Trinity College Alumni Awards
October 19 2023

On the evening, Kingsley Aikins, Chair of the Trinity Association & Trust, also received a special recognition award for his years of extraordinary service to Trinity College.

Congratulations to all our Awardees!

Kingsley Aikins

Bio:

Dublin born Kingsley Aikins is an Economics and Politics graduate of TCD who has worked in six countries around the world. He returned to live in Ireland in 2011 and established The Networking Institute. For ten years he worked for IDA Ireland and The Irish Trade Board and was based in Sydney. While there he established The Lansdowne Club – now one of the biggest Irish business networks outside Ireland. He then ran Ireland’s largest diaspora organisation, The Ireland Funds, and was based in Boston. During his 21 years with The Ireland Funds over a quarter of a billion dollars was raised for projects of Peace, Culture and Charity in Ireland.

He is a former Trinity, Irish Universities, Vichy (France) and Leinster rugby representative and a Knight of the Campanile. In 2011 he was awarded a CBE for his work on British-Irish relations. He has retained a close connection to Trinity in all the countries he has lived in and is currently Chairman of the Trinity Association & Trust. Twelve members of his extended family are Trinity graduates.

Rory Carroll

Current Position:

Irish Correspondent for the Guardian

Education:

Economics and Social Studies, 1994

Bio:

Rory Carroll is currently the Ireland correspondent for The Guardian. After graduating from Trinity, he began his career at The Irish News in Belfast (1995- 1997). From here he joined the Guardian where he has been a foreign correspondent for over two decades, covering Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, the Balkans, Latin America, Serbia, Yemen and the US. He is also the author of two very well-received books.

Carroll is noted for his powerful, brave, independent journalism. His reportage from Baghdad is a case in point, where, as Head of the Guardian’s bureau from 2005, he covered the US occupation, suicide bombings and growing sectarian tensions. In this year of the 25th anniversary of the GFA, Carroll is making the complexities of Northern Irish politics accessible to a wide audience.

Carroll was named young journalist of the year in Northern Ireland's media awards in 1997. From here his career has been marked by similar accolades for his political and social justice reporting. He was long-listed for the prestigious UK Orwell prize for his coverage of Mexico’s drug war and Haiti’s earthquake.

Alan Dargan

Current Position:

Founder, Lonsdale Capital Partners

Education:

Business, 1974

Bio:

Alan Dargan has had a stellar career as an international banker and latterly as an investment adviser and financier providing trusted investment advice to international governments, banks and corporates. Alan graduated from Trinity Business School in 1974 and went on to train as a chartered accountant with Stokes Kennedy Crowley (now KPMG). He has worked in private equity finance and investment banking for over 30 years, becoming a managing director at both UBS and Credit Suisse in New York and London. In 2009 he founded the London-based private equity firm Lonsdale Capital Partners, and operating from bases in London and Dublin, Alan has been instrumental in advising and sourcing financial investment and support for a number of Irish businesses. An integral part of Trinity, Alan also serves on the Provost’s Council.

Anne Enright

Current Position:

Author

Education:

English and French, 1985

Bio:

Writer Anne Enright is the author of seven novels, two books of short stories and a book of essays on motherhood. Her essays have appeared in the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books, she has also written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Dublin Review and The Paris Review. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a BA in English & Philosophy, then studied under Angela Carter and Malcolm Bradbury in East Anglia's acclaimed Creative Writing Course, earning her MA. She was a television producer and director at RTE for several years before turning to writing full time. She is a Professor of Creative Writing in the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD. Anne was appointed the first Laureate for Irish Fiction (2015-2018) by then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Her second novel, What are you like?, was shortlisted for the 2000 Whitbread Awards. She won the Man Booker Prize (2007) for her fourth novel The Gathering. Her novel The Forgotten Waltz won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction (2012) and was shortlisted for The Orange Prize that same year. She has won the Irish Novel of the Year award twice (2008 & 2016). She received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2018. Her work has been translated into almost 40 languages. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature in 2007.

Pat Gilroy

Current Position:

Managing Director of Breedon Ireland

Education:

Engineering, 1993

Bio:

Pat Gilroy gradated engineering in 1993. Since graduating he has worked in the Energy, Waste, Water and Construction sectors for the last nineteen years at CEO and COO level. He has worked for Veolia, Dalkia, ESB and was a founder of a facility management company FP2 which was later acquired by Dalkia. He is currently the managing director of Breedon Ireland.

Pat was a founder of FP2, a board member of One51 PLC and of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). He is a former President of the Ireland-France Chamber of Commerce and was awarded a Chevalier of the Ordre Du Merite in November 2015 in recognition of his work in developing a French business in Ireland.

He is best recognised for his contribution to Dublin GAA, managing the side from 2009-2012 and leading them to their 2011 All-Ireland title, the first in 16 years. Under his leadership Dublin also won Leinster titles in 2009, 2011 and 2012.

Susan Hopkins

Current Position:

Director of the UK National Strategic Response, Epidemiologist

Education:

Medicine, 1997

Bio:

Susan Hopkins graduated in medicine in 1997 and trained in infectious diseases and epidemiology in Ireland, UK, and France. She is a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Royal Free London and Professor of Infectious Diseases and Health Security at UCL. She was UK National strategic response director for Covid-19 from 2020-22. She is currently the Chief medical advisor to the UK Health Security Agency. She has received the Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award and an honorary CBE.

