Awardees Archive - Page 6 of 12

Colin Ryan

Colin Ryan, one of Goldman Sachs’ top investment bankers in its technology, media and telecom group in San Francisco, joined the investment bank giant after his graduation from UCD. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and is Co-Head of Mergers and Acquisitions: Americas.

He was named Managing Director in 2010 and in 2014 he was one of two Irishmen inducted to the partnership of Goldman Sachs. During his tenure, Goldman Sachs’ Technology Mergers and Acquisitions business has consistently ranked as the #1 Technology M&A franchise globally. During his time in both the London and San Francisco Goldman Sachs’ offices, Colin has helped advise some of the most iconic companies on their most important strategic transactions in the technology and media industry, including Amazon, Applied Materials, IBM, Qualcomm, Salesforce, SAP and Vodafone, on over $300 billion of industry-defining transactions.

Earlier this year he was a recipient of the Ireland Funds Distinguished Leadership Award for 2019 in recognition of his philanthropy and remarkable business achievements, noted as being a powerful example of Ireland’s diaspora giving back and investing in Ireland’s future, with a particular interest in education and supporting disadvantaged communities and supporting at-risk individuals.

Colin Ryan 2019 Alumni Award Winner in Law

Noelle Walsh

A senior figure at Microsoft, Noelle Walsh leads the Cloud Operations and Innovations operation, a role that includes supply planning and strategic acquisition as well as global construction and data centre operations. Previously, she spent 25 years with the Dow Chemical Company, where she worked across multiple businesses. Throughout her career, Noelle has been at the forefront of technological advances and has led initiatives to advance women’s leadership in Europe and the USA.

Noelle was a co-founder of Dow’s Women’s Innovation Network (WIN) in the Netherlands and served as co-chair of WIN in North America. In 2013, The Manufacturing Institute recognized her with the Women in Manufacturing STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Award. During her time at the Dow Company, Noelle led over 25% of its Manufacturing base, the Chemicals Division of businesses and Global Supply Chain and Customer Service functions.

Noelle has worked extensively around the world, running large scale commodity businesses and manufacturing facilities to leading major strategic divestitures and integrating acquisitions. Noelle’s trademark is working with teams to unleash best-in-class performance and an operational excellence mindset for businesses at scale.

Shaun Kelly

The Belfast native was the global Chief Operating Officer for KPMG International, having retired in September 2019. During his time with KPMG, he ran the US tax practice and through his leadership KPMG served a long list of blue-chip American corporations.

Over the course of his career, Shaun has held numerous leadership roles within KPMG including leader of the Global Transaction Services Practice, Vice Chair in charge of KPMG’s U.S. Tax practice and Regional Head of the Americas Tax practice, Vice Chair–Operations for KPMG in the US and Chief Operating officer of KPMG’s Americas region. He was also Co-Chair of KPMG’s Disabilities Network and a member of KPMG’s Inclusion and Diversity Advisory Board.

Through his various roles and his extensive work serving a broad range of significant U.S. companies which span several industries, Shaun has keen insights regarding strategic and operational issues as well as marketplace trends and the issues companies face in today’s global environment. He is on the board of the Ireland Funds America and the Irish Arts Centre in New York and he is the chair of the Northern Ireland US Advisory Council for the East Coast.

Dr Barbara Dawson

An astute observer of the international contemporary art scene and an outstanding curator, the first female director of Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery, Dr Barbara Dawson has been one of the most significant figures in the Irish art world in recent decades. In her role, Barbara has led transformative changes for the Hugh Lane and has been a leading advocate for the visual arts in Ireland, she has overseen a major expansion to house its new treasures that attracts visitors from all over the world.

Under Barbara’s leadership, the gallery has committed to enhancing its collections, to organising diverse and challenging exhibitions and to building on its dynamic and inclusive learning programmes, working both in house and within the communities. In 1998, she secured the gift of Francis Bacon’s Studio and Archive and relocated it from London to Dublin where it opened to the public in 2001. Barbara is adjunct professor at UCD’s School of Art History and is also a notable mentor to the women who have followed in her footsteps at other Irish museums.

