“We recognise that excellence is everywhere and opportunity is not” – Winners of the Diversity in Tech Awards 2025, in partnership with JP Morgan

This year, Shane Collective won the LGBTQ+ inclusion award. The coveted Diversity in Tech Award was received by Teen-turn, which provides teen girls with hands-on STEM experiences. The Grace Hopper Award was presented by Angela Gilhooley (JP Morgan) and won by Catherine Doyle from Microsoft.

The Diversity in Tech Awards, in partnership with JP Morgan, took place yesterday evening, 17th September, in the Gibson Hotel, Dublin.

Launched in 2018, the awards highlight workplaces making significant moves towards diversity and inclusion. This year’s ceremony, its eighth iteration, celebrated efforts made in the tech sphere to become more equitable, while also reflecting on the journeys yet to be made.

Tracey Carney, founder of Carney Creatives, hosted the evening’s events.

“God, the world’s a very different place than it was this time last year”, she said.

“It has shifted in ways none of us could have predicted, but we’re still here. Diversity, equity and inclusion is alive and well here tonight, and I’m delighted to be back hosting this year’s awards.

“We are here tonight, not only to celebrate achievements, but to recognise the people and perspectives that make our industry stronger, our collective diversity.”

Winners

Catherine Doyle, General Manager for the Microsoft Ireland, was honoured with the Grace Hopper Award. Named in honour of the pioneering computer scientist Grace Hopper, the accolade applauds the extraordinary contributions, leadership, and perseverance of a female leader who stands as a symbol of empowerment.

Doyle acknowledged Grace Hopper, saying she “pioneered machine learning, she was the first to actually bring that to the fore and all the things she has done. She’s just an amazing woman, an absolute trailblazer and role model.”

When Doyle started her career she was the only female on her team for ten years.

“I didn’t think that was unusual. Which is kind of odd when you think back, but nobody was really talking about diversity at that time.

Pictured (L-R): Angela Gilhooley, Vice President at J.P. Morgan, and Catherine Doyle, General Manager at Microsoft Ireland

When diversity programs started in earnest, Doyle welcomed them.

“There was a real focus on women and all the things that women could do and promotions and, you know, it was going to be fantastic … And I remember thinking, isn’t it phenomenal now that when [my daughter] goes to work, we won’t be talking about this anymore because it’ll be done and dusted, but here we are, and we’re still talking about it.”

Doyle says some progress has yet to be made, but we have seen great efforts. She concluded by quoting Grace Hopper: “She said the most dangerous phrase in language is ‘we have always done it this way.’ I think it’s very apt this evening that we use her phrase to make sure we challenge ourselves to not always do it this way, adopt the new technologies, and really make sure that when we sit here next year, we’re sitting here in a completely different position, because I do think the technology is moving so fast that we could actually be in that position.”

Edel Muprhy of Yahoo International Limited took home the DE&I Excellence in Leadership Award.

She said: “I’ve worked over half my life now … and I definitely know what a diverse and inclusive culture looks like. I definitely know what one doesn’t look like. You just have to think of community, put yourself in other people’s shoes and remember people just want to come to work, do their best work, be themselves.”

BearingPoint, a firm specialising in independent management and technology consultancy, won the Neurodiverse Inclusion Award. Edith Cormican accepted the award, and said: “We really find it very important that we try to be open to all neurodiverse people … It’s really helped in terms of our recruitment and who we hire, and we feel that those neurodiversities are really bringing a different perspective and it’s really helping us with our innovation and bringing excellence to our courses.”

Faith Omotayo, from Rewriting The Code, a nonprofit firm dedicated to empowering university students and early-career women in tech, was the recipient of the Rising Star Award. Omotayo also runs scratch programming workshops for young girls and studies computer science.

Pictured (L-R): Tina Fallarme, Workplace Experience and Operations Manager at SHEIN, and Faith Omotayo, Rewriting The Code

On what she is going to do next, Omotayo said: “I’m going to continue running the scratch workshops for girls. The girls loved it and it was so inspiring seeing such young children from age 10 taking such strong interest in computer science. Considering the fact that I didn’t have any opportunities like that 9 years ago, it’s really lovely seeing them so happy. I’m going to continue studying computer science and then hopefully do my internship as well.”

Shane Collective, a global mobile app providing LGBTQ+ people with tools to discover and navigate the world safely, won the LGBTQ+ Inclusion Award. 

“As a trans man myself, it has been a difficult journey going through the world and safety is something that we all should just kind of have as a right, and … feeling included everywhere you go, and it would just kind of felt like someone needed to leverage tech and build something that would help people. 1 in 10 people out there identifies as LGBTQ plus. That’s a lot of people.”

Inspiration Award

Pictured: Professor Katriona O’Sullivan, Associate Professor at Maynooth University and bestselling author.

Professor Katriona O’Sullivan, academic and author of the best-selling memoir Poor, was presented the inaugural Inspiration Award.

In a speech that was powerful, personal, and humorous, Professor O’Sullivan discussed her youth growing up in poverty.

“If you go back to that girl, I was still smart and savvy, and I could buy and sell you, but you don’t expect girls like me to become professors of psychology, or should I say I was an international best-selling authors.”

She spoke about teenage motherhood, social welfare, and poverty’s abilitity to reproduce itself, much like privilege.

“If your mom is on welfare, you’re probably going to end up there yourself, and if your mom went to Trinity College, you’re going to buy yourself a scarf and eat some couscous”, she said.

Professor O’Sullivan went on to become a professor of psychology at Maynooth University and an international bestselling author.

She describes her work leading the STEM Passport for Inclusion programme, which has already reached 6,500 girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. The initiative provides qualifications, mentorship, role models, and pathways into university, aiming to remove systemic barriers.

“We recognise that excellence is everywhere and opportunity is not, and we are working to empower excellent girls from poor schools and poor communities to achieve all things. We give them a university qualification in technology. They get to meet a person who works in industry, a role model”, she said.

“These girls have loads of role models, by the way. I have loads of women who are role models to me in my poor community, women who could manage budgets, who could fight you, but I never knew anyone who worked in Microsoft or Accenture, and I’d never ever consider applying to places like that because that was for you women, not me.”

The full list of winners is below:

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