As director of the UK National Strategic Response for Covid-19 she led the UK through the worldwide pandemic.

Paul Johnston

Current Position:

Chairman of Exponent

Education:

Engineering, 1976

Bio:

Paul Johnston is Chairman of Exponent, Inc., an engineering and scientific consulting firm headquartered in California with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. He joined the company in 1981, became Chief Operating Officer in 2003 and was Chief Executive Officer from 2009 until 2018. Paul was previously Consulting Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at Stanford and a member of the Stanford School of Engineering Advisory Council and the Trinity Engineering Board. He graduated from Trinity with an engineering degree in 1976, having been elected a scholar the previous year. He went on to earn M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering at Stanford University in 1981. Paul has been on the Provost’s Council of Trinity College since its inception.

Kenneth Jones

Current Position:

Pipe Organ Builder

Education:

Engineering, 1957

Bio:

Kenneth Jones was passionately musical as a youth, Jones was also an able mathematician and engineer. After graduating from Engineering in 1957 he worked in Nigeria, where his interest in organs grew and he spent long leave periods working with a famous organ builder in Holland. He built 25 organs in Africa then returned to Dublin in 1972 and started an organ-building firm in Bray. Over 30+ years, his firm built an extraordinary reputation designing and building superb new organs, and reconstructing and restoring historic ones, all across the globe. These include many famous instruments, among them the historic organ at Tewkesbury Abbey. Jones’ original organs are visually beautiful and hugely varied, his work remarkable for its continuous, practical development. He was also a musician and conductor, and founder of the Dublin Orchestral Players.

Aubrey McCarthy

Current Position:

Founder of Tiglin

Education:

Business Administration and Management, 1993

Bio:

AMC is a founder of the charity called Tiglin (founded in 2008); it provides services to the most vulnerable members of society ranging from frontline homeless work, rehabilitation, post-rehab aftercare, transitional housing, counselling, employment programs, education programs, refugee housing, social enterprise and more.

Aubrey works full time running two small businesses while he is also the Chairman of DCM, South West Drugs and Alcohol Task Force, and Bluebell Regenerations Committee, as well as a Board member of Casadh. Currently, Tiglin runs seven services; Men's Residential Rehabilitation Centre, Women's Residential Rehabilitation, Carraig Eden Aftercare, Coolnagreina refugee hub, Greystones Rise at the Cove Social Enterprise Café, Jigginstown Manor Tiglin Lighthouse Homeless Café, Aubrey has developed a social impact organisation from zero.

Eva Pau

Current Position:

Entrepreneur, Community Leader

Education:

Information and Communications Technology, 2003

Bio:

Eva completed her university studies at Trinity in 2003 and Lancaster in 2005). She went on to work in international finance in Hong Kong, before returning to Dublin in 2012 to take on the role of Commercial Director of Asia Market. With a turnover of €56m, Asia Market is Ireland’s largest Asian food retailer, wholesaler, and distributor with over 160 multinational employees. A successful family business, established in 1981, it has grown exponentially over the last 10 years to include the original Drury Street store, a larger outlet in Ballymount, a thriving on-line store and Duck, a Hong-Kong style barbecue restaurant. Eva plans for further growth and expansion which will see Asia Market become Ireland’s one stop shop for all things Asian in Ireland.

Eva is one of Ireland’s leading businesswomen. Eva’s success in transforming a small family business was recognised in 2022 when she was awarded IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year. Eva has extensive knowledge of the Chinese communities in both Ireland and China. She is a member of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies Advisory Council, which provides independent advice on the centre’s strategy and external engagement, as well as the Vice Chair of the Chinese Society of Ireland. She is recognised as a leader in Ireland’s food industry and is a regular contributor to Ireland AM. As one of the most prominent Asian women in Ireland, Eva’s achievements in business also make her a representative of, and role model for, the Asian community in Ireland.

Fotini Rantsiou

Current Position:

Humanitarian Worker

Education:

M.Phil Peace Studies, 1997

Bio:

Fotini was born and raised in Greece. The Yugoslav wars of the 1990s had a profound impact on her and she decided to follow an MPhil in Peace Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. After her graduation, in 1998 she was seconded by Ireland to the United Nations Mission in Guatemala as a Human Rights Observer. This first deployment opened the way to a career in international organisations, mainly with the UN, but also the European Union, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in the humanitarian, human rights and electoral sectors, in a number of countries in Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Africa, Balkans.

She has worked with MSF and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Palestine (UNRWA); with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Geneva, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Turkey; with the EU and the OSCE Election Observation Missions in Palestine, Lebanon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Venezuela, Bolivia, Bosnia, Serbia. She is currently assigned in Niger with UNOCHA, in charge of humanitarian access issues.

During a break from international work, she supported the refugee response on the Greek islands during the crisis from 2015 to 2017. She specialises in emergency response to conflict and natural disaster emergencies. She is fluent in Greek, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and working on her Arabic. While spending time in Jerusalem, she met Ihab whom she now shares her life with. She still has itchy feet and loves knowing new places and cultures.