Caroline McEnery

Professor Áine Hyland is Emeritus Professor of Education and former Vice-President of University College Cork.  She has been involved in various education projects during the past 40 years. She was a member of the Interim Curriculum and Examinations Board in the 1980s and of the Special Education Review Committee in the early 1990s. She was President of the Educational Studies Association of Ireland from 1990 to 1992. She chaired the Commission on the Points system which reported in 1999; the Statutory Educational Disadvantage Committee from 2002 to 2005; the National Economic and Social Forum’s Advisory Group on Literacy and Social Inclusion, 2009 - 2010, and a Working Group for the State Examination Commission on Reasonable Accommodations which reported in 2009. Professor Hyland brings a wealth of knowledge on educational issues, nationally and internationally, to our Advisory Board.

John O’Regan is a former teacher of Mathematics and Geography. He was Principal of Causeway Comprehensive School for many years. Since his retirement, he has worked as an Education Consultant and Advisor. He has initiated and worked on many curricular projects such as on “Teaching & Learning” as well as “Leadership & Management”. He was a founding member of the Tralee Education Centre and continues to be an active member of its Management Committee and of the Association of Support Centres of Ireland. He was very involved and played a very active role in the launch and formative years of a now very successful School Textbook Publishing Company, Educate.ie. He has been a lecturer and a tutor on UCC Outreach Programmes as well as the NCCA Project Maths Team. With his experience and his deep interest and research on education issues and as a former Principal, Mr O’Regan has an insightful appreciation and understanding of the issues and challenges faced by schools on a day to day basis in the management of data and in the ongoing search for excellence in the delivery of high quality education for the students in their care.

John graduated from UCG with a degree in English and geography and, after a brief sojourn teaching in Abbeyfeale Vocational School, Limerick, he moved to Crescent College Comprehensive, Limerick, where he became head of English. He served as ASTI President in 1997/’98. He was a member of the Points Commission which produced its report on 3rd level entry in 2000. He was a member of the Gaisce Presidents Award Board for 3 years. He was part of the NCCA committee that reformed the Leaving and Junior Certificate syllabus. He is currently a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland (NUI). He is also Chairperson of the Limerick SVP 3rd level grant committee. John has always been interested in the interrelationship between 2nd and 3rd level education and how it influences teaching and learning.

Dr. Eric Wolsztynski is a Statistics lecturer at the UCC School of Mathematical Sciences. He obtained his PhD in Statistical Signal and Image Processing at the University of Nice (France) in 2006. He specialises in computational statistics and statistical learning topics, and is actively involved in research in medical imaging analysis, risk characterisation in insurance, and predictive business analytics. He is a funded investigator at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics. Dr. Wolsztynski provides guidance on the statistical models used in Athena Analytics’ products. As a statistician, Dr Wolsztynski is enthusiastic to see modern statistical learning tools being applied to improve our understanding of students' academic management, and the practice of education as a whole.

Teresa Daly works as a Sales Administrator and Marketing Execute. Teresa manages all aspects of the customer journey including contacting new schools, getting new schools signed up and providing ongoing support for schools. Teresa also manages the social media for the business, including the development of explainer videos and other promotional content. Teresa has an undergraduate degree in Interactive Multimedia from the Institute of Technology Tralee and a Masters in Radio and Television Production from National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Teresa has a background in media and customer service. She joined Athena Analytics after moving back to Kerry from Sydney, Australia after 10 years, where she worked in various roles including 6 years at Technicolor, where she worked as Operations Manager on the data management team.

Sarah Brick works as Account Manager and Quality Assurance Engineer. Sarah works as an Account Manager in the business, including getting new customers signed up, as well as providing support to the Software Development team through Quality Assurance testing. Sarah has 10 years of experience in various customer service and bar management roles in London. She is currently doing a converter course into Computer Science, specifically in Quality Assurance and so she is part of both the Customer Support and Software Development teams.

Emily Brick founded Athena Analytics after returning to Ireland from Victoria, Australia where she worked as a Senior Data Scientist for the Department of Education. Prior to this, Emily worked in Data Science roles in Betfair and Musgrave Wholesale Partners. Although Emily has a strong passion for the role of machine learning in solving data problems, simplifying reporting, informing decision making; she also understands how machine learning and web-based software combined can be powerful in solving practical & logistical problems for end users in a timely and simple fashion. In late 2017, she saw an opportunity in the market for a machine learning package that would provide Irish secondary schools with a comprehensive, instant review of how their school performed in the State Examinations and so began Athena Analytics.

Caroline McEnery was appointed non-Executive Director of the company in May 2019, following an investment in the company. Caroline is the Founder and Managing Director of the HR Suite. The HR Suite offers human resources and business solutions to over 500 clients throughout Ireland. Caroline is also an adjudicator on the Workplace Relations Commission. Caroline now provides guidance on growing the business and implementing key systems & processes, including building teams in customer support and software development.

Patrick Slattery works as Customer Technical Support and trainee Data Scientist. Patrick helps schools with any technical issues they have on the software. He works with our Data Science team and is training to become a full time Data Scientist with the company. Patrick graduated with a BSc (Hons) Applied Mathematics and Physics in 2020 from University College Cork. Throughout college he worked with Reamda Robotics, in assembly, testing, and quality control.