ASPIRE Scholars Welcome Reception.

Special Events

UCD RUGBY ANNUAL DINNER

David Coen and Billy Murphy.
David Coen and Billy Murphy.
David Coen, Dominic O’Keeffe, Eugene O’Rourke, CFO for CSL UCD and Simon Easterby.
David Coen, Dominic O’Keeffe, Eugene O’Rourke, CFO for CSL UCD and Simon Easterby.
David Coen, Simon Easterby and Kevin O’Kelly, Head of Sales & Marketing, Cantor Fitzgerald.
David Coen, Simon Easterby and Kevin O’Kelly, Head of Sales & Marketing, Cantor Fitzgerald.
Rob Henson, Partner EY, Greg Barrett, President IRFU, Simon Easterby, Defence Coach, Irish Rugby Team, Luke Charleton, Head of Strategy & Transactions EY, Peter Breen, Head of UCD Women’s Rugby Club members. Communications IRFU, and UCD Rugby President, David Coen.
Rob Henson, Partner EY, Greg Barrett, President IRFU, Simon Easterby, Defence Coach, Irish Rugby Team, Luke Charleton, Head of Strategy & Transactions EY, Peter Breen, Head of UCD Women’s Rugby Club members. Communications IRFU, and UCD Rugby President, David Coen.
UCD Women’s Rugby Club members.
UCD Women’s Rugby Club members.

UCD Rugby held the Cantor Fitzgerald UCD RFC Annual Dinner in O’Reilly Hall in April 2024, with the IRFU President, Leinster Rugby presidents, corporate supporters, alumni and friends gathering on the night.

UCD Rugby President, David Coen spoke about the continued commitment of Club members who play a vital role in managing the various teams across the Men’s, Women’s, and Tag Rugby sections of the Club. Highlights of the evening included the awarding of life memberships to John Gardiner and Billy Murphy. Billy is this year’s President of Leinster Rugby. Both John and Billy are long-standing supporters and an integral part of UCD Rugby. The main event of the night was an “In Conversation with …” Simon Easterby, Defence Coach for the Irish Men’s Senior Rugby team, and Peter Breen, Head of Communications with the IRFU. The night was expertly MC’ed by Fred Gilligan.

Our thanks to Dominic O’Keefe, Director of UCD Student Services and PJ Barron, Director of UCD Campus Operations, for their generous sponsorship of the O’Reilly Hall and making the event such a great success.

ASPIRE SCHOLARSHIP WELCOME RECEPTION

ASPIRE Scholars Welcome Reception.
ASPIRE Scholars Welcome Reception.

In September 2023, ten Aspire Scholars were welcomed by Professor Federica Pazzaglia, Director of the Smurfit School and Aspire Committee Vice-President, Karl McEntegart. Previous scholars spoke about their scholarships and their time at Smurfit, how it impacted their careers and prospects and what being part of the Aspire network means. Since 2010, the Aspire Scholarship has been transformative in the lives of deserving, academically strong and highly driven students, awarding them the opportunity to study at the Smurfit School.

ENGINEERING GRADUATES ASSOCIATION

EGA 2023 Gold Medal Winners.
EGA 2023 Gold Medal Winners.
Majella Henchion, EGA President, Róisín Quinn, EGA Distinguished Graduate and Aoife Ahern, Dean of Engineering.
Majella Henchion, EGA President, Róisín Quinn, EGA Distinguished Graduate and Aoife Ahern, Dean of Engineering.

In October 2023, the Engineering Graduates Association (EGA) presented its annual Distinguished Graduate Award to Róisín Quinn (BE 2004, Electrical). Róisín is an accomplished leader in the energy sector and currently serves as the Director of Customer Connections at National Grid, UK. She is a great mentor to young engineers and advocate for women in engineering.

UCD MBA ALUMNI FESTIVE RECEPTION

Dean of Business, Prof. Anthony Brabazon addresses alumni.
Dean of Business, Prof. Anthony Brabazon addresses alumni.
MBA Class of 2020.
MBA Class of 2020.

