Published on: Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Rory Lankford, Vice President and General Manager of McKesson Cork, has announced a new scholarship to be awarded to a female student pursuing a degree programme in the Department of Computer Science at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT): the McKesson Entrance Scholarship.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Lankford said, “Women are vastly unrepresented in STEM degrees and encounter many roadblocks to achieve degrees in these growing fields. We hope that by providing financial assistance, we remove one hurdle for a well-deserved student and encourage their educational pursuit.”

Mr Lankford has led the transformation of McKesson Cork for the last 10 years. He’s grown it to a shared service organisation, providing business and corporate solutions for the international McKesson community.

CIT President, Dr Barry O’Connor, welcomed the announcement of this very valuable scholarship. Each year, a sum of €3,000 will be awarded to one first-year female student and the selected student will also receive the scholarship for each of their subsequent years of study for her degree programme. Dr O’Connor said “The McKesson Entrance Scholarship is very welcome as it supports and highlights the really positive career opportunities that exist for female students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).”

Tim Horgan, Head, CIT Department of Computer Science said, “We are delighted with this McKesson funded scholarship for many reasons, but primarily because it is focused on supporting female students as they enter this exciting industry ,which has huge career opportunities for all.”

Michael Loftus, Head of Faculty of Engineering and Science at CIT said, “CIT’s Department of Computer Science produces talented work ready graduates with expertise in application development, cloud, cybersecurity, data and analytics, all key areas for McKesson’s further development in Cork.”

The function, held in CIT, was attended by CIT President, Dr. Barry O’Connor, and other senior CIT staff, and McKesson was represented by Rory Lankford and Hazel Sullivan, HR Director.