DCU students reach final of Accenture ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ Awards
Thursday 24 April 2008

DCU students who competed in the competion

Four DCU students last week took part in the final of the inaugural Accenture Leaders of Tomorrow Awards - narrowly missing out on the top prize. DCU were represented in the competition by one group entry and one individual entry. The group entry team was Patricia McGinty, Hugh O’Brien, and Barry Naughton, all e-Commerce Masters students. The individual competitor was final year Business student, Cianán Clancy. All entrants made presentations to the specially assembled judging panel at Accenture headquarters in Dublin. The DCU students were beaten into runner-up spots by a team from Smurfit School of Business.

The Accenture ‘Leaders of Tomorrow Award’, open to third-level graduates across the country, seeks to recognise, identify and foster the next generation of talent that will help in shaping the public, private and social landscape of Ireland in the coming years.

According to Mark Ryan, Country Managing Director for Accenture in Ireland said, “We were delighted with the standard of entries for this, the inaugural Leaders of Tomorrow competition, which has seen a fantastic response from our third level institutions. The calibre of the judges on our panel is further endorsement that leadership and the nurturing of future talent are seen as a key priority across Ireland’s public and private sectors.”

The finalists comprised of a mixture of groups and individuals drawn from Ireland’s third level graduate community, with representatives from NUI Maynooth, UCD Quinn School of Business, Smurfit School of Business and DCU.

The judging panel, chosen from the top ranks of the Irish private and public sectors and Accenture personnel, included Donal Forde, Managing Director, AIB; Julie O'Neill, Secretary General, Department of Transport; Paul O’Riordan, Managing Director, Oracle Ireland; Mark Ryan, Country Managing Director, Accenture Ireland; Marian Corcoran, Head of Management Consulting, Accenture Ireland and Ismail Amla, Head of Human Capital Strategy, Accenture Global.