Ronan Daly Jermyn partner recognised with UCC award

A partner at Ronan Daly Jermyn is among three people who have received the UCC Alumni Achievement Award for their work on an initiative to encourage young Irish women into STEM careers.

Gillian Keating, Ruth Buckley and Caroline O’Driscoll received the accolade in recognition of their work on the I Wish initiative.

Founded in 2014, the initiative combines the very best of industry, academia and the public sector, in order to inspire and encourage young female students to pursue careers in STEM-related fields.

The co-founders were motivated by the challenges being faced by multi-national and indigenous businesses in accessing a steady supply of STEM graduates in the Cork region.

To date, more than 7,000 students have participated in I Wish events in Cork and Dublin, while campus days have expanded the reach of the event further over the past three years.

Ms Keating, who leads Ronan Daly Jermyn’s corporate commercial practice and technology and life science sector groups, told Irish Legal News: “Ruth, Caroline and I were honoured to receive the UCC Alumni Achievement Award. The award recognises us as co-founders of I Wish, but also our partners across the public sector, industry and higher education, and the army of volunteers that drive I Wish forward.

“It also represents an opportunity to showcase I Wish, a not-for-profit organisation established to encourage young girls to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). At present women represent less than 25 per cent of the STEM workforce. The technologies of tomorrow need diversity of thought.

“With the advances in machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, if we don’t work as a community to improve female representation in STEM, we risk codifying gender bias into machines and failing to leverage to the fullest extent the potential of technology. I Wish and our partners are committed to providing Choices, Chances and Changes.”