A US-based research scientist and biotechnology entrepreneur with Donegal roots has donated $100,000 to support three students through their four-year degrees at Ulster University’s School of Medicine.
Massachusetts-based Dr Susan K Whoriskey, whose great-grandfather, John Whoriskey, was from Creeslough in Co Donegal, made the donation via the Irish American Partnership.
Dr Whoriskey has worked with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Moderna since it was a start-up, and was involved in the founding of several top biotech companies. She has also been Entrepreneur in Residence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Medical Education Scholarships at Ulster University offer financial assistance to a number of eligible students who are successful in obtaining a place on the Graduate Entry Medicine programme, commencing in August 2021. The Scholarships are aimed at students who have, and/or continue to experience challenges, and where finances present a barrier to accessing a medical education.
More information about the scholarships, including eligibility criteria and key milestones, can be found at www.ulster.ac.uk/medicine.
A new ‘Destination Derry’ network has been developed to promote the city and county as a great place to live, work, invest and visit.
The initiative, created by homebuilder Taggart Homes, aims to showcase the real people behind the businesses and brands and to collaborate with the local business community, government agencies, industries, educators and community leaders.
The Destination Derry website includes business information and contact details, a blog section, and Live, Learn, Work and Visit sections.
It will also be promoted on social media channels to a local and international audience.
Local social prescribing firm Elemental has been named Best Small Tech Company of the Year at the 2020 Digital DNA Awards.
The Derry-based ‘tech for good’ company helps connect individuals, families and their carers with community-based programmes, services and interventions to make a positive impact on their lives.
Elemental Co-founders/CEOs Leeann Monk-Özgül and Jennifer Neff were also highly commended in the Founder of the Year category at the awards, which celebrate Northern Ireland’s best technology businesses and people.
This year’s awards were held online and featured more than 300 entries from over 160 companies.
“Myself, Jennifer and the entire team at Elemental are on cloud nine after winning the Digital DNA Small Tech of the Year award,” said Leeann Monk-Özgül.
“The calibre of finalists in each category of the Digital DNA awards is testament to how much the tech sector is thriving here and how much talent we have on our doorstep.”
https://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpg00Adam Goodallhttps://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpgAdam Goodall2020-12-15 13:38:122020-12-15 13:38:13Elemental scoops Digital DNA Award
FinTrU has been named in this year’s Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 as the 42nd fastest-growing company across the whole of the UK. The league table features the UK’s 100 private companies with the fastest growth over the last three years.
FinTrU Founder & CEO, Darragh McCarthy, said “This is a fantastic achievement and something that all our employees should be immensely proud of. Each and every member of the team has played a crucial role in FinTrU’s success so far and this national recognition is testament to their hard work and dedication during their FinTrU careers.”
The league table ranks businesses across the whole of the UK and FinTrU is the only company from Northern Ireland featured in the list.
FinTrU Chief of Staff, Katrien Roppe, also added “We are delighted that FinTrU has received this accolade. This is not only recognition for this year but for the past number of years in FinTrU’s short history. During this time, our employees have excelled professionally and demonstrated ambition with humility, whilst our company has undergone rapid growth. We recently opened our first US premises in New York, which demonstrates our commitment to expand our global footprint.”
Despite the pandemic, FinTrU has proven to very resilient during 2020 with a growth rate of 75% driven by operational excellence. The company has secured eight new client contracts and two additional Tier 1 Investment Bank clients during this period.
About FinTrU
Founded in December 2013, FinTrU is a multi-award winning RegTech company in the Financial Services sector that is committed to giving local talent the opportunity to work on the global stage with the largest International Investment Banks. FinTrU works with Tier 1 Investment Bank clients to find solutions to help them meet with their regulations in areas such as; Legal, Risk, Compliance, KYC, Operations, Consultancy and Technology. FinTrU employs over 700 people across Belfast, Derry/Londonderry, London and New York.
https://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpg00Adam Goodallhttps://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpgAdam Goodall2020-12-14 14:50:112020-12-14 14:50:12FinTrU listed in the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 League Table 2020
A leading Magee-based Ulster University researcher will develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that could help people to communicate following serious brain injuries, thanks to a £20million government investment announced today.Professor Damien Coyle of Ulster University’s Magee campus has been awarded the prestigious Turing AI Acceleration Fellowship. The Fellowships will give 15 of the UK’s top AI researchers the resources to work with industry to bring their innovations to benefit multiple sectors.
