Judges
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NDIA 2025 JUDGES
We are ever grateful to our judging panel, who have been carefully selected to include leading advocates and experts in the world of D&I both in Ireland and globally.
Margot Slattery
Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion, ISS
Chair of The Judging Panel
As Global Head Diversity & Inclusion, Margot is aligning initiatives at ISS and representing the company in forums such as ‘The Valuable 500’ movement which is tabling disability on board agendas.
Formerly Global Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Sodexo Group, Margot started her career as a chef, moving into management and progressing to Sodexo Ireland as CEO and Country President. She has earned numerous accolades, and been recognised in the Financial Times’ Top 100 OUTstanding LGBT Business Leaders for four consecutive years.
A Workplace Pride Council member, Margot co-chaired the Irish NGO involved in the passing of the 2015 Marriage Equality Act in Ireland. She joined ISS World Services in May 2021.
Dr. Kara McGann
Head of Skills & Social Policy, Ibec
Kara is Ibec’s strategic advisor and support on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, labour market and skills for member organisations across multiple sectors. She has been with Ibec since 2008 and her role includes strategy development and implementation, public and regulatory policy, business representation and stakeholder engagement.
In addition to lobbying and developing policy positions at a national and European level, Kara represents business at stakeholder forums across a breadth of policy areas from gender pay gap reporting, to human rights, labour market activation and immigration.
Kara is an organisational psychologist and formerly HR manager in industry with lecturing experience at undergraduate, postgraduate and executive level. In addition to her Ibec role, Kara is the Chair of the Employment Working Group of Business Europe, represents Irish business on the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee of Business at the OECD (BIAC), a member of the External Group of Experts of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), a member of the Labour Market Advisory Council and Board member of the Open Doors Initiative.
Mamobo Ogoro
Founder and CEO, GORM
Mamobo Ogoro is a Social Psychologist and award winning social entrepreneur. As a Psychology PhD Candidate at the University of Limerick, Mamobo investigates the psychological implications of systems of inclusion and exclusion for migrant communities. Mamobo is on a personal mission to unify the world. She is the Founder and Director of Gorm, a digital media social enterprise on a mission to unify across differences and advance belonging for marginalised communities.
Maria Walsh
Member of the European Parliament for Midlands-North-West Constituency – Fine Gael & EPP Group
As a Fine Gael member of the European Parliament for Midlands North-West since 2019, Maria sits on the EMPL, CULT and LIBE Committees as a member of the EPP.
Maria is dedicated to highlighting the cross-sectional impacts of mental health throughout her policy work. Mental health is at the centre of all her conversations and she consistently engages with EU citizens on the impact of mental health on their everyday lives. She always takes stances on policy and legislation that align with her values of inclusion, equality, and respect, even if this entails some difficult conversations within the Parliament.
Siobhán Cafferty
Funder Liaison & Business Delivery Manager – Pobal
Siobhán Cafferty is the Implementation Manager for the Criminal Justice Sector in Ireland. She works for Pobal on behalf of the Department of Justice. Having developed the ‘Working to Change social enterprise and employment strategy 2021- 2023’ for the Department of Justice, she is currently leading out on its implementation. Siobhán is dedicated to improving the infrastructure to support social enterprises to ensure those furthest from the labour market are afforded the opportunity to work. She was recently named on the Top 100 list of women in social enterprise 2022 in Europe as part of the Euclid Network.
Siobhán has dedicated her career to ensuring those most marginalised from education and employment, for whatever reason, are afforded opportunities to make sustainable changes to their lives and become active citizens.
Siobhan Sweeney
Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Element Materials Technology
Siobhan is a dynamic, experienced and highly qualified professional. Operating as a trusted leader, Siobhan led Diversity & Inclusion from January 2019, developing AIB’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy to further evolve mindsets into breaking down unconscious biases, raising awareness, and delivering supportive initiatives across AIB.
