Alumni Awards 2010
On Thursday, 8th October, the CIT Alumni Awards ceremony took place at a Gala Banquet at the Castlemartyr Resort, Cork.
The main aim of the CIT Alumni Awards is to celebrate the life-long value of an education and to provide inspiration for others – peers and current students. CIT Alumni are leaders in their fields and excel in their areas of endeavour. CIT is celebrating this excellence through the presentation of the CIT Alumni Awards, which honoured three graduates who have distinguished themselves in their respective professions.
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Graduating from CIT in 1985 with a Bachelors Degree in Electronic Engineering, Bob Savage is also a chartered engineer of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland (C Eng). He is a member of a number of professional bodies and is a Committee member of the CIT Alumni Association. Bob Savage is currently Vice President and Managing Director for Ireland of EMC² Corporation based in Ovens, Co Cork, having worked for the company for 22 years. EMC² employs approximately 40,000 people worldwide, more than 40% of whom work outside the US. EMC² Ireland was established in 1988 to manufacture IT storage products for its EU customers. |
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The second Alumni Award Recipient is artist Vivienne Roche. Born in Cork, Vivienne Roche studied art in the Crawford College of Art & Design, from which she graduated in 1974. She also studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Since then she has worked as a full-time artist. In addition to her gallery work – her work is in public and private collections in Ireland and abroad – she has created many major public sculptures. These include her commemorative piece in honour of President Cearbhall O’Dalaigh in Sneem (1983); major pieces outside and inside the perimeter of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. More recently she collaborated with the poet Derek Mahon to make a four metre high ‘poem sculpture’ in Killarney and created three-part work, Light Ensemble, in CIT Cork School of Music to mark its completion. Vivienne was a founder member of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork and is a member of Aosdána since 1996. |
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The third Alumni Award Recipient is Gerard O’Mahoney, FCA, Corporate Finance Partner and Regional Partner in Charge at Deloitte. A native of Bishopstown, Ger is a graduate of Cork Institute of Technology in Business (Accounting). Gerard was the founding chairman of the CIT Alumni Association and was an active member of Scouting Ireland including serving as National Treasurer. Gerard is the Regional Partner in charge of Deloitte with responsibility for the firm’s Cork and Limerick offices which employ 200 people. The current president of Cork Chamber of Commerce, Gerard is a board member of IDA Ireland and the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT). He is also a Director of the People in Need Trust and a member of the Cork Science Park advisory board. |
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Each of the recipients was presented with a sterling Silver Strawberry Dish made by the silversmiths at Sean Carroll and Sons of Rutland Street, Cork. |
Many thanks to AIB and PJ Hegarty who sponsored the event.
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The Alumni Awards were instituted in 2007 to celebrate the outstanding contribution that graduates of Cork Institute of Technology have made both at home and abroad.
Previous Alumni Award Recipients (2007)
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw is a critically acclaimed actress in theatre, television, film and radio. Most recently Fiona performed the role of Winnie in the National Theatre’s production of Happy Days directed by Deborah Warner. The production is currently on an International Tour and appearing in Epidaurus, Paris, Madrid and Washington. Other theatre work includes; The Powerbook (NT); Woman and Scarecrow (Royal Court Theatre); The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (NT); Julius Caesar (Barbican); The Good Person of Sechuan (NT – Olivier award for Best Actress/ London Critics award 1990); Medea (Albemarle Theatre/ New York where she won the 2001 evening standard award); Dido and Aeneas (Vienna); The Waste Land (Paris, Toronto Festival, Montreal & Liberty Theatre on Broadway); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (RSC); The Merchant of Venice (RSC Tour); The Taming of the Shrew (RSC); Footfalls (Garrick Theatre); Machinal (NT – Olivier Award and Evening Standard Drama Award for Best Actress 1993); Richard II (NT); Way of the World (NT).
Television credits: Trial and Retribution XIV; Sherlock Holmes; Richard II; Love Song; Hedda Gabler; Persuasion; The Waste Land; Gormenghast.
Film credits: Harry Potter films as Aunt Petunia; ‘Butcher Boy’ directed by Neil Jordan; The Black Dahlia; The Avengers; Anna Karenina; My Left Foot.
In 2001 Fiona was awarded a CBE.
Dr Patrick Galvin
Dr Patrick Galvin was born in Cork. He attended school at the Christian Brothers Sullivan’s Quay and later at the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute (now CIT) where he received the foundation of his engineering education.
Dr Galvin's early work experience was in Cork with Engineering Services Limited and the Irish Dunlop Company. Following this he joined the Guinness Brewery in Dublin in 1956. He qualified as a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and is a fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland and a member of the Irish Academy of Engineering.
He holds an Honorary Doctorate from UCD. He attended the Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard Business School in 1975.
Dr Galvin held a number of executive positions with Arthur Guinness Son & Co (Dublin) Ltd prior to his appointment as Managing Director in 1977. He joined Waterford Crystal as Chief Executive in 1989 and was appointed Chairman of the Board of the company in 1992.
Dr Galvin is now retired – during his distinguished business career he held a number of Directorships and other notable positions including the following:
• Chairman of the Board of Management at the University Industry Centre of UCD
• Member of the Court of Directors of Bank of Ireland
• Executive Chairman of the Doyle Hotel Group
• President of the Federation of Irish Employers (FIE)
• President of the Institute of Directors in Ireland.
Dr Galvin is also a Director of a number of other publicly quoted companies.
Dr Galvin is married to Mary (nee Grant). They have a family of three daughters and one son, all of whom are married.
Robert Short
Born and educated in Cork, Robert Short, to his conservative banker father’s horror, dreamed of a glamorous life of travel repairing radar systems on ships. The first step was the Telecommunications Technician’s Course at Crawford Municipal Technical Institute (now CIT), which he completed in 1973. He abandoned the dream and took up the only job available at the time at Digital Equipment Corporation in Galway. Thus began a career of over 30 years in the computer industry – most recently as Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, responsible for the design of operating system technology in Windows.
In Galway, Rob developed programmes to optimise computer assembly time that were deployed in DEC plants in Galway and Puerto Rico. He moved from manufacturing to design engineering at DEC headquarters. He joined the VAX 780 design team in Boston, a humbling experience as most of his colleagues had advanced degrees from top universities. He enrolled in night classes at Boston University to learn the arcane computer technology, and has continued to take classes ever since. He initially concentrated on technology, earning an MS in Computer Science at the University of Washington and later focused on management.
In 1988 Rob moved to Microsoft to concentrate on improving the architecture of the PC. He was an active member of many cross-industry technical expert groups designing technical standards for busses such as the PCI and USB.
Rob has led design teams as large as 750 people including the Windows design team to make PCs “plug and play” as well as the Windows “architecture team”. A regular speaker at technical conferences, Rob is an inventor on a dozen patents mostly related to the interaction between hardware and software.
For relaxation he enjoys travel with his wife Emer and daughters Fina and Nessa, as well as hiking and skiing.
