Tech Excellence Awards celebrates visionaries, servants to industry
The Tech Excellence Awards return to the Royal Marine Hotel on 25 May 2023. In this snapshot of winners from 2022 we look at the individuals in business recognised for long successful careers, and one starting out on theirs.
Person of the year winner: Tom O’Connor, Version 1
In 2022, the person of the year award went to Tom O’Connor, CEO of Version 1. O’Connor had a long heritage in Version 1, joining the business in 2001 and spending over 21 years in various roles such as the head of consulting, sales director and chief operations officer where he was responsible for sales, operations and organic growth.
In 2017 he was appointed CEO, taking the reins on one of the fastest growing IT consulting and managed services firms in Western Europe, which now employs more than 2,000 in offices across the UK, Ireland, Spain and India.
O’Connor Tom has led Version 1’s growth, tripling both revenue and profits over the last five years, through organic growth in UK & Ireland and through six acquisitions, including expansion into both India and Spain.
This 20% annual growth rate positioned Version 1 as one of the fastest growing digital transformation companies in Western Europe, and led to its recent announcement of an upcoming investment from Swiss-based Partners group, one of the largest investment firms in the world, which is likely to be one of the largest transactions in Ireland this year.
Lifetime achievement award winner: Paschal Naylor
Paschal Naylor is the co-founder and CEO of Arkphire, the Irish IT Consulting and managed-services company that was recently acquired by US tech firm Presidio.
Arkphire dates back to 1981, when it was known as Memorex Telex.
Under Paschal’s leadership, Arkphire secured a multimillion investment from London-based private capital firm Bregal Milestone in late 2018 to aid growth.
In early 2020, Arkphire completed the acquisition of fellow Irish company Trilogy Technologies to create one of the largest and fastest-growing IT Services & Solutions businesses in the country. Arkphire had impressively grown to become a €160 million business with more than 250 employees serving customers across more than 90 countries.
Last year, Arkphire was re-branded to Presidio having been acquired by the global digital services and solutions provider.
Rising star: Ian O’Connell, Commsec
“Ian is an integral part of the CommSec team. He embodies everything we stand for in terms of our company values. His technical knowledge and customer awareness is first class and he is the ideal role model for the SOC team, which he leads,” said CommSec CEO David McNamara.
“It’s safe to say that his hard work, commitment and enthusiasm has directly impacted the development of our operations, services and projects.”
For more information on the Tech Excellence Awards and how to enter click here.
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