Founders of outsourcing firm Voxpro, Dan and Linda Kiely, have been named joint ‘Tech Person of the Year’ at the IT@Cork Awards.
IT@Cork is a voluntary body, made up of professionals from indigenous and multinational firms, aimed at boosting tech in the Cork region.
Mahon-headquartered Voxpro announced, this week, that it is to add 400 jobs to its Cork workforce, as well as a new office campus.
The firm started as a paging company in 1995, with six employees, operating out of an office above a pub on Cork’s Marlboro Street.
The new jobs will bring its workforce in Cork and Dublin to 3,000, with another 2,000 around the globe.
A majority stake in Voxpro was sold to Canadian firm Telus International last year, in a multi-million euro deal.
Clients of the firm include Google, Airbnb, and Nest.
Ms Kiely said Voxpro wanted to assist other indigenous firms, especially startups. “I definitely want to help other companies. It would be in my DNA to do that. I am particularly interested in start-ups that are investigating uncharted territory.
“Investing in people is absolutely paramount. I firmly believe that the success of Voxpro, and the reason I am here today, is down to our people,” she said.
Mr Kiely said the IT@Cork Awards were “a fantastic showcase of what’s coming through the ranks, in terms of new ideas and new start-ups”.
McKesson was named ‘Multinational/Large Company of the Year’, while cybersecurity firm Smarttech27 was named ‘One To Watch’.
Joint winner in the ‘Tech Start-Up of the Year’ category were Altada and GetVisibility.
The ‘Excellence in Education’ award went to Gaelcholaiste Mhuire AG, on Cork’s northside.
VMware International Cork was the winner in the ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ category, while the ‘Technical Training’ award went to Xanadu. The ‘Smart Technology Innovation’ award went to GridBeyond.
Judges included experts from Blizzard, PepsiCo, KPMG, VMware, Investec, Trend Micro, CIT, Qualcomm, National Software Centre, Cork BIC, Poppulo, Enterprise Ireland, Dell EMC, Cork County Council, Tyndall, Malwarebytes, and Teamwork.