HR & Recruitment Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlisted in this category:
Edward Leonard – Bank of Ireland
Grace O’Regan – Uniphar
Emma Duggan – Bank of Ireland
The winner is: Edward Leonard, Bank of Ireland
Category Judge, Andrew Blair, HR Consultant and former Head of HR at HSBC had the following words to say about why he selected Edward as the winner:
“Edward has shown innovative thinking and a practical attitude to solving issues. He is proactive and works outside of his role, always seeking to positively impact the environment. He has an excellent understanding of what is involved in overcoming barriers to achievement with a breadth of experience in D&I. He has also worked outside his role and supported WAM Leaders by speaking at an awards ceremony. Edward is a proven high achiever and most definitely high potential HR talent to watch out for in the future.”
Accountant of the Year 2024
Shortlisted in this category:
Aoife Glancy – Primeline
Brian O’Connell – Woodies
Anoushka Gomes – Bank of Ireland
The winner is Aoife Glancy – Primeline
Judging this award was Concepta Cadogan, Director at Steering Point Executive Search and Leadership Development who said the following words about Aoife’s win:
“Aoife joined Primeline Group at a pivotal time, stepping into a role that required immediate adaptation and agility. In a fast-paced environment, she demonstrated remarkable ability, stepping out of her comfort zone to meet the increasing demands of the business. Her dedication and proactive approach were evident as she supported the company through a particularly busy period, ensuring business continuity while simultaneously driving efficiency. In the midst of these challenges, she also managed to bring their team together for social occasions, showcasing her commitment to fostering a positive work culture. In addition to her role, she is a valued member of the ACCA Leadership Panel, further highlighting her expertise and leadership within the financial community. This award recognises not only her technical skill and business acumen but also her willingness to go the extra mile to support the company’s success.”
Financial Services Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlisted in this category:
Niamh Corcoran – Waystone
Aaron McAdams – Darta
Mark Ryder – New Ireland Assurance
The winner is: Niamh Corcoran – Waystone
Judge Bernadette Nulty, VP Financial Services IDA Ireland was the judge of this category and wrote the following words as to why she selected Niamh as winner:
“Niamh is an impressive Financial Services professional who demonstrated enthusiasm, professional experience and has had a positive impact on Waystone‘s culture at a time of great change due to a global acquisition and need for adaptability to support cross-border integration. Niamh showed flexibility and a “can-do” attitude and readily transferred across numerous global roles across her organisation from due diligence, risk assessment, AML, KYC and legal counsel. She has a natural collaborative style and a very bright future in the global financial services industry.”
Technologist & Data Scientist of the Year 2024
Shortlistees in this category were:
Jack Cherry – LinkedIn
Ka Lung NG – MongoDB
Mary Gorman- MongoDB
Corm Horan – OpenSky Data Systems
The winner is Mary Gorman – MongoDB
Judge Emmet Ryan, Technology Journalist said he selected Mary as the winner because:
“Despite being out of the industry for almost 15 years, Mary reignited her passion for IT by restarting her career. The scale of what Mary is doing stood out as a particularly impressive factor. She has shown that she can solve big issues in detail with deep thinking. Throughout all of the interview process, she showed her understanding of the importance of relationships well and also demonstrated why they matter.”
Business Support Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlistees in this category were:
Cillian Dunne – Mr Price
Niamh Coyle – Instrotec
Roberto Fernandez – Primeline
David Clarke – Primeline
Walid Noureldin – IRLCA
Yangyang Wang – Tuath Housing
Kamil Goworek – Bank of Ireland
First joint winner is Roberto Fernandez – Primeline
Judges Ciara Lambe and Catherine Corbett wrote these words as to why they selected Roberto and Walid as joint winners:
“Roberto was recently promoted to manage a logistics warehouse and has displayed exceptional leadership, innovation, and resilience. A graduate of the Forward Thinking Leaders Programme, his focus has been on driving change and fostering team collaboration. He has successfully shifted his team’s mindset by engaging them in the decision-making process, promoting creativity and embracing challenges as opportunities. Over the past year, he has optimised warehouse operations using data analytics, implemented a cost-saving and eco-friendly transport plan and introduced a sustainable waste initiative. Fernando’s leadership is characterised by calmness, teamwork and respect, embodying the company’s values. He attributes his success to courage, resilience, self-belief and his commitment to supporting his team and promoting positive change.”