Professor Damien Coyle who is currently Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) at Ulster University’s Magee campus, said:“Everyone’s brain is different and many factors influence brain states so brainwaves are extremely complex and change and evolve from minute to minute and day to day. This presents an excellent challenge for AI in detecting specific brains states. “The AI R&D planned for this fellowship will be thoroughly trialed not only in the lab but also with end-users of the technology – patients and clinicians who can really benefit. The AI will be deployed in wearables developed in partnership with NeuroCONCISE Ltd, an Ulster University spinout. “New AI developed for neurotechnology during the fellowship will be translated across other sectors and industry led-data analytics challenges so the fellowship will impact widely within the city and region, Northern Ireland, the UK and beyond.”
The ISRC, where Professor Coyle is based will feature in the Derry and Strabane City Deal through the Cognitive Analytics Research Laboratory (CARL). Its objective is to help NI industry across a broad range of sectors from health to financial technology to become world-leading in their use of Artificial Intelligence. The ISRC is already home to the Dr George Moore Chair in Data Analytics, a world-class academic position made possible with the philanthropic support of Mrs Angela Moore. This funding injection is another endorsement of Derry – Londonderry as a place where AI and Innovation thrives.
Science Minister, Amanda Solloway said:“The UK is the birthplace of artificial intelligence and we therefore have a duty to equip the next generation of Alan Turings, like Ulster University’s Professor Damien Coyle, with the tools that will keep the UK at the forefront of this remarkable technological innovation.“Northern Ireland is a hotbed for innovation and the inspiring AI project we are backing today could assist those who have experienced a serious illness or injury to communicate, transforming how they live, while cementing the UK’s status as a world leader in AI and data.”
A Londonderry school has been named as the UK Secondary School of the Year at this year’s Pearson Teaching Awards.
St Cecilia’s College, an all-girls’ secondary school in Creggan, was announced as the 2020 winner on BBC’s The One Show on Friday.
The school was told they had won the prestigious national teaching award on a video call with presenter Alex Jones.
“I am so chuffed, I am so proud and I am so humbled,” principal Martine Mulhern said.
Another Northern Ireland school, Hazelwood Integrated College in north Belfast, was also shortlisted for the award and won silver.
In a tweet, Education Minister Peter Weir said: “Well done on a very deserved award St Cecilia’s.”
The Pearson Awards were founded in 1998 to celebrate excellence in UK education.
Mrs Mulhern nominated the school for the Making a Difference: Secondary School of the Year award because she thinks everyone who contributes to the school’s success deserves recognition.
Creggan is one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland, with over half the pupils in the school eligible for free school meals, which is twice the national average.
Mrs Mulhern said she did not want the past of the area, which was hit hard by the Troubles, to define the school.
“It is very, very important that we continue to march forward into the future and not allow anything or anyone to take us back to a place we don’t want to be.
“We create a pathway through our school that allows every single child – regardless of ability, regardless of socio-economic background – to achieve their absolute potential.”
Despite the challenges, the students excel academically with 97% of pupils getting A-C grades in at least five GCSE grades.
https://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpg00Adam Goodallhttps://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpgAdam Goodall2020-11-30 09:57:512020-11-30 09:57:52St Cecilia’s named UK secondary school of the year
After a career in finance at Bank of Ireland and Deutsche Bank in Belfast and Dublin, Moville-born Louise McElvaney returned to the North West with her husband Paul in 2004. Soon after, the e-learning company Learning Pool was founded at their kitchen table. Louise looked after the new venture’s HR while holding down a day job with mortgage administration company HML, before formally joining Learning Pool eight years ago. As Director of People and Performance, she’s seen the company grow to more than 200 staff in six offices in the UK and USA, including Derry-Londonderry’s Old City Factory. Learning Pool has also been listed in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For in the UK.
As the Covid-19 pandemic loomed, Learning Pool closed all its offices and switched to remote working, and is continuing to recruit new employees and hold virtual events for customers. To create an element of fun while working remotely, the company has held arts and craft competitions for the children of employees, weekly quizzes and virtual coffee breaks.
Why did you decide to return to Derry?
Paul and I were living in Dublin, both travelling
with work and doing really interesting roles, but we chose to move back to
Derry and have a family. We had lots of friends in Dublin, but our support
network and family were here. Now, I can be in work in 20 minutes whereas in
Dublin it’s an hour each way, each day. It was 7am starts and home at 7pm or
8pm. I didn’t want to do that with family life, but I didn’t want to compromise
my career either.
Has Covid-19 affected Learning Pool’s
long-term plans?
We see COVID as more of a short to medium-term thing.
