2010 CIT ALUMNI AWARDS PRESENTED
8th October 2010
The main aim of the CIT Alumni Awards is to celebrate the life-long value of an education and to provide inspiration for others – peers and current students. CIT Alumni are leaders in their fields and excel in their areas of endeavour. CIT is celebrating this excellence through the presentation of the CIT Alumni Awards, which will honour three graduates who have distinguished themselves in their respective professions.
Graduating from CIT in 1985 with a Bachelors Degree in Electronic Engineering, Bob Savage is also a chartered engineer of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland (C Eng). He is a member of a number of professional bodies and is a Committee member of the CIT Alumni Association.
Bob Savage is currently Vice President and Managing Director for Ireland of EMC Corporation based in Ovens, Co Cork, having worked for the company for 22 years. EMC employs approximately 40,000 people worldwide, more than 40% of whom work outside the US. EMC Ireland was established in 1988 to manufacture IT storage products for its EU customers.
The second Alumni Award Recipient was artist Vivienne Roche. Born in Cork, Vivienne Roche studied art in the Crawford College of Art & Design, from which she graduated in 1974. She also studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Since then she has worked as a full-time artist.
In addition to her gallery work – her work is in public and private collections in Ireland and abroad – she has created many major public sculptures. These include her commemorative piece in honour of President Cearbhall O’Dalaigh in Sneem (1983); major pieces outside and inside the perimeter of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. More recently she collaborated with the poet Derek Mahon to make a four metre high ‘poem sculpture’ in Killarney and created three-part work, Light Ensemble, in CIT Cork School of Music to mark its completion. Vivienne was a founder member of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork and is a member of Aosdána since 1996,
The third Alumni Award Recipient was Gerard O’Mahoney, FCA, Corporate Finance Partner and Regional Partner in Charge at Deloitte. A native of Bishopstown, Ger is a graduate of Cork Institute of Technology in Business (Accounting).
Gerard was the founding chairman of the CIT Alumni Association and was an active member of Scouting Ireland including serving as National Treasurer. Gerard is the Regional Partner in charge of Deloitte with responsibility for the firm’s Cork and Limerick offices which employ 200 people.
The current president of Cork Chamber of Commerce, Gerard is a board member of IDA Ireland and the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT). He is also a Director of the People in Need Trust and a member of the Cork Science Park advisory board.
The CIT Alumni Award recipients were selected from nominations put forward by members of the Institute community. The judging panel was chaired by the President of CIT, Dr Brendan Murphy, and comprised of representatives from the Institute Alumni Association Committee.
Each of the recipients was presented with a sterling Silver Strawberry Dish was made by the silversmiths at Sean Carroll and Sons of Rutland Street, Cork.
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