The second Joint Winner is: Walid Noureldin – IRLCA
“Walid made a significant impact on both his team and the organisation. By managing multi-million-euro projects and engaging with C-suite executives, he showcased his leadership, integrity and work ethic, which inspired has team and elevated the company’s standards. He played a key role in fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, enhancing both resource performance and customer satisfaction. Over the past year, he grew the client portfolio by 50%, signed new clients and contributed to the Learning & Development Academy. Despite challenges such as balancing a demanding role and establishing credibility as a young manager, his resilience and strategic thinking have driven success. Through hands-on leadership and initiatives he promotes inclusivity and teamwork, he has actively shaped the company’s culture, making him a deserving nominee for recognition.”
Best Project Management, Advisory & Consultancy Professional 2024
Shortlistees in this category:
Rebecca Singbeil – Sia Partners
Aoife Kelly – TikTok
Vishnu Menon – Copper Coast Renewables
The winner is Aoife Kelly – TikTok
The judge of this category, Co-Founder, Independent Director and Advisor Ronnie Griffin, had the following words to say about his selected winner:
“Aoife demonstrated a can-do attitude to her work and the daily challenges she and her team face. Her ability to focus on seeing the wood for the trees in a fast-moving role and ensure her team are also able to understand the end goal was apparent. Aoife demonstrated a clear ability to improve time critical processes for the benefit of her team and wider audience consuming their content. She used her previous employment experience for the benefit of her current employer’s ERGs and its staff. Her ambition to personally help improve the work and trust of her employer for wider society is ambitious and commendable. Aoife also demonstrate the self-belief and tenacity to ensure that these goals are achievable.”
Compliance & Risk Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlisted in this category:
Tom McCauley – Prudential
Sopie O’Donoghue – Google
Mia Kenny – Scotiabank
Shauna Kealy – Capitalflow
The winner is Shauna Kealy – Capitalflow
The judge of this category, Senior Compliance Manager at Darta, Karen Smith had the following words to say about her selected winner:
“Shauna is an extremely focused, professional and driven compliance individual. She has acquired an admirable range of compliance experience in a short period of time. She is a very positive influence in her current and previous companies and demonstrated a strong work ethic. Shauna appeared to be very eager to take on more responsibility, stretch her knowledge and upskill in new areas whilst also enjoying helping others to excel and achieve their own goals. She demonstrated that she maintains a calm and composed manner under tense situations, using her initiative and adapting well to change.”
Engineering & Construction Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlistees in this category:
Nicole Treanor – Bus Eireann
Cian Swaine – Instrotec
Yang Bian – EirEng
The winner is Cian Swaine – Instrotec
Cormac Bradley, Construction Manager, RPS Group judged this category, Cormac shared his thoughts as to why Cian was his selected winner:
“Cian took on more responsibility from senior managers, he also demonstrated admirable carbon footprint awareness and contributed to the streamlining of systems within Instrotec Ltd such as putting in place an electronic method of recording dayworks to replace paper records thereby promoting transparency. Cian was given the responsibility to negotiate final accounts and as such has begun to take “cradle to grave” responsibility for projects.”
Fintech Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlistees in this category:
Eimear Farrell – CalQRisk
Laura Downes – Everly
Ken McCarthy – Emere
Michelle Kehoe – Fund Recs
Hayley McGuire – Corlytics
The winner is Ken McCarthy – Emere
Category judge Andrew Quinn, Director at PAT Business School had the following to say about his selected winner:
“Ken utilised his “on the ground” knowledge to solve real problems and make a real difference to people’s lives. His journey from being Deputy to County Country Director at GOAL Global in Zimbabwe, South Sudan & Malawi, through his work with the World Bank, to founding an e-procurement company was extraordinary. His courage, conviction and determination to start in a new field and to start his organisation in 2021 – to help reduce fraud, improve supply chain management and improve ESG credentials for aid agencies (& more) was inspiring. Ken has demonstrated the potential of Fintech solutions, and this makes him a very worthy winner of the Fintech Professional of the Year Award for 2024.”
Legal and/or ESG Professional of the Year
Shortlistees in this category:
Aisling Troy – Premier Lotteries
Isabela Loughrey – MCR Group
Jennifer Wyse – Darta
Laura Costello – Thinkhouse
The winner is Laura Costello – Thinkhouse
A&L Goodbody Partner and ESG & Sustainability Expert, Lorena Dunne judged this category and had the following comments to make as to why Laura was her chosen winner:
Lorena wanted to stress that all the candidates for this award were strong and they would all have been deserving winners. They are all busy in successful careers, all building their professional education portfolio and all doing a little bit more than the day job. What stood out for the winner is they were hugely personable, thoughtful, fluent in the language of sustainability and, more importantly, dedicated to making positive environmental and societal change through their role in an industry which they recognised at an early stage of their career to be at odds with this objective i.e. those working in advertising being “architects of desire”.
