THE JUDGING PANEL

All the judges for Women in IT Awards Ireland 2018

THE 2018 JUDGING PANEL

Sheree Atcheson

Board-Appointed Global Ambassador, Women Who Code

Listed as one of the UK’s Top Most Influential Women in Tech (by Computer Weekly), and an international multi-award winner for her services to Diversity and Inclusion in the Tech industry, Sheree (@nirushika) is a Tech Business Consultant, Deloitte; Founder, I Am Lanka; Board-Appointed Global Ambassador, Women Who Code.

As a passionate advocate for gaining/retaining women in the tech industry, she launched & led the award-winning U.K. expansion of Women Who Code (womenwhocode.com), since 2013. Her career aim is to ensure people are aware of the fantastic opportunities the tech industry offers & make certain people (regardless of gender, race, social stature) are able to benefit from these & reach their full career potential.

Sandra Healy

Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Dublin City University

Sandra is the Director of the recently launched DCU Centre of Excellence for Diversity and Inclusion. The Centre provides access to the very latest in academic research, insights and tools on workplace diversity and inclusion.

Sandra Healy is Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Dublin City University. Before moving to DCU, Sandra held a number of leadership positions spanning 20 years in the telecoms industry across both the UK and Ireland; the most recent being Head of Customer Delivery for Vodafone Ireland. Sandra holds an Honours Degree in Psychology and First Class Masters in Organisational Psychology. Over the past ten years Sandra has championed and driven Diversity and Inclusion practice in Irish Industry and contributes to the work of the Ibec Diversity Forum, CWIT and 30% Club Ireland.

Mary Carty

Executive Director, Blackstone LaunchPad, Co-founder Outbox Incubator

Mary Carty is an entrepreneur with a background in the arts, education and technology. Over the past decade, she founded two startup companies and was a BAFTA Interactive finalist.

Mary is the cofounder of Outbox Incubator, the first ever incubator for young women in STEM aged 11 to 22, working with 115 girls from 9 countries.

As Executive Director at Blackstone Launchpad NUI Galway, she oversaw the establishment of an experiential, entrepreneurship programme open to students, staff and alumni.

Recently, Mary represented Ireland on the International Visitors Leadership Program with the U.S. Department of State, focusing on small business and entrepreneurship policy.

Barry Lowry

Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Dublin City University

Barry Lowry has been the Chief Information Officer for the Irish Government since April 2016 with the primary task of taking forward the Public Service ICT and eGovernment Strategies. These set out ambitions for developing the use of shared services, digital services and data to better serve the people of Ireland and ensure that Ireland is well-placed to benefit from European initiatives such as the Digital Single Market.

Barry was previously the Director for IT Shared Services and Strategy and Head of the IT Profession within the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Barry has worked in ICT within Government for more than 30 years and has been involved in a host of challenging ICT projects and initiatives including the first Northern Ireland Driver Licensing and Planning Application computer systems, the NI Animal and Public Health Information System and the creation of IT Assist, the award-winning ICT shared service centre for the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Barry is a Fellow of the Irish and British Computer Societies and is a former winner of the BCS Northern Ireland IT Professional of the Year. He was awarded an O.B.E. for services to the Northern Ireland Government and the Northern Ireland Computer Industry in 2017.

Gillian Harford

Former Head of Diversity & Inclusion, AIB

Gillian Harford is the former Head of Diversity & Inclusion with AIB. With a career spanning more than 35 years, she has been responsible for a range of progressive HR policies with particular focus on Culture, Diversity and Agile Work. Gillian also works with the 30% Club and has a particular interest in Women on Boards.

Gillian holds a BA, an MBA from Michael Smurfitt Business School UCD, and the Professional Diploma in Corporate Governance, UCD. She is a fellow of CIPD, a fellow of the Institute of Bankers and a member of the Board of Beaumont Hospital

Deepa Mann-Kler

CEO, Neon

Deepa Mann-Kler is CEO of Neon, Visiting Professor In Immersive Futures at Ulster University and an Artist. Deepa directed and produced her first virtual reality experience “Retne” for HTC Vive which demoed at SxSW17.

Her company Neon is using immersive technologies to create software applications for health and wellbeing. Neon has launched BreatheVR, a pain management tool, on the Oculus store and is currently developing an augmented reality game for use with children in hospital. Deepa’s work as an artist has a strong focus on public art with neon installations and she was invited to participate in Lumiere London 2016 and in 2013 in Derry/Londonderry UK City of Culture. Deepa also has over eleven years experience working in equality and authored the first report into racism in NI “Out Of The Shadows.”

www.discoverneon.com

www.deepamannkler.com

@deepamann_kler