Judges

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

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.

NDIA judge - Dr Kara McGann

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

Mamobo Ogoro

Founder and CEO, GORM

Mamobo Ogoro is a social psychologist and multi award-winning social entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of GORM, an award winning social enterprise bringing about  belonging through Intercultural media and consultancy. Based in Ireland, she hosts “Younified” on Newstalk and has earned several accolades, the most recent being the first Irish person to win the Echoing Green Fellowship for her impactful work.

 

Siobhan Sweeney

Maria Walsh

Member of the European Parliament for Midlands-North-West Constituency – Fine Gael & EPP Group

Originally elected in 2019, and re-elected in 2024, Maria Walsh is serving her second term as a Fine Gael MEP in the European Parliament. MEP Walsh represents the constituency of Midlands-North West which spans 15 counties across Ireland, and is a member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. 

MEP Walsh sits on the European Parliament’s Agricultural and Rural Development Committee (AGRI) and the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) as a full member, and is also a member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and Regional Development (REGI) Committees. Her priorities include agriculture, regional development, justice and equality, mental health, and the future of the EU.

Siobhan Sweeney

Siobhán Cafferty

Funder Liaison & Business Delivery Manager – Pobal

Siobhán Cafferty is currently the Funder Liaison & Business Delivery Manager, with a special interest in social enterprise and innovation, working in Pobal. Until the end of 2023, Siobhán was the Social Enterprise Project Manager for the Criminal Justice Sector in Ireland working on behalf of the Department of Justice. Having developed the ‘Working to Change social enterprise and employment strategy 2021- 2023 for the Department, she led 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. In recognition of her work, Siobhán was named on the Top 100 list of women in social enterprise 2022 in Europe as part of the Euclid Network.

Prior to these roles, Siobhán was the CEO of the Bridge Project, a Probation funded community-based organisation working with adult male violent offenders in the Liberties, Dublin. 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

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

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

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.

Siobhan Sweeney

Jed Dowling

Co-CEO, 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

Gavin Hennessy

Shane O’Brien

Senior Employee Experience Manager, MongoDB

Shane has been working in the area of HR and Employee Relations for 15 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 recently qualified as a workplace mediator and holds a global licence as a HR counsel in international employment law. He is co-chair of the South East brand of the Chartered Institute of personnel and development.

Gavin Hennessy

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.

Gavin Hennessy

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.