Mary McKenna

Mary McKenna is an Irish exited serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor. She co-founded successful edtech business Learning Pool and since selling that company, has worked extensively with early stage and scaling ventures across the entire European ecosystem.

Mary has angel invested in 35+ early stage tech startups to date and in 2023 launched Ireland’s first and only women-led angel syndicate, AwakenAngels.

Mary is a distinguished visiting Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Oxford and she was both the European Female Business Angel of the Year and the UK Business Angels Association UK Angel of the Year in 2023. Mary works as an Innovation Expert for the EU on their flagship €9bn EIC Accelerator, part of Horizon Europe.

She is a visible role model, commentator and speaker, well respected across Europe’s tech community and frequently quoted in the media.

Mary was awarded an MBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2014 New Year’s Honours for services to digital technology, innovation and learning.