Ann O'Dea is an Irish

businesswoman A businessperson, also referred to as a businessman or businesswoman, is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial ...

, the co-founder and CEO of

Silicon Republic Silicon Republic (domain:SiliconRepublic.com) is an Irish technology news website An online newspaper (or electronic news or electronic news publication) is the electronic publishing, online version of a newspaper, either as a stand-alone publi ...

and the CEO of Inspirefest.

Life

O'Dea co-founded the Silicon Republic online newspaper for science, business and technology with Darren McAuliffe in 2001. She is a champion of diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and set up the international Inspirefest conference to address inclusion at technology conferences. Opening the fourth Inspirefest in 2018, Ireland's Minister for Health

Simon Harris Simon Harris (born 17 October 1986) is an Irish Fine Gael politician serving as Tánaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Minister for Defence since January 2025, having previously served as Taoiseach from 2024 to 2025. He has ...

"emphasised the role of women in

STEM Stem or STEM most commonly refers to: * Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant * Stem group * Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Stem or STEM can also refer to: Language and writing * Word stem, part of a word respon ...

(science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and said that the future was being invented by people like those at this event" in Dublin. The fifth and final Inspirefest was in 2019. It was relaunched as Future Human in May 2020, with speakers including US

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Joan Higgenbotham, and

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd. (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intell ...

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

Brittany Kaiser Brittany Nicole Kaiser (born November 6, 1987) is the former business development director for Cambridge Analytica, which collapsed after details of its misuse of Facebook data became public. Cambridge Analytica potentially impacted voting in t ...

. O'Dea was awarded a fellowship of the Irish Computer Society for her work promoting women in the technology sector. She was co-inducted into the Irish Internet Association Hall of Fame with Darren McAuliffe. She was awarded Media Woman of the Year by Irish ''

Tatler ''Tatler'' (stylised in all caps) is a British magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. It focuses on fashion and lifestyle, as well as coverage of high society and politics. It is targeted towards the British upper and upper-middle c ...

'' in 2014.

Education

O'Dea attended

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in French (1990) and a MA in Drama & Performance Studies (1992) . In 2021, she was awarded the UCD Alumni Award in Research, Innovation and Impact.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ODea, Ann Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Irish people Irish journalists Irish women journalists 21st-century Irish businesspeople Women business executives 21st-century Irish businesswomen Living people