IWF Ireland members enjoyed a wonderful event hosted by member Julie O'Neill, Chair of PTSB at the new PTSB Boardroom at the PTSB HQ on St Stephen's Green in Dublin, on 'Leap Day' 29 February 2024. Celebrating Irish women's participation in the Olympics and Paralympics, and featuring the theme of this year's International Women's Day, Inspiring Inclusion, we came away from the event truly inspired and humbled by the contributions of an outstanding panel. PTSB is the title sponsor of the Irish Olympic and Paralympic teams for this Olympic cycle, culminating in the Paris games in July and August 2024. The event was also attended by senior female leaders in the bank.
Julie and the team at PTSB made us feel very welcome and in her opening remarks, Julie spoke about the transformational journey underway at PTSB, rooted in community and in participation, reflecting the values of courage, excellence and ambition. She shared powerful insights into how the bank's sponsorship of the olympic and Paralympic teams is embedded in the bank's approach to staff and customers, and is energising staff engagement at local level. The associated marketing campaign, Raising a Nation, is aimed at making sport visible and encouraging participation in sport at every level.
Our very own Olympian, Vivienne Jupp (a former British and Irish champion swimmer and titleholder in 100m and 200m butterfly, and who, incredibly, swam for Ireland at the Olympics before she did her Junior Cert) facilitated an inspirational panel discussion. We were honoured to be joined by Sarah Keane, CEO at Swim Ireland & President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland; Eimear Breathnach, President of Paralympics Ireland; Eve McCrystal, the multiple Paralympic medal winner competing in tandem events for Ireland, as a sighted pilot (for blind cyclist Katie-George Dunlevy) and Karen Hackett – PTSB Head of People Experience.
The conversation was described as interesting, insightful and informative by one attendee. It was a truly energising evening with lots of opportunity to network with friends old and new, and very reflective of our IWF values of Advancing Leadership and Championing Equality.