career over the last 20 years:
- 2007 – to date: Director, HelpUsTrade Ltd:
- 2022 to date: Lead Firm & Expert Consultant, European Investment Bank (EIB):
- Assisting the Ministry of Education Health in Serbia to roll out a digital connection programme across the State’s school system by providing oversight of the Promoter’s Procurement Processes and Decision-Making.
- 2022 to date: Lead Firm & Expert Consultant, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Assisting Barbados Immigration Service by:
- Evaluating its Capacity in order to enhance Service productivity
- Designing a bespoke Competency Framework to advance workforce professionalisation
- 2021 to date: Lead Firm & Expert Consultant, European Investment Bank (EIB):
- Assisting the Ministries of Health in Rwanda and The Maldives to build modern COVID Laboratories to BSL-3 International Standard by:
- Providing Oversight of Promoter Procurement Processes and Decision-Making
- 2023: Lead Firm & Expert Consultant, Africa Development Bank (ADB), assisting the Public Procurement Policy Unit of the Namibia Ministry of Finance by:
- Designing a Modern Bespoke Curriculum for the National Procurement Workforce
- Training the Trainers to Deliver the New Curriculum in Governance & Transparency
- 2019 to 2021: Lead Firm & Expert Consultant, World Bank, assisting the National Procurement Authority, Afghanistan by:
- Designing a Modern Bespoke Curriculum for the National Procurement Workforce
- Designing a Modern Monitoring & Evaluation Mechanism
- Assisting the National Procurement Institute to establish International Standard Examination Processes and Learning Resources.
- 2022 to date: Lead Firm & Expert Consultant, European Investment Bank (EIB):
- 2010 – 2019 Chairman, Institute for Competition & Procurement Studies, Bangor University:
- Awarded over 5m Euros in EU Commission ERDF Grant Funding, leading or co-leading over 10 major transnational projects, involving between 2-6 countries at a time to identify barriers to cross border procurement (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy). Examples:
- 2016-2018: Co-Principal Investigator, COSME, EU Commission, PPACT
- 2013-2015: Co-Principal Investigator, ERDF, EU Commission, TESLA
- 2010-2015: Principal Investigator, ERDF, EU Commission, Winning in Tendering,
- 2016-2023: Principal Investigator, ESRC Impact Acceleration Research. Awarded 4 ESRC Impact Acceleration Grants to fund Project Impact Efforts.
- 2008-2009: Principal Investigator, Welsh Government, Barriers to Procurement Opportunity. This Report led to extensive progressive changes to Welsh Government Procurement Practices. Described by CBI as “one of best pieces of evidence-based research in years”.
- 2004-2007: Principal Investigator, ERDF, EU Commission TenderWise Project – Identified barriers to SME winning more public sector business in Ireland & Wales
- Awarded over 5m Euros in EU Commission ERDF Grant Funding, leading or co-leading over 10 major transnational projects, involving between 2-6 countries at a time to identify barriers to cross border procurement (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy). Examples:
Style
Leadership Style
Dermot’s leadership style is non-hierarchical and collaborative. He has over 20 years experience of assembling multi-disciplinary expert teams. Many of his associates have worked with him almost continuously during that time, showing that he commands loyalty and respect from his collaborators, as well as being a reliable and enjoyable person to work with. He seeks to make best use of all available resources in order to get the best result for the client.
Dermot is an excellent communicator. Feedback on his advocacy and presentation to and on behalf of clients regularly praises his clarity of expression and ability to connect with entire audiences, whether in meetings, one-to-ones, or before mass audiences.
Early markers of this particular skill became evident in his University days where Dermot won several prestigious Debating Competitions:
1987 Winner, Kingsmill Moore Trophy, Trinity Historical Society, Trinity College (with E.Clifford)
1990 Winner, Coyle Hamiliton Trophy, Law Society (with J.Kelly)
Record
Track Record
Dermot’s expertise has been recognised in many fora, including:
- Government: where he has been invited to serve on Government Committees and Task Forces for the Welsh and UK Governments
- Major Political Parties: where he has been consulted by all major UK political parties, who view him as an independent impartial expert who offers expert advice and candid forward-assessment on issues of the day or strategic issues.
- Expert Inquires: where he has served on a House of Commons Parliamentary Inquiry as an Expert Member helping the House look into the UK’s Readiness to adopt E-Invoicing standards
- Law Reform Organisations: for many years Dermot served on the Law Commission’s Wales Advisory Committee, making a contribution to the work programme of the Law Commission of England & Wales.
