Mary Moloney on stage at Inspirefest 2015. Image: Conor McCabe Photography
After two years at the helm of one of the most exciting global movements to emerge from Ireland, Mary Moloney is to step down as CEO of CoderDojo.
Founded five years ago in Cork, on a Saturday morning in July, by James Whelton and Bill Liao, CoderDojo began with the premise to teach kids to code and above all, “be cool.”
The movement has grown during Moloney’s two-year-long leadership tenure to incorporate more than 1,090 Dojos taking place across 63 countries, teaching thousands of kids to code.
The success of CoderDojo inspired Education Minister Richard Bruton TD in recent weeks to call on the Irish education system to prioritise coding in Irish schools.
The warrior code
“Meeting many of our Ninjas from around the world at their Dojos, at events and conferences which they attend, and at CoderDojo Coolest Projects, it’s clear the positive impact that CoderDojo is having on their young lives and how all of the volunteers are helping to equip them to be successful, now and in their promising futures,” Moloney said today.
“The Foundation team has also itself developed over the last couple of years, and is now a well-established team of passionate, capable, skilled people who are focused on supporting the movement as it continues to grow and to develop.”
Moloney is taking up a senior role with global advisory firm Teneo Holdings.
She said that she will continue to be part of the CoderDojo movement as a board member of the Foundation, a Dojo volunteer, and as a mother of two Ninjas.
She said that the recruitment process for a new CEO has begun, “the location of which will depend on where the individual can have most impact for the global and growing movement.”