Long-term we were seeing a real shift toward online learning in most workplaces
and if anything, COVID has accelerated this dramatically. Longer term it seems
clear that workplaces will be very different to what we’ve been used to and
this should play to our strengths as a provider of online services.
Have you learnt any lessons from the
past seven months?
I think all successful businesses going forward
will demand effective leadership who can create agile cultures. We need leaders
to not just be responding to needs as they arise but looking further out. They
will need to provide support, role model empathy, compassion and inclusive
leadership. We need to help our team adopt resilient mindsets and navigate
uncertainty in a way that they haven’t had to before. We are seeing a huge
intersection between home life and work lives and we really need to adjust to
lead our teams through this. Compassion and empathy should be key attributes to
any good leader. The most basic start to this will be developing robust
flexible working policies and enabling our teams to be their best. Embedding
this in our cultures as the new norm.
What qualities do you look for when recruiting
Learning Pool staff?
We have three core values that we embed across the
team: let’s build to grow, do the right thing, and we’ve got your back. It
works for our team – we promise we’ve got your back, we’re building sustainable
careers, and we’ll always do the right thing – and our customers too, in the
products and services that we’re providing. We are looking for someone who’s
curious and excited about being part of that engaged Learning Pool team. We’re
serious about developing peoples’ careers because we know people are our best
assets. If you look after your people, the rest will follow.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of
relocating to Derry and Strabane, or investing here?
I would say go for it. It’s a wonderful place to
work. You’ve got all the beaches, it’s so friendly and there’s so much to do in
the city these days – entertainment, restaurants, hotels. There are great
schools and universities locally and in surrounding areas. Rush hour in Derry
is 10 minutes. And there’s a serious pool of talent and opportunities. The more
companies that come here and create sustainable jobs, the more talent we’re
going to attract. There’s also a great support network; I find businesses here
really do pull together and the Chamber of Commerce do a great job of providing
training for businesses. There’s also the opportunity with the City Deal coming
on board and the new medical school.
What next for Learning Pool?
We’re continuing to develop our product set and
have developed an entirely new product function. We’ve also acquired a team in
Boston. So, while we’ll continue to sell into the UK and European market, we’re
also looking at the North American market. There’s huge opportunity there. We
have 50 new roles across our six sites that we’ll hire in the next 12 months.
We’re really excited about those creative minds that will come into the team
and help shape the direction.
https://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpg00Adam Goodallhttps://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpgAdam Goodall2020-10-19 14:17:142020-10-19 14:17:15Spotlight interview – Louise McElvaney, Learning Pool’s Director of People and Performance
Derry and Strabane’s fantastic
eateries and artisan producers are taking centre stage with the unveiling of
the LegenDerry food and drink brand.
The brand, launched by the local Food
and Drink Network and supported by the Council, brings together our finest food-focused
talent and puts the City and District firmly on the foodie map for locals and
visitors alike.
Our innovative, authentic producers, growers, chefs, brewers and restaurateurs are celebrated on the new LegenDerry food website and in marketing material, including this video.
Derry City and Strabane District Council, alongside funding partners
North West Regional College and Ulster University, held the world’s first
Virtual Learning City Festival on Wednesday and Thursday.
Over 50 online events took place during the two-day programme in the
form of information sessions, live presentations, short films and live chats
exploring key areas such as Jobs & Skills, Health & Well-Being,
Arts& Culture and Technology & Science.
In total, there were 40,000 engagement views on Facebook and other
social media platforms during the two days.
In addition, there was over 9,500 visitors to the bespoke
Learning Festival website, including views on
Youtube coming largely from the UK and Ireland, but also due to
the nature event and associated global conference which launched the
festival, recorded traffic also came from Europe, Ukraine and Japan and
Brazil.
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Brian Tierney joined
speakers from Colombia, Seoul, Bangkok, Cork, Hamburg, USA and Derry to open
the festival, and he said he was delighted to see so many had enjoyed the
programme on offer.
“Achieving the UNESCO Learning City status for the Derry and
Strabane region was an important moment for our district, it was brilliant
to see it celebrated in virtual format.
“The wide variety of topics covered meant that there was something
to attract everyone’s attention, and it really captured the essence of
what learning is about – picking up new skills and information.
“Thanks to our Council team, to North West Regional College and
Ulster University, and to all those who delivered workshops and interactive
sessions across the two days without this collaboration we could not have
run a virtual event.”
Malachy Ó Néill, Provost at Ulster University’s Magee campus said:
“Ulster University has been privileged to collaborate once again with our
neighbours Derry City and Strabane District Council and North West Regional
College to acquire UNSECO Learning City status for our city and to host the inaugural
Virtual Learning Festival. Well done and thank you to all involved.
