Edel Kelly – Genesys – A finalist in the Expleo WMB Woman in Technology Award category
11th March 2022
Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing you to our WMB Award Finalists. Ultimately there will be one winner in each of our five Award categories, to be announced at our Conference & Awards on May 16th. If you’d like to attend our Conference & Awards, you can book now>>
Here, we introduce you to Edel Kelly of Genesys, a finalist in the Expleo WMB Woman in Technology Award category.
Title and Company name
Senior Manager, Development. Genesys.
Sector & size of operation
Genesys is an American software company that sells customer experience (CX) and call center technology to mid-sized and large businesses. Genesys works with more than 7000 companies in over 100 countries. The company employees over 6000 people worldwide.
You originally hail from
I am originally from North Co Mayo.
Single or relationship
Married to Fergus for 14 years – we have two daughters Muireann aged 8 and Aeveen aged 12.
What is the best part of your job
Being part of a team is the highlight. I love working closely with others building and creating every day.
And the most challenging
As deadlines draw closer it can be challenging to bring everything together. Attention to detail and excellent communication throughout the project life cycle is critical and pays off dividends as we bring our features to our customers on time and with quality.
Your definition of success
Success is a feeling and I believe being able to strike the right balance in your life between work and home will deliver it. Sharing your time and energy as you need to on what builds you up is critical to feeling successful.
Best trait
I am very loyal, to my family and my team I work with.
Worst trait
Impatience… I work hard to try and have more patience because jumping in is not always the right approach.
Biggest ‘win’ to date
I was delighted to be on the team bringing the Genesys predictive routing product to our customers. Routing in contact centers is in place for decades and has evolved but now being able to apply machine learning to this process is a step towards revolutionizing this functionality. It makes it possible to make tangible the Genesys goal of providing empathy as a service to our customers.
Who inspires you most
It is too difficult to pick one person, so I list a few here under distinct categories
•Leadership: Women that have achieved so much in their careers reaching the upper levels of leadership and use their platform to encourage others. Women such as Mary Robinson, Michelle Obama, Sheryl Sandberg, Hillary Clinton.
•Climate Change: Those who bring awareness to how vulnerable our planet is and how we must do more to ensure as custodians we leave the future generations a healthy planet earth. Greta Thunberg fights on against the odds to make a difference.
•Sport: Sonia O’Sullivan former world champion, Caitriona McKiernan world cross country silver medalist. Parkrun organisers, local community club coaches and all those that volunteer to encourage people to stay active.
Name two things on your ‘bucket list’
I would love to complete a marathon someday.
I would like to return part time to college in the future to complete a masters.
What does it mean for you to be a woman in business today
As a young engineer starting out in technology, I was happy to be able to express myself and be creative building products. I was always aware of the minority of women in my industry however it never impacted my work as I was always encouraged to follow my passions and make progress on my goals.
Now the mother of two young girls I want to do what I can to be visible in my leadership role. I want everyone that is coming through the educational system no matter their gender or background to know that if you have an interest in technology then there are very satisfactory career options here for you.
I want to help remove the perception that IT (Information Technology) only suits a certain persona and share the variety of roles within the sector. I will take every opportunity to communicate that IT needs diverse teams to ensure solutions are inclusive and the best possible.
Best advice to pass on.
It is so important to have long term goals to work towards. If you fall away from their path do not be discouraged, be kind to yourself, what is in the past stays there and start again towards them.
A great time to do that is now.
