Judging Process
The Judging Process & Panel
What is the process?
Stage 1 - Nomination Forms
Complete the nominations forms by 18 October 2010 on www.itcork.ie . Nominations should include as much information as possible. The Judging Committee will contact the candidate for additional information, if necessary. All submitted information is strictly confidential.
Stage 2 - Selection of Finalists
A judging panel will consider all entries and select three Finalists for each category. At this stage you will be informed whether or not you are a Finalist.
Stage 3 - Selection of the Winners
The Finalists in each category will be invited for interview in front of a panel of judges. Following these sessions, the judges will select a Winner in each category.
Stage 4 - The Awards Evening
The Winners will not be revealed until the Awards evening. The judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into before or after the judging.
The 2010 Leaders Awards Judging Panel
Denis Collins, Global Sales Executive, IBM Business Continuity & Resiliency Services (IBM BCRS)
Denis Collins has been with IBM for (20) years and held a variety of leadership positions across IBM's Sales & Distribution, IBM Global Financing and IBM Global Services organizations. These missions include sales, marketing, finance/leasing, alternate channels, operations across the spectrum of Small Medium Enterprise and Large Enterprise cross-industry market segments.
Celine Fox, Partner, KPMG
Celine joined KPMG in 2002 and is provides audit and advisory services to the software and high technology sectors primarily, specialising in Pan European Shared Service Centres. She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from National University of Ireland Galway and a Masters of Accounting from University College Dublin. Celine is an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Eileen Moloney, Senior Consultant, CorkBIC
Practised as a lawyer in the UK and the USA before returning to Ireland in 1984 to lead Irish marketing for a North Star VAR. Co-founded Expert Edge Computer Systems in 1986 which delivered expert system software solutions and headed up its UK start-up in London in 1991. Went on to provide Business Development & Marketing Consultancy to small and medium sized enterprises with limited marketing focus and to larger companies aiming to penetrate new markets ('92-94). Delivered Training Programmes for the IPA on Leadership & Modern Management Methods to top level Civil Servants in Europe. Joined CorkBIC in 1997 to develop the Graduate (now Genesis) Enterprise Programme (delivered via CorkBIC) - a one year rapid incubation for start-up companies. Has delivered several business start-up programmes.
James Eivers, Managing Partner, Avnet Client Solutions
James leads the Ireland Avent Client Solutions team which he has done since co-founding it in 1994. The company was initially acquired by Horizon and is not owned by Avnet Inc. The team consists of around 100 employees in Ireland. He previously worked as a research engineer at the National Microelectronics Research Centre and was co-founder of Software Manufacturing Consultants Limited which was an early Irish software success story in the late 80’s and where his role progressed from Technical Director to Managing Director. James holds a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering from University College Cork. He is also chairman of the National Software Centre and a co-founder of IT@Cork. He recently was honoured by the Irish Computer society when he was selected as one of five recipients of an IT Pioneer award in celebration of their 50th anniversary.
Jerry Sweeney, Managing Director, Cork Internet eXchange
Jerry has been an entrepreneur since 1980. He built and operates the Cork Internet eXchange, a hyper energy efficient data centre. He is founder and Managing Director of Chip eServices, a software development business. Chip eServices develops SaaS solutions for the SCM and Utilities sectors globally.
Ruairi Roddy, CTO, Thomas Crosbie Holdings
Ruairi Roddy is prominent in TCH innovation, strategy and reorganisation at a time of unprecedented change in the media. He also chairs Cork Chamber of Commerce's Technology, Media and Telecommunications Committee, working for improved ICT in the region. TCH IT is a former winner of an IT@Cork Leaders Award.
Ruth Buckley, Head of Information Systems, Cork city council.
Ruth Buckley leads the Information systems department in Cork city council. The department provides ICT services to 800 users across 40 locations throughout the city. The city council employs a range of knowledge or specialist workers and utilities a wide range of ICT tools. These range from CAD to Geographical information systems to on-line planning systems. Ruth is a graduate of UCC and holds an MBA from Henley management college. She is a certified project manager professional and certified to level B with the IPMI. She joined the local authority sector from Bank of Ireland in 1998 and has led the growth of ICT within the city council from 150 users in 1998 to over 800 in 2010.