Dr Ann Derwin

Over her 25 year career, Dr Ann Derwin has held a variety of positions. Starting out in veterinary practice, she joined the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine in 1992. Since then she has worked as Agriculture Attaché in Madrid before becoming Chief Economist. She was appointed Assistant Secretary in 2016, becoming the first woman to serve on the Management Board of that department.

Ann is a passionate advocate in Ireland and internationally of the need to enhance the role of women in the agri-food sector. Since 2017, Ann has worked as Director General, Global Irish Services in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade where she also leads gender equality and diversity initiatives.

Fintan O’Toole

The award-winning journalist Fintan O’Toole is one of Ireland’s most influential public intellectuals and a critical voice on politics and the arts. His writing career began with In Dublin as the theatre critic, a role he later took up with The Sunday Tribune, The New York Daily News and The Irish Times.

In 1988 after a period as editor of Magill, he joined the Irish Times and his column has featured for 30 years. He has written books on theatre, politics, biography and cultural history. Ship of Fools was a bestselling account of the fall of the Celtic Tiger and Ireland’s current postage stamps are based on his History of Ireland in 100 Objects. He is currently working on the official biography of Seamus Heaney.

John Carey

John Carey is passionate about creating an inclusive and diverse organisation, which puts safety and the customer at the heart of the business. Having graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1983, he has built his career leading a number of global businesses.

He has lived and leads businesses in Europe, Africa and the USA and has a unique skillset in transforming and growing businesses in highly complex and turbulent environments. Most recently, as Deputy CEO of ADNOC Distribution in Abu Dhabi, John has led their recent IPO; the largest international IPO in the Middle East in over a decade. John is a Trustee of the autism charity, Autistica.

Dr Rhona Mahony

As the first female master since the foundation of the National Maternity hospital in 1894, Dr Rhona Mahony oversees one of Europe’s largest Maternity hospitals, delivering almost 10,000 babies each year, a busy gynaecological unit and over 800 staff.

A specialist in fatal foetal abnormalities and maternal medicine, she founded the National Maternity Foundation, which supports the work of the NMH. Dr Mahony has been published in a range of international academic journals. She is a Fellow of the RCOG UK, and of the RCPI in Ireland. In 2016 she was awarded an honorary Fellowship of the American College of O&G and an honorary Doctorate of Medicine from NUI for her contribution to women and infants’ health.

Rob Kearney

Having achieved at the highest level in his rugby career, International rugby player Rob Kearney is one of the top full backs of the modern era. Rob emerged as a real prospect whilst playing schools rugby at Clongowes Wood College. He first played for Leinster as a schoolboy and the U19s, before becoming a senior in 2005, amassing 197 appearances and 223 points. His Ireland debut was against Argentina in 2007, and has 84 caps for Ireland. He has four Six Nations titles and was on the winning British & Irish Lions team in their test series against Australia. In an outstanding achievement, Rob started every game of the 2014 and 2015 Six Nations-winning campaigns and every game of the 2009 and 2018 Grand Slam seasons.

As an undergraduate Rob played with UCD RFC and was a UCD sports scholarship recipient, he continued to play with UCD RFC in the early period of his Leinster and Ireland career. Off the pitch, he is successful in business and advocates for concussion screening.

Jane Ann McKenna

Through her work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) over the past ten years, Jane Ann McKenna has built up extensive on the ground experience in delivering emergency medical aid to some of the most acute conflicts in Africa, Middle East and Asia. In 2007, she left her career in banking to join MSF in Darfur where she led MSF’s response to crises in the Central African Republic, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Ethiopia and most recently Afghanistan.

As former Director of MSF Ireland, she led the strategic growth and development of MSF’s Irish office, focusing on fundraising, communications and recruitment initiatives. She was actively involved in engaging Irish audiences and advocating on humanitarian issues including, Ebola, the Syrian conflict and the refugee crisis. Jane Ann is currently leading the development of MSF’s Strategic Plan for 2020-2023 in the MSF HQ in Amsterdam.