Meet Dorothy Creaven, VP, Managing Director & Site Lead at RTR
Tell us about yourself, your background, and how you got to RTR
I grew up in County Clare in the South-West of Ireland, with my parents and siblings all being entrepreneurs at one point or another. I moved to Galway when I was 17 to start university, so I consider myself a true Galwegian at this stage. I’m married to my husband, James, and we live by the sea in Salthill just a few minutes from Galway city centre. Outside of work, I love to spend time with close friends and family, traveling to near and far-flung places, skiing, running, health-tech… and spending time on my Vespa scooter.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering, and started my career as a software engineer specialising in DSP (digital signal processing) and music production, writing real-time audio plugins for ProTools and Cubase which I loved.
I’ve worked for lots of companies throughout my career from small startups to large multinationals including Google and Abbott. I also founded my own tech startup in 2010 - successfully operating from Ireland and trading into mainland Europe from 2010 to 2017. Post startup, I took some time out to travel to Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand for a few months with James before moving to Dublin to work for EPAM, where I was responsible for a few hundred engineers mainly in Ukraine and Belarus.
In late 2018, I was approached by RTR about starting our Ireland office, so I relocated back to Galway, and was our first RTR Ireland employee in 2019. I spent a lot of time in the first year building out our first international office in Galway – creating new processes, building teams, finding local suppliers and partners, and much more. Our Ireland office has continued to grow significantly since then, and now we have 75 employees in Ireland across 12 teams including Engineering, Product, Machine-Learning, Office Operations, and People.
More specifically about my role, I’m responsible for a number of software engineering teams, as well as being responsible for the Ireland office as a whole which of course includes all of our employees who are based here. My day-to-day role covers everything from software development and delivery of initiatives, to more Ireland-specific operational oversight including finance, legal, facilities, IT, employer branding, PR, and office operations.
What inspired you to enter the tech industry, and what advice would you give to women looking to break into the field of tech?
I loved studying physics and maths in school, and was passionate about figuring out how things worked, so a career in Tech made sense. When I was a kid, I enjoyed taking things apart (usually radios, much to my parents' dismay!) and putting them back together, so studying Electronic Engineering at university seemed like a natural fit.
The advice I would give to other women, whatever their career choice, is this:
Remember that you are the sole person responsible for forging your own career – decide what you want to do and go after it. Be specific – create a clear plan of what success looks like to you and then work backwards: outline the steps you believe you need to take along the way, the people you may need to meet, and any other details or dependencies. And most of all, don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
Also, find yourself a mentor and a bunch of role models. These days, we can pretty much access content from anyone online – from incredible women giving amazing TEDx Talks on YouTube, brilliant interviews in online articles, published research from industry journals… the list is literally endless.
Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of a strong network so get out there and meet lots of people in your industry or vertical who will push you to keep learning and growing.
How do you keep yourself informed about the latest trends in Tech?
I tend to read a lot of articles, and I also listen to a bunch of podcasts when I go running, mainly from tech founders, investors and journalists around the world including Charlie Taylor, Jess Kelly, Adrian Weckler, Kara Swisher, and Ben Evans, to name a few. I also listen to audiobooks as it’s a great way to get through a book without needing to sit down and read it.
DC Recommends - Podcasts:
Desert Island Discs by BBC Radio 4
Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman
Tech Talk with Jess Kelly
The Big Tech Show with Adrian Weckler
The Women’s Podcast by The Irish Times
The Dr Louise Newson Podcast
Second Life by Hillary Kerr
The Business of Fashion Podcast
How I Built This with Guy Raz
Boss Files with Poppy Harlow
What keeps you inspired? Has there been someone that’s been inspirational to you?
When I was growing up, my father was inspirational to me – he started his own company in the 1960s in a tiny town in Ireland, and he began exporting hardware units from there to China when he was just 28. He taught me the importance of having a strong work ethic, being independent, building trust, and to help others along the way whenever you can.
What keeps me inspired are people who reach “unreachable” goals. For example, breaking a world record in the 100m sprint, or being the first person in space. I believe in breaking down perceptions and barriers – just because something has never been done before doesn’t mean it never will be done… it just hasn’t been done yet. And, I do my best to apply this to my own life whenever I can.
I’m also inspired by my husband, as well as some of my closest friends and my RTR coworkers. They really are some of the smartest people I know – I’m always learning something new and interesting which keeps me continually growing and moving forward.
What do you want your legacy to be?
That I helped to create opportunities for other people, and advocated for those who couldn’t advocate for themselves.
