Joan Mulvihill the outgoing CEO of the IIA,and Intercom’s Des Traynor recognised at the IIA dot ie Net Visionary Awards

Joan Mulvihill, outgoing CEO of the IIA, was  honoured with the Irish Internet Association’s (IIA) 2016 Overall Net Visionary Winner at the IIA dot ie Net Visionary Awards.

In addition, 17 other winners were also announced following a rigorous judging process over the summer.

The awards now in their 18^th year took place in the RDS Concert Hall with over 300 attendees from a wide variety of sectors from agriculture to retail.

The dot ie Net Visionary Winners 2016 are:

Joan Mulvihill, CEO of IIA commented “The awards continue to demonstrate the pace and breadth of innovation across Irish industry and exemplify technology as the catalyst for much of this change.  Technology is not an industry vertical.  It is for all industries, across all sectors.  I’ve no doubt the future Net Visionaries will come from sectors completely unrelated to the traditional technology sector in the coming years.” 

Mulvihill to step down as CEO
After seven years, Joan Mulvihill will step down as the CEO of the Irish Internet Association. Joan has played a pivotal role in helping drive education across Irish business around technology as well as campaigning tirelessly on key issues affecting over 40,000 people directly employed in the Irish technology and start up community.

The awards marked a fitting end to seven years as the CEO of the Irish Internet Association.  Under her leadership the IIA has played a pivotal role in representing the needs and key issues of members and the wider business community nationwide.   From the start Joan Mulvihill set out a bold goal to ‘make Ireland a leading web-enabled economy’.   With a legacy that includes the hugely successful Digitise the Nation programme, the NSAI Swift 10 for Cloud Adoption, MyECommKit for ecommerce adoption, the award winning public affairs campaign that led on Skills Shortage as well as Ireland’s inaugural Open Data week, Joan has played a crucial role in both reflecting and understanding the changing nature of the technology industry.

David Curtin, CEO of IE Domain Registry (IEDR) commented: “ This is our sixth year as headline sponsor of the dot ie Net Visionary Awards and we are delighted to partner again with the IIA to celebrate digital innovation and digital innovators.

One of the main reasons why the dot ie Net Visionary Awards are so important is that it showcases our industry leaders, and it also lets other Irish businesses visualise the endless possibilities that the digital economy presents.

At IEDR, we would also like to recognise the contribution of Joan Mulvihill to the success of these Awards over the years, and even more important, her contribution to the wider IIA and its vital work in promoting technology amongst all sectors of the Irish business community. Her work has been invaluable in driving-on this objective and we wish her every success for the future”.

Mulvihill concluded on the IIA Hall of Fame inductee, “Tonight marks something very special for the industry. In recognising Des Traynor for his part in co-founding Intercom and his phenomenal contribution to the community, we are also recognising his values and qualities as a leader. Des is focused on the importance of great design of a great product and in doing so he has built something extraordinary with Intercom. People like Des, and indeed all of those attending tonight make you see what it means to have a real community.   It’s the support and generosity of these that makes Ireland such a great place to be and we are very proud of the fact that the IIA has been part of the journey for so many of them. Intercom were first shortlisted for a category award back in 2012. Eamonn Leonard, the Overall Net Visionary Winner that same year was an early stage investor in Intercom. Eamonn had previously worked for Ray Nolan (Overall Net Visionary Winner 2006). In celebrating Des Traynor’s induction to the IIA Hall of Fame we mark a decade of Irish entrepreneurs supporting one another.  Government policy must now support them”.

A podcast interview with Gerard Forde, the Co-Founder of Bizimply, who won the Best Cloud Service to Optimise Business Performance award will be published later this week.