Emma Gilroy – Bachelor of Business (Honours)

Name: Emma Gilroy

From: Sligo

School: Ursuline College, Sligo

Current Job: Head of Global Customer Operations for AdRoll

Shortly after I finished my studies I got a job interview. I arrived at the interview prepared with my portfolio in hand, packed with case studies, marketing analysis and project work. I could clearly illustrate my understanding and knowledge of real business challenges coming fresh out the door from ATU Sligo.

It was an entry level job as a Marketing Assistant in a local radio station. After a year of hard work, I proved my value and managed to carve out a brand new role in the company for myself as a Digital Marketing Manager. This next venture enabled me to think creatively, and innovate new revenue generating streams that included an online discount store, a website redesign to incorporate new advertising opportunities and subsequently launched a telesales team to help drive and support this growth.

After three and a half years, I was ready for the next challenge. I joined an American AdTech startup called AdRoll that opened its EMEA headquarters in Dublin early 2014. I was part of the launch team which saw the Dublin office grow from a 20 person team to 100 within its first year. I joined AdRoll as an Account Strategist where I had to manage clients campaigns, communicate their advertising performance and ultimately grow their business. I was new to Adtech but had learnt strong business acumen during my time in ATU Sligo which enabled me to progress quickly.

Within a year I was promoted to an Account Manager where I managed bigger clients across various world markets. I soon became a valuable member of the senior team where I contributed to the development of our business strategies and operations. This led me to a business operations position where I managed a 70 person vendor programme in India. I ensured we ran an efficient and successful programme supporting all our global offices and teams throughout the US, Tokyo, Europe & Australia.

After a year working in a global role, time zones were challenging and our New York office offered a unique opportunity. I relocated to New York to manage an internal Ad Operations team of performance specialists within New York and Dublin. This move into people management as a team lead was successful. My responsibilities and area of scope continued to expand as I took over the entire global team managing people in Tokyo, Dublin, New York and San Francisco.

This new alignment offered an opportunity to lead up our entire client services department. This department was comprised of a number of teams – creative services, customer success, AdOps, client insights analysts and customer support. Having assumed the Head of Client Services role and as I continually achieved my quarterly targets, I was rewarded with a Director Position in the company. I now oversee a cross collaborative, global and dynamic team of 30 internal employees and 130 outsourced agents within our newly defined Customer Operations Department.

It has been quite a journey! There has been a lot of hard work but I also know my degree from ATU Sligo has played a vital role.

Classes in ATU Sligo are more intimate and that definitely worked in my favour. I managed to form really close friendships during my time, meeting and working with really smart and fun people. Project work was widely encouraged in the degree and that gave me a great opportunity to get to know others and work in teams of two, six or even twelve! While challenging to manage a group of twelve people and achieve deadlines, it definitely teaches you how to collaborate as a team, delegate and manage time more effectively which was a huge skill to come away with.

One close friend and I even had the opportunity to launch our own marketing company, fully branded and work on real life businesses which was a personal highlight of mine. In addition, there is an excellent calibre of inspirational lecturers that I was fortunate to learn from. A built in work placement was just another wonderful aspect of the degree.

A business degree can take you anywhere. I am proof that an ATU Sligo business degree can take you anywhere in the world!

Find out more about AU900 Bachelor of Business (Honours)

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Find out more about AU700 Higher Certificate in Business