Life Science Professional of the Year 2024
Shortlistees in this category:
Tessa Rossi – MCR Group
Gavin Jackson – SCRI-IS Technologies Ltd.
Daniel Quinlan – IRLCA
Jiahui Ruan – Westbourne IT Global Services
The winner is Daniel Quinlan – IRLCA
This award was judged by Senior Lecturer at TUD, Adrienne Fleming who had the following to say about Daniel:
“Daniel is a high achiever who has rapidly ascended in the Life Sciences sector, demonstrating remarkable adaptability and strong leadership that have significantly influenced IRLCA. His ability to effectively manage both projects and teams sets him apart as a key contributor. Throughout his journey, he has been thoughtful and reflective, recognising the importance of continually enhancing his skill set to support and advance his career in this dynamic industry. Daniel’s awareness of the need for ongoing growth underscores his commitment to long-term success and leadership in the field.”
Entrepreneur of the Year 2024
Finalists in the category:
Rachel Bothwell – GP Practice Ally
Portia Quinn – Harley & Marley
Feebee Foran – Forager
The winner is Rachel Bothwell – GP Practice Ally
This category was judged by Laura Enache, New Frontiers Programme Manager at TUDublin.
Laura was very impressed with how the winner was building their community and living their business values. They also demonstrated capacity to identify their own areas for improvement, to ask for help and surround themselves with a network to support their own development and the development of their business. The Judge also noted the winner as a striking example of handling and overcoming adversity. When their father, who was a GP was diagnosed with cancer, they took on the running of the clinic. It was while running this clinic that they observed many areas in which the business and many other GP practices could be improved and streamlined.
Best Graduate Programme 2024
Finalists in this category:
Lidl
MongoDB
Irish Rail
Ornua
Bank of Ireland
PTSB
This category was Sponsored by Sia Partners and judged by Gavan O’Brien Managing Director at Grad Ireland and Aoife Raftery, Senior Manager at Sia Partners.
The first joint winner is Lidl
Whilst the overall standard was extremely high in this category the Judges found two organisations to stand out from the other shortlistees so they have decided to award two winners in this category. The first winner of Best Grad Award goes to a programme that boasts a 70% retention rate with two of their Directors having come from this programme. They have a different campaign every year and it was clear to the Judges that the programme was not just a talent initiative but was supported by the senior leadership team and resulted in many genuine roles. They also commended it’s D&I and charity fundraising focus in addition to their commitment to the best salaries.
The second joint winner is Irish Rail
The second winner in this category impressed the Judges with the huge growth they have experienced since the establishment of the programme in 2019 and what they strive to achieve in the future. The winning programme focuses on learning outcomes for each individual and today celebrates 160 graduates in their organisation. The Judges commended how the diversity of the programme has impacted the diversity and culture of the company.
Our judges also identified individuals to watch out for in their early career, professionals who are currently delivering impact in terms of organisation performance and culture aka The Rising Stars:
In HR & Recruitment
Emma Duggan – Bank of Ireland
In Financial Services
Aaron McAdams – Darta
In Technology & Data Science
Ka Lung Ng – MongoDB
In Business Support
Niamh Coyle – Instrotec
David Clarke – Primeline
Yangyang Wang – Tuath Housing
Kamil Goworek – Bank of Ireland
In Accountancy
Anoushka Gomes – Bank of Ireland
In Life Science
Gavin Jackson – SCRI-IS Technologies Ltd.
In Compliance & Risk
Mia Kenny – Scotiabank
In Engineering & Construction
Nicole Treanor – Bus Eireann
In Legal and/or ESG
Jennifer Wyse – Darta
In Fintech
Eimear Farrell – CalQRisk
Michelle Kehoe – Fund Recs
Hayley McGuire – Corlytics
In Best Graduate Programme
PTSB
Overall Winner of The Lincoln Recruitment Irish Early Career Awards 2024
We asked all category judges if they believed they had a truly exceptional professional in their category worthy of the Overall Winner Award. This was the shortlist:
Rachel Bothwell – GP Practice Ally
Laura Costello – Thinkhouse
Aoife Kelly – TikTok
Niamh Corcoran – Waystone
Shauna Kealy – Capitalflow
Ken McCarthy – Emere
The Overall Winner is: Shauna Kealy from Capitalflow!
Congratulations to all the Winners and Rising Stars of 2024!
