My Biography

Deirdre qualified with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management in 2011 and continued her studies in Waterford Institute of Technology with a MSc in Business, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Recently, Deirdre completed the Digital Marketing Specialization Course online with Coursera. With over 14 years’ experience in the Irish hospitality and retail sector and over 8 years of those in Sales, Marketing & Events, Deirdre has worked on a number of high-profile events including Amplitude, ConverCon, AI Applied and hosting President Michael D. Higgins at the Kilkenny Arts Festival.

Throughout her career in Sales & Marketing, Deirdre has worked on a variety of large scale projects including the re-branding of hotels, launch of new websites, creating an e-commerce site in retail and developing TV campaigns. Alongside these marketing activities, Deirdre’s previous roles were sales focused and often represented organisations at conferences and buying events in Ireland and the UK including Meitheal, a large scale international buyers conference for the Tourism & Hospitality industry, and World Travel Market in London. 

Deirdre’s time is split between the Research Support Unit (RSU) and the Telecommunications Software & Systems Group (TSSG) in WIT’s West Campus. This role is very diverse and requires a knowledge of all research and industry engagement across the research community to leverage PR and marketing opportunities. Responsible for the marketing and communications functions of RSU and TSSG, Deirdre’s role encompasses results driven activities such as writing press releases, arranging webinars and events, communicating with internal and external stakeholders, supporting dissemination activities in H2020 projects and creating digital marketing content such as videos and podcasts.

Her aim in this role is to incorporate a digital marketing approach to communicate WIT’s research outputs to increase the profile of WIT research to a wide audience both in Ireland and internationally.