DCU Voices Podcast

The DCU Voices Podcast guest this week is Wexford native Eleanor Hayes Merritt, who graduated from DCU in 1990 with a BSc in Computer Applications. Eleanor gives a fascinating and inspiring insight into her career and life in California. Eleanor emigrated to the USA in 1995 to work for Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation based in California which employs over 140,000 people worldwide. Eleanor has since risen through the ranks to become its Senior Vice President overseeing 1,800 engineers and analysts.With her broad technology background, Eleanor oversees globally-distributed engineering teams, delivering critical products that generate billions of dollars in revenue. Eleanor’s achievements at Oracle have led to her being included in the official list of the '50 Most Powerful Women in Technology' in California. The DCU Voices Podcast Series is hosted by Fergal O’Keeffe who interviews some fascinating DCU Alumni, to learn about their careers, mentors, milestones, and memories of their time in DCU and how their time in DCU shaped their lives and careers.For more information on DCU Alumni go to https://www.dcu.ie/alumni.Produced and hosted by Fergal O'Keeffe at https://lume.ie#DCUalumni#DCU#IrishUniversity#Careers

Our guest today is Ann Power-Forde — an academic, a Senior Counsel, a former International Judge and, currently, a Judge on the Court of Appeal in Ireland. From 2017 until 2019, Ann served as the Presiding Judge of the Constitutional Court Chamber within the Kosovo Specialist Chambers—a war crimes Tribunal based in the Hague. Before that, she had served for over seven years as a Judge on the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.As a member of the Strasbourg Court—the world’s largest international court—Ann sat in cases that dealt with some of the most pressing concerns of our time, including, the legacy of the invasion of Iraq, the annexation of Crimea, the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, the treatment of immigrants and other vulnerable minorities and the consequences of global terrorism.Ann studied English and Philosophy at the Mater Dei Institute of Education. She obtained her Master’s Degree in the Philosophy of Education from Trinity College, Dublin, and went on to study Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford.  The DCU Voices Podcast Series is hosted by Fergal O’Keeffe who interviews some fascinating DCU Alumni, to learn about their careers, mentors, milestones, and memories of their time in DCU and how their time in DCU shaped their lives and careers.Produced by Fergal O'Keeffe at https://lume.ieFor more information on DCU Alumni go to https://www.dcu.ie/alumni.#DCUalumni#DCU#IrishUniversity#Careers

Donal Scannell is a true communications renaissance man who started working with the Late Late Show straight out of DCU. Donal also started a music magazine and worked with people like with David Gray, U2, Westlife and the KLF. Donal worked on the first reality TV show in the UK and this gave him a love of live TV which has influenced his career ever since. He has set up a number of tech companies including his current company Arama, which is revolutionising live television by reimagining a process that hasn’t changed for decades. The DCU Voices Podcast Series is hosted by Fergal O’Keeffe who interviews some fascinating DCU Alumni, to learn about their careers, mentors, milestones, and memories of their time in DCU and how their time in DCU shaped their lives and careers.For more information on DCU Alumni go to https://www.dcu.ie/alumni.#DCUalumni#DCU#IrishUniversityProduced and hosted by Fergal O'Keeffe at https://lume.ie

Brendan Thomas has had remarkable working in the heart of Silicon Valley as it emerged as the incubator of the world's most innovative technological companies. Brendan worked for Twitter when it had less than 10 employees. Brendan shares some amazing stories from that wild time at the birth of the digital age in America.  Brendan graduated from DCU with a BA in Accounting and Finance in 1987. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant and emigrated to San Francisco in 1995 when the internet was in its infancy. Since then, he has been the CFO for a significant number of hi-tech, venture-backed start-ups in Silicon Valley including Twitter, Appdynamics, and Square. He retired from the world of finance in 2012 to spend time with his wife and children and to write. The DCU Voices Podcast Series is hosted by Fergal O’Keeffe who interviews some fascinating DCU Alumni, to learn about their careers, mentors, milestones, and memories of their time in DCU and how their time in DCU shaped their lives and careers.Produced by Fergal O'Keeffe at https://lume.ieFor more information on DCU Alumni go to https://www.dcu.ie/alumni.#DCUalumni#DCU#IrishUniversity#Careers

Our guest today is Sinead McCluskey who graduated from DCU with a BSc in Analytical Science and a PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry. Sinead started her career as a nutritional biochemist with Wyeth Nutrition. Before then moving into the commercial side of the business with Johnson and Johnson Medical in Australia. Sinead has worked in senior sales and marketing roles internationally across multinational, SME and the Start Up sectors.Sinead started her own medtech distribution business called Slainte Solutions in 2010, which was then acquired by PEI Surgical in 2015. Sinead established Balmain Medical in 2021 to bring the best in class medical innovations from across the world to Irish patients. They specialize in plastic reconstructive and varicose vein surgery.The DCU Voices Podcast Series is hosted by Fergal O’Keeffe who interviews some fascinating DCU Alumni, to learn about their careers, mentors, milestones, and memories of their time in DCU and how their time in DCU shaped their lives and careers.Produced by Fergal O'Keeffe at https://lume.ieFor more information on DCU Alumni go to https://www.dcu.ie/alumni.#DCUalumni#DCU#IrishUniversity#Careers

The first guest of the DCU Voices Podcast is Antony Bolton who has over 30 years of Fortune 15 experience in international roles, developing and leading large, culturally diverse and global IT teams with some of the world's largest enterprises, including Dell Hewlett Packard and General Motors.Anthony shares some great pearls of wisdom that I think you will find inspiring, whether you are starting or in the middle of your career.Antony is currently the CIO and CTO of global telecommunications and end user services infrastructure and development with General Motors. Based in Dublin, Antony leads a global team of over 700 industry leading engineers and developers in the design, engineering and delivery of GM’s global network.The DCU Voices Podcast Series is hosted by Fergal O’Keeffe who interviews some fascinating DCU Alumni, to learn about their careers, mentors, milestones, and memories of their time in DCU and how their time in DCU shaped their lives and careers.Produced by Fergal O'Keeffe at https://lume.ieFor more information on DCU Alumni go to https://www.dcu.ie/alumni.#DCUalumni#DCU#IrishUniversity#Careers