News Article

ICS Computing MD wins prestigious 'IT Professional of the Year Award'

29 January 2008

The Long Gallery at Stormont recently played host to the Northern Ireland IT Professional of the Year award presented by the Belfast branch of the British Computer Society (BCS). The annual award was presented to David Mawhinney, Managing Director of ICS Computing, in recognition of his contribution to the IT industry.

Karen Flanagan, Secretary of the Belfast BCS branch explains: "The judging panel, made up of BCS Belfast past chairs and previous winners, felt that David deserved the title for his outstanding contribution to the industry with the development and growth of ICS Computing ,a leading provider in the UK and Ireland of HR and Payroll solutions, Accounting and Distribution software and Public Sector Software . In recent years, the business has doubled in size and also expanded into the Irish republic after making an impact on the UK market."

"I am delighted to receive this recognition from the British Computer Society," said David. "I have been with ICS for over 20 years, and over that period we have grown from a small local company to a major player in the IT industry - we now employ almost 300 people at our offices across the UK and our software development centre in India. We have a great team of software professionals who have been key in helping us drive our business forward, and with a number of major new contracts on the horizon, I look forward to further expansion in the years to come."

David joins a celebrated list of academics, researchers and business leaders who have been named IT Professional of the Year including: Padraig Canavan, the founder of Singularity, Prof. John McCanny and Robert McLaughlin, an honorary lecturer in Computer Science at Queen's Belfast and a visiting professor at the University of Ulster, and the first recipient of the award in 1987.

This is the first year that the event, which was sponsored by Parity, has been held at Stormont. BCS Belfast Branch chair John Fowler says: "We are highly honoured to be invited to the Long Gallery and the heart of our government for this prestigious occasion. It reflects the central role that IT now plays not only in our everyday lives, but also in our economy and government."