KPMG Announces Recipient of Inaugural Denis O’Connor KPMG Doctoral Scholarship at UCD Smurfit School 3 December 2009

Kate Cullen has been awarded the inaugural Denis O’Connor KPMG Doctoral Scholarship in Accounting at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Kindly endowed by KPMG, this Scholarship celebrates the achievement and leadership of the late Denis O’Connor, former Managing Partner of KPMG in Ireland, who passed away in 2006. The Scholarship will contribute substantively to building the next generation of accounting educators and professionals in Ireland. Kate is a first class honours BComm (03) and MBS in Financial Services (04) graduate of UCD.

Speaking at the Scholarship announcement, Kate said, “I am honoured to be the recipient of the inaugural Denis O’Connor KPMG Scholarship. It will help secure my goal to pursue a career in academia, combining research and teaching. I hope to impart a real enthusiasm about accountancy to students, as there is a great appetite for high level study around finance and accountancy. The more people learn about corporate governance, financial accounting and risk, the more we improve financial awareness, thus helping economic recovery.”

Kate has previously worked as an analyst with Davy Stockbrokers and, more recently, as a management consultant with Deloitte in Dublin. She is currently completing her CIMA exams where she has consistently been placed in the top 10 in Ireland, including first place in Ireland in Financial Statement Analysis. Her research proposal is entitled “The Implications of Impression Management in Narrative Disclosures for Users of Annual Reports”.

Terence O’Rourke, Managing Partner of KPMG in Ireland and former colleague of O’Connor’s, looks forward to the calibre of graduate the scholarship will produce. “Denis was a thoughtful, caring man with great business acumen and a wonderful insight into both his clients’ businesses and KPMG. We hope that this scholarship will help to foster the qualities of dedication and professionalism that Denis personified, and it is something that KPMG is honoured to help create in his memory.”

The Scholarship attracted applicants of the highest quality and selection was through open competition. Speaking about the scholarship, Tom Begley, Dean of UCD Smurfit School, noted the importance of philanthropy in education in Ireland.

“The great and iconic business schools of the world have achieved their status through the generosity of their benefactors. Like all top schools, UCD Smurfit has benefitted from contributions by far-sighted friends—friends like Denis O’Connor and KPMG. This scholarship is a generous and worthy recognition of Denis’ memory. It is an investment in our future, as well as in the future of accounting, and goes far beyond the amount of the gift. It inspires the entire Smurfit School community—now and for generations to come—to strive for more and to work as hard as possible to make a better world.”

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Notes to Editors

• KPMG in Ireland has 80 partners and 1900 people in offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway.
• KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 144 countries and have 137,000 people working in member firms around the world.

For further information, please contact:
Dave Deighan
Head of Communications
KPMG
Tel: +353 (1) 410 2371
Mobile: +353 (0) 87 744 2371
e-Mail: david.deighan@kpmg.ie