Sonica celebrated its inaugural Uncompromising Excellence Awards in recognition of the greatest achievements among employees for 2020. The Awards were held in response to a stellar year of growth for Sonica and to celebrate and recognise team members who have been instrumental in helping the business to flourish on the national and international stage during 2020.

The ceremony was held virtually and hosted by Donnacha Neary, Sonica MD. The Awards were overseen by a committee and saw employees vote for their team members across 13 different categories.

The main award winners were:

Employee of the Year: Margo Lynch

• Margo works as Head of Accounts Payable and was awarded the inaugural Sonica Employee of the Year due to her inspirational resilience after a difficult year personally and for her commitment to the business.

Project Team of the Year: Virgin Media 

• This team was headed up by Andreas Heil, Head of Design and Architecture at Sonica. The project saw colleagues from within the team support on the delivery of the Design and Build Project at Virgin Media Ireland.

Health and Safety Champion of the Year: Aoife Gilheany

• Aoife works as Health and Safety Manager at Sonica and showed outstanding commitment and diligence throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, ensuring her colleagues knew how best to protect themselves and others and in the delivery of over 100,000 hours worked without a reportable incident for the year.

Congratulating his team on a job well done, Donnacha Neary said: “I want to congratulate each of the award winners and finalists on their contribution to Sonica over the last 12 months. These are our first-ever Sonica Uncompromising Excellence Awards and this year it was more important than ever to recognise and celebrate our team’s achievements. Throughout, our team has pulled out all the stops, kept up the energy, and got the work done. Due to their dedication and commitment, we’ve now entered an exciting new chapter for Sonica where we are not only growing but flourishing on a national and international basis.”

Winners in the other categories were:

• Client Service Award: Andreas Heil, Head of Design and Architecture
• Finance Guru Award: Izabela Ferreira, QS
• Outstanding Service Award: Ben Tetis, Project Manager and Stuart Cash, Logistics Manager (joint winners)
• The ‘Rock’: Doug Ito, Project Manager
• The ‘Trendsetter’: Maura Cleary, Finance Director
• Team Player Award: Bea Els, QS
• The ‘Mentor’: Ray Argue, Head of Engineering
• Brand Champion: Iris Kavanagh, Head of Marketing
• ‘Brainiac’: John Donnelly, Project Manager
• Going the ‘extra mile: Linda Carthy, Business Centre Manager and Mark Farrell, Project Manager (joint winners)

Sonica MD Donnacha Neary was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year at the annual All Ireland Business ceremony. Described at the event as ‘the best at what you do’, Donnacha was recognised for the growth of Sonica over the past eight years and for his innovation and commitment to fit out and interior construction in Ireland and abroad. Sonica was also awarded the coveted All-Ireland Business All-Star accreditation for the second year in a row. The company also enjoyed success at the Irish Construction Excellence Awards 2020 (ICE Awards 2020) with its ConsenSys project at Shelbourne Plaza, clinching the award in the Fit Out or Refurbishment Under €5m category. Established in 1993 the Irish Construction Excellence Awards (ICE Awards) are the original and premier recognition of performance excellence for the contracting sector in Ireland.

Sonica will formally open its new Skerries headquarters, First Landings, in the new year with space for over 300 workers. Dubbed the ‘office of the future’, First Landings operates a revolutionary model whereby new overseas clients can base themselves as they set up an initial Irish operation while Sonica will source, design and prepare a permanent location for each firm. Existing and new clients will also be given access to the high-spec workspace if they want to provide remote options for workers who might ordinarily commute across the city.