Faced with an acute market shortage of specialised XR developers, Mersus pivoted from traditional hiring to engineering talent from within – “When women are empowered to lead, we don’t just change the game, we build a better one,” said Brenda Mannion, COO of Mersus Technologies. “This award is a testament to what happens when women come together: we have built a self-sustaining talent ecosystem. Our replicable model proves that commercial strength is born from human potential, and it’s a blueprint forged by female leadership at every level. ”
Mersus Technologies, an Athlone-based Extended Reality (XR) Software development company specialising in creating immersive XR training and experiential solutions for enterprise clients, has won the Excellence in Talent Development Award for its groundbreaking strategy to solve the critical XR talent shortage at the 33rd annual Technology Ireland Industry Awards (2025).
Mersus clinched the award in a highly competitive field, which included multinational brands, such as Fineos, Fidelity, Ericsson, and Vistatec. The Mersus Technologies team see their innovative strategy as having the potential to become Ireland’s premier national talent-development model.
Founded by Geoffrey Allen and Dermot Condron, Mersus Technologies has fostered a culture where groundbreaking, female-led initiatives can flourish. This is evidenced by the winning initiative, devised and developed by COO Brenda Mannion, with Fiona Moran executing its daily operations, and powerfully validated by the rapid success of TUS student Lea Bogvic, who created an entire XR training experience using Avatar Academy in under a month after receiving dedicated training and mentorship at Mersus. Together, their achievements demonstrate that the future of tech innovation is not just female-friendly but female-powered.
‘When women are empowered to lead, we don’t just change the game—we build a better one,” said Brenda Mannion, COO of Mersus Technologies. “This award is a testament to what happens when women come together: we have built a self-sustaining talent ecosystem. Our replicable model proves that commercial strength is born from human potential, and it’s a blueprint forged by female leadership at every level.” The result is not just loyal, future-ready professionals but also measurable business advantages in efficiency, innovation, and client success. We are proud to offer a blueprint for talent excellence that strengthens both our company and the broader Irish technology landscape.”
Faced with an acute market shortage of specialised XR developers, Mersus pivoted from traditional hiring to engineering talent from within.
“Our talent strategy is our business strategy,” Mannion elaborated. “We turned the industry’s specialist shortage from our biggest risk into a competitive advantage. We don’t just offer a job; we offer a defined pathway to become a leader in the XR industry. While others compete for a scarce pool of senior experts, we tap into a vast pool of potential.”
This philosophy is backed by a non-negotiable commitment to neurodiversity and inclusion and has yielded impressive results, including a near-doubling of intern intake from 17 to 32 in a single year, resulting in 100% of our team leads being developed internally
Reflecting on the momentum, co-founder Dermot Condron emphasised, “Our reputation for talent development is now a key global draw. This can be attributed to the availability of our Avatar Academy app on the Meta App Store, which allows anyone to download the software and try it out with an Oculus headset. As demand for this new media increases, the application of computer gaming technology for industrial software is set to become a dominant trend.”
To learn more about Mersus Technologies and their award-winning talent model, visit their website at Mersus.io, follow #SkillsInAHeadset on LinkedIn, or contact their office to see their software in action.
Contact
Geoff Allen,
Mersus Technologies
geoff@mersus.ie
087-7076006
