Angela Moore
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESSDELIVERED BY PROFESSOR ANTHONY BRABAZON, Principal and Dean of the College of Business on 3 September 2024, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Economic Science, honoris causa on ANGELA HUGHES MOORE.
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President, Graduates, Colleagues, Honoured Guests,
It is my honour this morning to introduce Angela Moore, entrepreneur, businesswoman, and philanthropist.
Hailing from Newry, Co Down, Angela received her undergraduate education at St. Mary’s College - Queens University Belfast, and subsequently studied at George Washington University in the US.
Splitting her time between the US and Ireland, Angela’s business interests span both sides of the Atlantic.
She is Managing Partner of Ravensdale Capital, an investment fund which provides angel and venture capital investment to start-up and early-stage technology businesses with a focus on consumer data analytics and decision sciences.
She is also Managing Director of Macha Capital Partners, a private investment fund focused on making investments in emerging, growth-orientated business in Ireland, with a special focus on women-led initiatives.Angela is also Chair of the Board of the Virginia Distillery Company.
Taking just a selection of her other activities, Angela serves on the boards of multiple organisations, including: the North American Northern Ireland Advisory Council; Women in Business NI; the Governance Board at Crescent Capital; North American Friends of the Lyric Theater Belfast; Somos Amigos Medical Missions; and is a member of the Irish Global Economic Forum. Angela is also Vice Chair of the Ireland Funds in America.
In the context of UCD, Angela has long-standing and close links with the university and has served as an active and valued member of the College of Business Advisory Board for many years.
A common strand running through all these engagements is Angela’s selfless focus on societal development and to the building of a better world for us all.
Amongst the themes closest to Angela’s heart are the encouragement and support of budding entrepreneurs, and closely aligned with that, a fundamental belief in the capability of education to transform understanding, transform perspective, transform opportunity, and ultimately, to transform society.
Along with her late husband George, a serial entrepreneur and one of the founding fathers of the global data analytics industry, Angela and the Moore family have generously supported investment in the education of future generations.
Strategically, this philanthropic support has enabled important capacity building projects in educational institutions across Ireland to support transformational changes in educational provision.
This capacity building has been complemented by the funding of several scholarship programmes, including the all-island George Moore Scholars programme founded in 2020, enabling many to access educational opportunity that might otherwise have been out of reach.
Particularly relevant to you our graduates today is the support that has been provided for your education by the Moore Centre for Business in the Quinn School at UCD.
First conceived as a vision for the future of business education, the centre embodies a unique educational setting, focussed on creating an environment to support team work and interaction, collaborative learning in the classroom, and also incorporating technology-enabled learning,in order to provide a transformational educational experience which equips you with the capabilities and confidence, indeed - ‘the courage of your convictions’ - to reach for your dreams.
At the opening of the UCD Moore Centre for Business in September 2019, Angela delivered a moving speech addressing all students present, stating:
“This is where your world opens up. The people that you will meet, the confidence that you will build ...”
She also commented “…. and when you leave here, remember who helped you, and what you got from UCD. Be sure to give back and pay it forward.”
What better encapsulation could there be of the idea of educational transformation and of the associated obligation on everyone who has benefited from this gift to make our world better in the future
In honouring Angela Moore today, we recognise her many accomplishments as a business leader, as an entrepreneur, as a mentor, and as a leader of educational transformation.
Most of all we recognise her as an inspirational and empowering role model for us all.
I am honoured to present to you – Angela Moore.
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Praehonorabilis Praeses Pro Tempore, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in Scientia Oeconomica; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.