For over 15 years, the annual Tech Industry Alliance Leaders Awards recognises the best of South-West Ireland’s thriving tech and tech-enabled community which includes renowned multinationals, disruptive start-ups emerging companies and organisations playing a vital role in driving the STEM and wider business agenda in the region. The Leaders Awards recognise all those who have gone further than most in the use of technology in their respective organisations and businesses in the South-West region.
Winners 2022
The Tech Industry Alliance Leaders Awards Winners 2022 were recently announced at a gala dinner at Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork on the 4th November. Check out the list of winners and a media gallery of the night here!
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2021 Awards Winners
Click the categories below to view previous winners of the Tech Industry Alliance Leaders Awards 2021.
Paul Hourican – PFH
Paul Hourican of PFH was awarded Tech Person of the Year for his commitment to developing and growing the tech sector in the region consistently throughout his career. Paul started PFH Technologies in 1985 with one employee and has grown the business to a turnover of €160m with more than 700 employees. Paul Hourican is now Chairman of Ireland’s largest IT Company and one of the leading suppliers to Government, Semi-State, Multinational and indigenous businesses in Ireland and across the globe.
Cork Migrant Centre (Nano Nagle Place)
The Cork Migrant Centre is based at Nano Nagle Place in Cork City and was established in 2006. Cork Migrant Centre is based in this community hub and provides free, confidenTech Industry Alliancel and current information on access to services and immigration issues. The Centre is committed to advocating on behalf of migrant children, families, and communities, and to ensure they have access to the services and supports they need to alleviate the day to day challenges and provide them the best possible opportunities to empower them individually and collectively.
Cloudera
The it@cork Skillnet Best Workplace award was awarded to Cloudera in 2021. Having impressed the judges with their passionate belief in people being the single most important aspect of their operation and their success, they demonstrated compelling iniTech Industry Alliancetives to foster openness and inclusion. Their innovative ideas around staff welfare and mental health have been implemented in the Cork office to combine with existing global iniTech Industry Alliancetives.
BioMarin
BioMarin were awarded the Smart Technology Innovation award for adapting technology in a ground-breaking way that delivers real value and innovative design. They conceptualised, designed, built and implemented a technical design called SafeTrace as a way to ensure adherence to workplace COVID protections such as social distancing and contact tracing, while keeping workers, products and patients safe. The innovation displayed a profound level of entrepreneurial thinking from the IT team in BioMarin.
Clearstream Global Securities Services (CGSS)
Clearstream Global Securities Services (CGSS), a subsidiary of Deutsche Börse Group, was recognised as the Multinational of the Year for 2021. An important player in the securities services industry they have some 480 employees located in Cork which is their largest operational centre for investment funds. Their influenTech Industry Alliancel role in the wider global Clearstream business was a key factor in the judges’ decision to award them the MNC of the year award – including their Albert AI tool. In addition their ambition to further expand their capacity and breadth of support to the wider business was inspiring for the judges.
Trustap
L-R: Carmel Hallissey & David Brosnan (Clearstream Global Securities Services), Fintan Walshe (KPMG), Marc O’Sullivan (Clearstream)
Trustap received the Scale Up of the Year award for their Safe Escrow-Style Payment Platform which acts as a safety net for buyers and sellers. Founded in Cork in 2017, Trustap is growing quickly with 25 employees in 2021, and offices in Ireland, the UK and the US. They have had an incredible 24 months, reacting quickly to the pandemic in terms of operations and taking the business remote. They impressed judges by not just their current business pipeline but the areas they’re exploring and thinking of expanding into.
WrxFLo
Tech Start Up of the Year was awarded to Limerick-based WrxFlo. Wrxflo stood out to the judging panel due to the incredible resilience shown during the greatest impact of the Covid-19 crisis, using the opportunity to re-focus their business on delivering a world-class service to a small number of strategic clients. This strategy has proven to be very successful with those clients rolling out Wrxflo globally and becoming evangelists for the technology, leading to new customers and a strong pipeline of sales for 2022.
Wisetek
Excellence in social impact saw the Diversity, Inclusion and Social Impact award go to Wisetek for their most new offering in 2021 — Wisetekstore.com, which takes used devices and re-purposes them through repair, refurbish or recycle, standing by their 0% to landfill policy. This entire company is about social impact and they have made it into a viable business with many customers and partners benefitting from their expertise and commitment to the circular economy. They attribute their success to the passion of their staff in the purpose of Wisetek and the impact of what they do.
Nagle Community College
Nagle Community College was announced as the winner of the Excellence in Education award, winning €5,000 to promote STEM activities within their school for teachers and students. The judges in this category were highly impressed by the energetic, engaging and passionate team they met who left them in no doubt that their persistence and collaboration got them through COVID-19 to achieve great heights.