Global Shares has been named Technology Ireland Company of the Year at the 29th annual Technology Ireland Awards, which took place on November 19th. The 2021 awards were supported by platinum sponsors EY Ireland; gold sponsors Fidelity Investments, Workhuman and Enterprise Ireland; and silver sponsors Technology Ireland DIGITAL Skillnet, FIT Tech Apprenticeship and Technology Ireland ICT Skillnet.
“Global Shares was ambitious from day one to be a disrupter in a large global marketplace,” said Una Fitzpatrick, director of Technology Ireland. “Their forensic knowledge of the market led to significant investment and persistent innovation to bring a next gen platform to the market.
“Global Shares’ relentless focus on a sustainable culture of innovation, diversity, inclusion, professional development and wellness truly encompasses what it means to be the Technology Ireland Company of the Year.”
EY Ireland is platinum sponsor of the Technology Ireland Awards and sponsor the Company of the Year Award. “On behalf of EY, I’d like to extend our warmest congratulations to Global Shares,” said Marie Treacy, technology sector leader and partner with EY Ireland.
“We’ve been so impressed by the strength and camaraderie seen in the tech community in the past 12 months,” she added. “We’re fortunate to have many tech pioneers in Ireland, leading in the space with purpose and skill and a determination that has been crucial to their success. They consistently strive to create positive change in the market and play a leading role in the global tech community.”
This award is amazing recognition for all our employees for their hard work, perseverance and dedication
Commenting on the win, Global Shares chief executive Tim Houstoun said: “Being crowned Technology Ireland Company of the Year is a heavyweight award and an amazing celebration of the journey we have been on and what we have achieved as a team. It also shines a light on our story – from small beginnings in Clonakilty to becoming a global leader. It builds further momentum at a time of huge growth for the company.
“Most importantly, this award is amazing recognition for all our employees for their hard work, perseverance and dedication, and will assist Global Shares to attract top talent to our team. This award will add more wind to our sails and accelerate us on our exciting journey of growth ahead. We are still only getting started.”
Global Shares manages employee stock plans for some of the world’s biggest companies. With headquarters in Clonakilty, Co Cork and 17 offices worldwide, its team of 550 employees and award-winning fintech solutions help companies harness the power of employee ownership to attract, retain and reward key staff.
“Employee ownership is a hot topic all around the world right now and it’s something we want to shout about from the rooftops,” Houstoun said. “Owning a slice of the company gives staff a stake in its future success, and it’s the ultimate motivation for employees to overperform and stay with their employer.
“If you want employees to act like owners, you need to make them owners. The benefit of employee ownership is improved workplace engagement; it helps to recruit, retain and reward a winning team, and it allows employees to share in the wealth created by the success of the companies for which they work. It’s also a way to facilitate the distribution of wealth and helps create a fairer society.”
Global Shares is one of only three global providers in the employee ownership fintech space. The strategic plan for the next two to three years is focused on becoming the #1 fintech provider of choice globally. The mission is clear: to help companies all over the world grow through the power of employee ownership.
Speaking about future plans for Global Shares, Houston commented: “Fundamental to our success is having the best global IT platform and the ability to develop more new software. Our people are at the heart of who we are and what we do. We expect to grow to 1,000 employees by 2024. Our headquarters will remain in Clonakilty and in the coming years we will continue our strategy of focused growth in North America, Japan, China and Europe, as well as the Middle East.
“There has never been a more exciting time to work with Global Shares, and, looking ahead, the outlook for the company is compelling and employees could not be more motivated to succeed.”
This recognition of the importance of laying down the foundations now for sustainable future success is reflected across the domestic technology landscape. Marie Treacy and Paul Browne of EY Ireland recently published a report examining the emerging trends that the sector is embracing, most notably in the fields of sustainability and resilience.
Sustainability as a transformation driver
Sustainability has evolved into a key priority for the technology profession. In recent months industry have seen sustainability emerge as the new driver of transformation, driven by the need to meet emerging challenges along with rising importance and visibility across society.
As this focus area gains more priority, changes will occur within the technology sector. Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions will evolve to include “sustainability” reporting and ratings, such as their power consumption, the percentage of renewables that they use, etc.
Investors and capital markets are weighing environmental sustainability more heavily as part of ESG analysis of investment opportunities. KPIs will include specific reference to climate targets. We expect that the phrase “verifiable claims” will be key for executives in 2022 as they seek to deliver the transparency demanded by their stakeholders. Blockchain has been referenced for the capability it can deliver for immutable evidence across an end-to-end supply chain.
A renewed focus on business resiliency
Organisations continue to struggle to fully protect themselves against the multitude of emerging cyber threats. Proactive and predictive supply chain management with technology at its core has emerged. Technology companies need to embrace digital trust and embed privacy and risk management into their products and offerings to ensure that integrity, transparency and accountability are designed into their systems.
Cloud-supplied security offerings are providing a cost-effective solution with lower cost of entry. The “pay per user” and “pay as you go” cloud model facilitates full enterprise-level security capability to organisations that were previously priced out of the market. These offerings will continue to evolve, with artificial intelligence being built into technology platforms rather than being provided as an “add on”.
EY Ireland sees technology companies at the forefront of industry transformation as traditional models continue to be disrupted. The technology sector is constantly evolving and expanding to encompass diverse businesses with increased industry convergence and digital adoption.
Full list of winners
- Technology Ireland Company of the Year: Global Shares
- Technology Ireland Person of the Year: Bill Kearney, former vice-president, IBM Ireland's Software Development Lab and its Dublin Technology Campus
- Emerging Company of the Year: CameraMatics
- Outstanding Achievement in International Growth: MCO (MyComplianceOffice)
- Technology Innovation of the Year: Brightflag
- Digital Technology Services Project of the Year: TEKenable
- #WomenInTech Company Initiative of the Year: AIB
- Tech4Good - Product/ Service Award: Kinia
- Technology Ireland CSR Award: AWS
- Excellence in Talent Development: Unum Ireland Limited
- Outstanding Academic Achievement of the Year: IBM Research in Ireland