- Specialist International Discipline Groups: Dermot was invited to serve as General Editor of the International Federation of European Law Associations 2004 Europe-wide Surveys in Antitrust Modernisation, Police and Judicial Co-Operation and Asylum & Migration
- National Discipline Groups: Dermot served as Chair of the Irish Society of European Law between 2004 and 2006, and was Editor of the The Irish Journal of European Law between 2004 and 2009, reviving the Journal from its semi-moribund state at the time.
- Academia: Dermot has held two University Chairs between 2007-2019 prior to full-time consultancy, in the fields of European Internal Market Law/Public Procurement and Commercial Law. An expert in several subject areas, Dermot books are published by leading global publishers Cambridge and Oxford University Presses (Corporate Finance Law & European Law). His learned articles, which he continues to publish, are in the fields of Competitiveness and Public Procurement and are published by leading global peer-reviewed journals, such as Oxford Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, World Competition, European Public Law and the American Bar Association’s Public Contract Law Journal, amongst others. Doctoral students supervised by Dermot now lecture in some of the world leading Universities in UK, China, Europe and further afield.
Leading the Way
Publications
- Cahill, D. & Wang, J., ‘How Excessive Pricing Jurisprudence Could Help the EU Commission Take a Big Bite out of Apple’s Commission Fee’ (2024) 8(2) European Competition and Regulatory Law Review 92-100
- This article considers the European Commission’s approach to tackling various Apple anti-competitive strategies. It considers why the Commission has not applied excessive pricing abuse of dominance jurisprudence to challenge Apple’s high commission fees charged to app developers, while instead preferring to use a variety of other approaches to try and restore competition to certain parts of Apple’s closed ecosystem.
- Wang J. & Cahill D., ‘Legitimacy and Effectiveness Issues in Private Antitrust Litigation Enforcement’ (2023) 11(3) Oxford Journal of Antitrust Enforcement 454-490
- World Finalist for the 2024 Antitrust Writing Awards, organised by Concurrences and George Washington University
- Analysing 14 years of leading case law and identifying several key persistent Legitimacy and Effectiveness issues which arise when private parties attempt antitrust enforcement through the courts. On key issues such as: (i) Compensation awards inadequacy; (ii) Lack of rights for indirect purchasers; (iii) Absence of a passing-on defence; and (iv) Limitations of collective litigation mechanisms, deficiencies arising in each of these four areas are identified and analysed. Pathways to reform are set out. Comparative analysis with the corresponding EU and US jurisprudence is undertaken throughout, to illuminate the contrast in treatment for antitrust litigants facing similar antitrust situations. Recently enacted reform legislation (AML 2022) does not remedy the antitrust protection concerns identified by the authors. Private parties seeking antitrust redress in China will therefore continue to have weaker remedies in antitrust enforcement cases, in contrast with their EU and US counterparts. The absence of comprehensive reform means that Legitimacy and Effectiveness deficiencies will continue to undermine legal protection for China’s private antitrust enforcement litigants. Furthermore, the research demonstrates how norm adoption on its own cannot raise the prospect of better outcomes, unless accompanied by corresponding evolution in the provision of more robust enforcement rights and remedies for antitrust litigants, as well as evolution in judicial interpretation to support antitrust norms acceptance.
- Cahill, D., Evans, C. & Eyo, A., ‘Unpacking failure in unsuccessful SME public sector tender submissions: reasons, perspectives and implications’ (2022) 51(2) Public Contract Law Journal 185–225
- Demonstrating how previous authors’ reliance on key misconceptions regarding why SMEs win fewer public contracts in the EU (than their numbers might suggest) has led to flawed theory in the literature on categorising and understanding the reasons for market failure. The piece also proposed a new Framework for categorising reasons for failure, and linked that to mitigation measures, as well as a Model Charter which seeks to align changed corporate and public organisations behaviour so that both public organisations and private organisations can modify their behaviour in order to align with the European Commission’s Code of Best Practice Facilitating Access by SMEs to Public Procurement Contracts, which to date has been ineffectively implemented, by proposing an original methodology for both public authorities and SMEs to adopt as a means to overcome 5 key challenges the Commission had identified as inhibiting cross-border market integration.
