My name is Daisy, I’m a 31 year old, black, female, polymath, and I’ve applied most of that capacity to understanding everything I possibly can about people. Here’s my timeline and what I learnt (and created) along the way as I came of age.
PS: if you’re not viewing on mobile, note that you need to scroll down 🙂
also I was the first black female leader of the L&H, the student society that founded the university. I got to meet and award Shappi Khorsandi, Jenna Marbles, Emeli Sandé, Jack White and Martin Schulz.
I travelled a lot, learned a lot, worked with smart people, and got to meet a ridiculous range of fascinating people and understand the inner workings of their roles; from Prime Ministers and UN Secretary Generals to Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry.
We didn’t make it, but I got to lead an incredible team, travel the world, absorb so much culture and fall in love with every kind of peoples. From London, to Tokyo, Bali, New York, Miami and San Francisco! I also got to speak on stage a lot, about community, culture and the future of human-centric real estate.
I’ve spoken at debates, firesides, panels and keynotes; from embassies in Riga and Palaces in Lisbon, to conferences in London, Barcelona, Tbilisi, Medellín and more. I’ve been grateful to collect best speaker awards from competitions like Glasgow Ancients and The Riga Open etc, Excellence Awards from the UCD President, African Professionals Network Ireland, and a 30 Under 30 listing from the Sunday Business Post.
Keynote for Bloomsday discussing James Joyce’s Ulysses as a self portrait of the whirring mind and it’s culmination in friendship.
#30
Presenting on Diversity @ 2021 Conference
Speaking on a panel about the European tech ecosystem in 2019 — when the festival was still taking place annually in Vienna
“Reverse pitching” Backed to Startup Founders at 2019 edition of the conference
In a nutshell my job was to bring people together, build connections, experiment with community, behavioural psychology, design processes; to learn about complicated industries and weird science and write and talk; and finally to drive diversity in the industry and manage a microfund investing in Black founders. I also stepped up as COO of Diversity VC at this time. In hindsight it was perhaps too much, but I loved it. Until the siren call of writing a novel became simply irresistible.
A few key articles showed me that even if I didn’t necessarily enjoy the mentally exhausting process of putting words to complicated ideas, I was very good at it and I wanted to do more of it. Most especially the “Dear White Allies” open letter I wrote in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent zeitgeist.
Not knowing what I didn’t know about the dangers of extended focus, I thought so hard for so long about so much that I got sick. I was very lucky to not die; and I got to make sense of all I learned, *and* I finished writing my novel. It has already been a most extraordinary journey, and even culminated in a happy ending. And yet there’s so much time left! 😅
Anyway, watch this space I suppose.
It’s perhaps some of the most important work I’ve done. I’ve counseled people through breakups, burnout, and the loss of loved ones; mediated founder disputes, refined PhD theses, and helped startups design psychologically safe cultures where everyone can thrive.
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