After a four-year hiatus, UCD was delighted to have the UCD MBA Alumni Festive Reception reinstated in the annual calendar. In December 2023, over 100 MBA alumni gathered at the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI). It was a wonderful opportunity for members of our MBA alumni community to connect and reconnect with fellow alumni, and with UCD.

UCD BUSINESS GLOBAL ALUMNI CHALLENGE

Beverley Nielsen, MBS 1982.
Beverley Nielsen, MBS 1982.
Oshada Rodrigo, BSc Computer Science (Sri Lanka) 1917.
Oshada Rodrigo, BSc Computer Science (Sri Lanka) 1917.
Alan Ennis, BComm 1991.
Alan Ennis, BComm 1991.

The UCD Business Global Alumni Challenge ran for 30 days in February and March 2024. The challenge attracted more than 600 participants from 28 countries. It was wonderful once again to witness the engagement and enthusiasm of our challenge participants around the globe.

LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYABILITY ADVANCEMENT PROGRAMME

Fintan McGovern, Mathilde Miravete, Muireann McCarthy, Conor O’Donovan and Sree Nagabhushana.
Fintan McGovern, Mathilde Miravete, Muireann McCarthy, Conor O’Donovan and Sree Nagabhushana.
Catriona Brady, Jabmin Westbrooks, Sunny Talwar, Harshit Ailawadi, Naman Kumar and Shantann Bamnavat.
Catriona Brady, Jabmin Westbrooks, Sunny Talwar, Harshit Ailawadi, Naman Kumar and Shantann Bamnavat.

As part of the new MBA Leadership and Employability Programme (LEAP), recent MBA alumni from the Classes of 2023, 2022 and 2021 were invited to a Career Masterclass and Networking event in April 2024, at the Smurfit School. LEAP is an in-curriculum module developed in partnership with the MBA Programme at the Smurfit School. It is underpinned by a global, industry-standard, employer-validated, and universally designed competency framework to support the needs of all MBA students. LEAP is a unique offering among the global top 100 MBA programmes.

MATHESON/UCD LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

Prof. Lauren Pech, Dean of Law, UCD Sutherland School of Law, Michael Jackson, Matheson Managing Partner and Carlo Salizzo, Partner in Matheson’s Technology and Innovation Group and a member of the firm’s new Digital Economy Group.
Prof. Lauren Pech, Dean of Law, UCD Sutherland School of Law, Michael Jackson, Matheson Managing Partner and Carlo Salizzo, Partner in Matheson’s Technology and Innovation Group and a member of the firm’s new Digital Economy Group.

In November 2023, the Matheson/UCD Leadership Conference took place in O’Reilly Hall, titled ‘Regulating the Digital Economy – the Nexus of Law, Innovation and Business.’

Over 500 delegates joined the hybrid conference which examined the unique opportunity that exists for Ireland to act as an AI gateway between the EU and the US. The conference was a collaboration between UCD and Matheson to address the most pressing legal issues relating to the regulation of the digital economy. The coming into force of the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act is of special significance in this respect, and close collaboration and engagement between academics from different fields and those within industry will be required more than ever.

STEM FAMILY ADVENTURE DAY

STEM Family Adventure Fun.
STEM Family Adventure Fun.
Phil of Science with aspiring scientists.
Phil of Science with aspiring scientists.

In January 2024, we welcomed alumni and young aspiring scientists and engineers to Belfield for a STEM Family Adventure with ‘Phil of Science’ (Phil Smyth) from RTÉ’s Home School Hub. A group of 100 children aged 7-12 engaged in hands-on experiments and other STEM-related activities. They also received exclusive insights into Ireland’s first satellite, presented by the UCD EIRSAT-1 team, and were among the first to discover the ground-breaking data the satellite is sending back to the EIRSAT lab.