“It has been inspirational to see and hear so many people come
together to learn. As our thoughts turn to enabling the cultural and tourism
sectors in the North West post COVID-19, we look forward to building on this
initiative in the future for the good of the people of the city and
region.”
Leo Murphy, Principal and Chief Executive of North West Regional College
said: “This was a fantastic festival and all at NWRC were delighted to be
part of such an innovative event in this new era of learning through a virtual
format.
“We continue to support career ambitions across the region and look
forward to continued collaboration with the partners of the festival in the
future.”
Padraig Canavan, Chair Learning City said: “It was an honour for us
to attract so many distinguished speakers from around the globe to our opening
seminar.
“With ‘Lockdown Learning’ as the theme we heard about individual,
community and nationwide learning initiatives like ‘Classrooms without Walls’
and the new libraries – ‘Smart Learning Civic Centres’. A great first for
Learning Cities and for Derry and Strabane.”
If you missed the festival over the last few days you can watch all of
the LIVE Zoom recordings and premiered events at the Learning Hub.
Learning City’s is delighted that this Learning hub can be now used
and shared. It is a valuable resource for people of all ages to enjoy at
any time, over and over again available at https://www.derrystrabane.com/LearningFest.
https://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpg00Adam Goodallhttps://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpgAdam Goodall2020-10-19 13:38:292020-10-28 15:30:56UNESCO Celebrates the first Learning City Virtual Festival in Derry and Strabane
A leading Derry/Londonderry-based financial services firm has enjoyed its best quarter to date, despite the global COVID-19 crisis.
Since the
coronavirus lockdown, FinTrU has acquired two major new clients, and made 75
new hires for its bases in the North West and Belfast.
The award-winning
company’s Financial Services Academies have also continued virtually, with the
latest cohort having been trained remotely and now working in a variety of
roles.
Executive
Director and Head of FinTrU North West, Greg McCann, said the firm was looking
forward to a “very healthy pipeline of new business opportunities”, and recommended
the North West as an excellent location for other investors.
In
mid-March, FinTrU took swift action and decided all 450 employees, including
more than 120 staff in the Derry offices, should switch to remote working
during the Covid crisis.
“It was a
very busy few weeks getting everyone set up at home and making sure they had
the right equipment, but the connectivity has been great in the North West, and
we’re fortunate to work in a sector that has been quite robust during this
period,” said Mr McCann.
“We’ve
continued to grow, and keep doing what we do best. We haven’t had to avail of any
government aid or furlough any staff.”
FinTrU was
founded in 2013 and opened its North West site two years ago, attracted by the
excellent pool of talent in the region, including graduates from local
institutions such as Ulster University’s Magee campus and the Letterkenny
Institute of Technology.
It plans
to have 305 staff in the city over five years, and is ahead of track to meet
this target. Hiring has also continued during the pandemic, with FinTrU working
hard to ensure that new recruits working from home feel welcome, through
virtual coffee breaks, ‘buddying up’ with existing employees along with other
online internal networking activities.
“We aim
to have 600 people working at FinTrU in Northern Ireland by the end of this
year. We’re well on schedule, and Covid-19 hasn’t changed that,” Mr McCann
added.
The
Limavady native also praised the North West as a great place to invest.
“Every
academy we’ve run, we’ve been oversubscribed and we’ve always been able to
select the right people because there are a lot of high quality graduates from
the local universities and colleges,” he added.
“We’ve
had no technical issues during Covid-19; the connectivity has been good. I
think after lockdown, people will be thinking more than ever about quality of
life – which is excellent here, with beaches and beautiful scenery on our
doorstep.
“This
access to the outdoors in the North West has also been great for staff
wellbeing during the pandemic – it’s something you just don’t get in more
built-up cities.”
As well
as a societal shift towards more home working, Mr McCann said the City and
District may benefit from businesses deciding to ‘reshore’ outsourced functions
back to Northern Ireland.
“We’re
aware that clients have had issues in some parts of the world that haven’t
responded as well to Covid,” he added.
“We’ve had
lots of fantastic feedback from clients; we’ve had no drop off of our service
to them, we’ve been able to respond rapidly, with great connectivity. We’re
hoping to see the benefit of that going forward.”
https://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpg00Adam Goodallhttps://investderrystrabane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/InvestDerry_Strabane_logo_small-003.jpgAdam Goodall2020-10-19 13:24:062020-10-28 15:32:49FinTrU continues to experience growth during lockdown period
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit Cookie Settings to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.