Through her subsequent secondment role with Open Doors Initiative, Siobhan provided opportunities to some of the marginalized members of our society: refugees, asylum seekers, non-native English speakers, Young people under 25 with educational barriers, and People with a disability.
Siobhan is now Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Element Materials Technology and has been working in this role since January 2022.
Adam Harris
Founder & CEO, As I Am
Adam Harris is the Founder and CEO of AsIAm, Ireland’s National Autism Charity. Adam Founded the organisation based on his own experiences growing up on the Autism Spectrum.
A Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awardee, Adam is a frequent contributor to media and conferences in Ireland and overseas. From Greystones in Co Wicklow, Adam was appointed to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in July 2020.
Gavin Hennessy
Senior Diversity & Inclusion Manager, AXA Ireland
Gavin is D&I Inclusion Manager at AXA Ireland, having previously held D&I roles at Irish Life, LinkedIn, and Business in the Community Ireland. Over his career he has established ground-breaking programmes to reduce barriers to employment for family carers, hard to reach youth, persons with disabilities, and refugees.
He is an active and respected contributor to the wider corporate D&I landscape sitting on industry working groups such as the Insurance Ireland D&I Taskforce and the IBEC D&I forum. As a member of the LGBTQ+ and Irish Traveller communities, he regularly contributes to discussions on driving inclusion forward for minority groups.
In his spare time, he is a dedicated community advocate and supporter in his roles as Chairperson of the National LGBT Federation, Gay Community New (GCN) and Co-founder of the Traveller Graduate Network. Gavin’s passion lies in driving meaningful, lasting change in the workplace and wider society.
Jed Dowling
Festival Director, Dublin LGBTQ Pride CLG
Jed has at various points, been a minister, an optician, a lecturer, an event organiser, and an activist. He has worked within the LGBTQ+ community for over 20 years and has been the Dublin Pride Festival Director since 2015. He is also Programme Director for Pride at Work, one of Ireland’s largest LGBTQ+ focused DEIB training programmes.
More recently he began a post graduate diploma in design thinking for sustainability in UCD and has a particular interest in the role of activist led NGO’s in responding to climate change as well as its impact on marginalised communities
Shane O’Brien
Senior Manager, Regional Senior Lead HR, MongoDB
Shane has been working in the area of HR and Employee Relations for 13 years, primarily in Tech and Telecomms. A winner of the 2020 Irish HR Champion Awards, and a finalist in the UK Diversity Champion awards; Shane’s primary interest in the inclusion space is pushing organisations of all sizes to use their platforms to build inclusive spaces for all and to call people into the conversation around differences and not push them out.
Shane is a proud board member of the LGBTQ+ charity, Shout Out and also sits on the board of the CIPD South Eastern chapter in Ireland.
Simon Myciunka
CEO at Bauer Media Audio UK
Simon Myciunka is the CEO of Bauer Media Audio Ireland which owns and operates popular radio brands Today FM, Newstalk, 98FM, Spin and Off The Ball. Simon has a wealth of experience in media in Ireland and the UK, working in a number of senior commercial roles before becoming CEO of Communicorp Media two years ago. He then led the business through the sale and integration to Bauer Media. More recently, Simon graduated from the Institute of Directors Chartered Director Programme.
Bauer Media Audio Ireland operates some of Ireland’s best known audio and radio brands and has the mission of enriching the lives of every person in the country. To achieve this mission, it’s critical that Bauer view inclusion of all people, both in the workplace and their communities, as essential to their way of working and creating content.
Stephen Cluskey
CEO Mobility Mojo
Stephen Cluskey is an internationally certified accessibility expert, an award-winning tech entrepreneur and co-founder and CEO of the global leading standard for accessibility, Mobility Mojo.
Stephen is considered a thought leader in diversity, inclusion and accessibility. His company’s software has been implemented in some of the most famous organisations on the planet and global leaders including Sir Richard Branson have publicly spoken about Stephen and his work.
Having suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury at the age of just 18, which left Stephen paralysed from the neck down, he supports businesses to think differently about diversity, inclusion and accessibility.