Tim Murphy, CEO, Sterncom
Tim Murphy is a successful entrepreneur with over 18 years experience in sales and marketing. Most of his working life has been in the fast moving Telecoms industry, having spent a number of years in Esat Telecom, now BT. Now in its 10th year in business, Tim is the founder and current CEO of Strencom, a provider of managed mpls and cloud services. Tim's experience in Sales has enabled the company to grow exponentially over the past 10 years, seeing it into the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 for the past 6 years. He is also responsible for Product Development of new solutions, based on customer demand.
Fergal Brosnan, Managing Director of Berkley Recruitment Group.
Fergal has been with Berkley for over 10 years, prior to his time in Berkley, Fergal worked in software and hardware R&D, in Ireland and the US, working with Apple Computer, Cognotec and Performix Technologies, Fergal has been uniquely placed to deliver a quality service to the IT industry. Over the past 15 years Berkley has placed itself as one of the leading resourcing companies. In 2008, he led Berkley into Asia with the establishment of their Singapore office. With Irish offices in Cork and Dublin, Berkley continue to grow, and 2011 will see a mainland European office established.
Gerard Lande, Manager Business Partners Programme, Enterprise Ireland
In 2006 Gerard joined Enterprise Ireland as a senior commercialisation specialist after returning from overseas and now manages the business partners programme for Enterprise Ireland. Prior to joining enterprise Ireland Gerard held senior programme management, strategic marketing and business development roles with GEC Marconi, AT&T, Lucent & OKI semiconductor. He has lead cross functional business delivery teams, in Europe, America & Asia, developing and supplying new technology, and has extensive experience of technology acquisition and exploitation. Gerard’s technical background is in research and development in the computing, communication, control and semiconductor domains, he also holds a B.Eng (hons) Electronic & Communications Engineering, MBA, & PgDip in Commercial Law.
Declan O’Mahoney, CEO, Firecomms
Declan is CEO of Firecomms, a compound semiconductor company with world leading optical transceivers for Plastic Optical Fiber. Firecomms is a leader in High Speed Visible LEDs, RCLEDs and Laser technology and delivers high speed transceivers and OptoLock® products to the Automotive, Industrial and Consumer networking markets. Declan is also a Non Executive Director of GXP Systems.
Conor Wall, co-founded GxP Systems.
Conor Wall co-founded GxP Systems and has held executive management positions in the firm since start-up. He is a qualified engineer with over 20 years experience in Biomedical and other industry. Conor's experience includes successful project delivery to major multinationals including Pfizer, Janssen, and Merck. Conor has a strong technical background with experience ranging from front-end design / R&D through execution and commissioning on a range of projects. He holds a BE from University College Cork and an M.Sc from Dublin Institute of Technology.
Ed Crosbie, Principal, Advanced Technology Management Services.
Ed is a Technology Entrepreneur specialising in ICT Convergence Technologies for Education, Media, Healthcare and Life Sciences. He is the founder and Principal of Advanced Technology Management Services, which is a boutique ICT Services Organisation specialising in this area, applying his Multinational High tech Consulting training and expertise locally and internationally to these sectors. Ed has two children beginning to be of Primary School going age, and, inspired by this, has been involved in the Education Subcommittee of IT@Cork for the last 2 years.
Ray O Connor, Regional Manager, South West Region, IDA Ireland
Responsible for overseeing the management of IDA Ireland activities within the South-West region (Cork and Kerry) including marketing the region for Foreign Direct Investment in conjunction with IDA operations and overseas offices; managing a portfolio of IDA client companies, working with local stakeholders to improve the region for FDI and working with IDA clients and industry groups in addressing any local issues. Ray has been with IDA Ireland for the past four years.
Michelle McClafferty, Head of IT, Innovation & Professional Services
Michelle is responsible for guaranteeing a reliable communication and computer infrastructure foundation on which to efficiently conduct operations today and in the future, reforming information technology management processes to increase efficiency, and adding value to our clients enabling us to remain customer focused. She also leads the company’s Innovation program, which drives innovation and thought leadership in the workplace, supports the needs of our customers and delivers advanced solutions in diverse business environments, providing added value through innovation excellence.
David Murphy, Academic Lecturer, UCC
UCC occupies a unique place in the history of Information Technology. Boolean algebra, which provides the mathematical basis for computer design, was named after George Boole the first Professor of Mathematics at UCC. Today the Department of Computer Science is one of the largest academic departments within University College Cork.
Dick Lehane, Former Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, EMC.
In this role, Dick was responsible for EMC's rapidly expanding global manufacturing, testing and component acquisition operations, including major plants in Massachusetts and Ireland