- Cahill, D., Mbah, M. & Evans, C., ‘Tackling Human Trafficking under the Australian Commonwealth Procurement Model: Limitations, Recommendations and Lessons for other countries’ (2022) 50(4) Federal Law Review 479–503
- Examining a leading procurement model, the Australian Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPR), for the purpose of examining whether the CPR model satisfies the necessary standards of Legal Certainty and Effectiveness for addressing the risk of trafficking occurring in public sector supply chains. The research generates new insights for countries seeking to tackle trafficking via public procurement systems and identifies pitfalls for countries to avoid if seeking to emulate the Australia CPR model, making appropriate reference to US and UK models where appropriate. The authors demonstrate how key elements of the CPR model fail to provide for the required degree of Legal Certainty and Effectiveness to tackle trafficking. System failure is demonstrated by analysis of the CPR, showing either how key CPR provisions fail to satisfy these 2 key tests, or because there is a complete absence of appropriate provisions to comprehensively deal with the risk of trafficking in public sector supply chains. This article should serve not only as a guide to countries yet to address human rights considerations in their public procurement supply chains, but also as a blueprint for countries around the world seeking to re-evaluate whether existing provisions in their domestic procurement frameworks are fit to tackle the global scourge of trafficking in public supply chains. Our understanding of how procurement impacts on human trafficking enabled us to propose new reforms which have been taken up by the US Government in its recently reformed law seeking to end government contractors’ use of trafficked labour: End Human Trafficking in Government Contracts Act, 2022.
- Cahill, D. & Wang J., ‘Antitrust Legitimacy Concerns arising in Antitrust Litigation involving State-Owned Enterprises in China’ (2022) 45(1) World Competition: Law and Economics Review 75-122
- World Finalist for the 2023 Antitrust Writing Awards, organised by Concurrences and George Washington University.
- This article demonstrates how China’s enforcement authorities have not yet accepted the Legitimacy of EU-style Competition norms as having primacy over the interests of State-Owned Enterprises; and it also identified key lacunae in the enforcement armoury of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and weaknesses in the antitrust regulatory infrastructure. It also recommends key soft measures be implemented along the lines of various EU initiatives, as well as hard reforms such as amending the AML to include a collective dominance test and single entity theory test, in order to allow the State effectively combat the rise of mega-monopolies.
- Cahill, D. & Wang, J., ‘How Competition Ideals Are Emasculated in Key Industries in China’ (2021) 44(3) Fordham International Law Journal 609–671
- This article’s research approach was to undertake a series of original case studies to identify lacunae and propose original solutions for remedying the approach adopted by China’s courts and State regulators in misapplying the abuse of dominance test in the telecommunications, steel and petrol distribution sectors. This research, undertaken over a seven-year period, yielded a major publication, making major criticism of China’s regulators’ approach to approving mergers (steel) and allowing exclusionary practises prevail in State dominated industries (telecoms; fuel distribution). Empirical evidence was analysed to demonstrate how State-Owned Enterprises were promoted to the detriment of privately-owned enterprises; that improvements in efficiency and consumer welfare were not successfully achieved by State action; and that fair competition is not being promoted in the economic sectors examined.
- Clear, S. & Cahill, D., ‘An Empirical Study of the Frequency and Distribution of Judicial Review in Resolving Public Procurement Disputes: Proposals for Legal and Policy Reform’ (2021) 27 (1) European Public Law 131–166
- Revealed worrying trends in judicial review patterns in public procurement across the UK’s Four Nations, and identified how Internal Market Principles are distorted by unanticipated domestic factors, which vary across the United Kingdom.
- This article has detected differences in patterns of judicial review in different regions of the UK, including Northern Ireland, and attempted to explain why this may be so. We also detected a Judicial Review spike since the introduction of the EU Remedies directive. Over 400 Local Government authorities were surveyed using FOI requests all around the UK: the response rate was over 80%. The study also uncovered something unexpected: major and widespread failures by the local government sector to maintain security and possession of data from tender competitions, thereby frustrating judicial review opportunities. This piece feeds into the Law Commission’s work programme on improving administrative justice in England & Wales with its abundant evidence-base.
Leadership Values
Dermot’s Operational Values
Dermot’s operational values can be summarised as follows:
Strategic
Make well-considered decisions to achieve long-term goals and objectives.
Integrity
Act ethically and with honesty in all interactions, building trust.
Rigour
Be thorough, accurate, and detail-oriented in your work to ensure quality.
Adaptability
Be flexible and able to adjust to change, proactively finding solutions.
Collaborative
Work effectively together to achieve common goals, valuing open communication and teamwork.
Help People To Do Better
Foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement, by supporting and empowering colleagues.
Biography
Leader in Project Design, Methodology and Transforming Institutional Thinking
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