Meet the Team

Meet the team

The Postgraduate Certificate in Digital Media Communication (DMC) is both developed and delivered by a multidisciplinary team of academics and professional practitioners with both Communication and ICT expertise.

DMC Academic Team

Fiona McMahon (Course Director)

Fiona is the Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Digital Media Communication. She lectures in Communication and Advertising and has 10 years experience working in advertising and marketing both locally and abroad. Her research interests include online advertising, small firm marketing, Internet marketing and e-business adoption. She is currently undertaking doctoral research into how small firms can leverage advanced Internet use to create competitive advantage.

Professor Maurice Mulvenna

Maurice Mulvenna is Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computing and Mathematics at the University of Ulster, and a senior member of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery. He is also a chartered member of the British Computer Society. Prof. Mulvenna is a board member in the University of Ulster venturing company, Innovation Ulster Ltd, as well as a non-executive director in several companies. His main research interests include artificial intelligence, social and pervasive computing, and inclusive computing. He is also widely consulted on Internet technologies and techniques including search engine optimization and electronic commerce.

Dr. Aodheen O’Donnell
Aodheen O’Donnell is a senior lecturer in Advertising and Communication in the School of Communication at the University of Ulster.  She is Course Director of the BSc Communication, Advertising and Marketing programme on the Jordanstown campus. Prior to an academic career, Aodheen worked in marketing positions in the voluntary and private sectors.  Her research interests are in the fields of advertising, small firm marketing and financial services marketing, with a particular focus on the relationship between face-to-face and remote forms of communication.

Dr. Valerie Purchase
Valerie recently moved from the School of Management, University of Bath to join the School of Communication as a Lecturer in Organisational Communication.  She has worked extensively with a broad range of public and private sector organisations in the design and implementation of organisational transformation.  Her research interests lie in managing and leading change across multi-organisational enterprises, and in particular, dialogue among key stakeholders in change.  Current research focuses on value co-creation in complex multi-organisational collaborations.

Jonathan Wallace

Jonathan Wallace is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster. His excellence in both Knowledge & Technology Transfer and lecturing has been recognised by his being awarded both a Distinguished Business Fellowship and Distinguished Teaching Fellowship. He has for the last ten years, been Director of Knowledge and Technology Transfer for the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, with direct responsibility for the commercialisation of the Faculty’s research, industrial collaboration and consultancy provision. Mr Wallace is a member of the IET Policy Group for Northern Ireland and Chair of the Regional Steering Committee for Engineering UK. Jonathan is also Chair of OPEN-NI a multi-stakeholder cross-sectoral group who strategically promote awareness, understanding, development and uptake of free and open source software across both the private and public sectors. He has lectured for over 20 years in Information Technology across undergraduate, postgraduate and CPD programmes. He is a published subject expert in Usability, User-Centred Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Instructional Design, Advanced Multimedia & Internet Technologies, Connected Health, Telecommunications, Knowledge Based Systems and Requirements Engineering.

DMC Professional Practitioner Team

Ruairi McNally
Ruairi McNally is the Media Director for Bluecube Interactive, voted Digital Web Development/Design agency of the year in 2010. Ruairi’s areas of expertise include website design, online advertising, (in particular the strategic planning, buying, tracking and analysis of display and Pay per Click campaigns), Search Engine Optimisation, and social media engagement strategies. He has worked with clients including BT, AXA Insurance, Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Aer Lingus, Ulster Bank and Jameson Whiskey. Ruairi is a founder board member of digital industry body IAB Ireland, and writes the monthly column ‘Watching the Web’ in the Belfast Telegraph Business section.

Paul McKeever
Paul McKeever is co-founder of Front, a customer-experience design and web development studio specialising in providing strategic, interactive web solutions for clients. Paul’s areas of expertise include digital marketing; web strategy; product/service quality on the web;user experience design and usability testing, online communities and analytics. He has served as a non-executive Director of Momentum – the trade association for ICT companies in Northern Ireland. Paul is a certified web developer, active member of the Marketing Institute Ireland, and a professionally qualified project manager.