"I want women in business to see what they can achieve"

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Women supporting women has long been a theme that businesswoman Karen May noticed throughout her career.

Educated in Commerce at Dublin City University, Karen found her way into accountancy as she started out with Pricewaterhouse Coopers International Limited (PwC).

Undeniable now, as she looks back on those early days of her career, is the impact that women in leadership roles had on Karen. “When I look back on my career, I was always nurtured by women," she said.

"I didn't realise at time but they were hugely successful women who I took for granted, but I definitely had great inspiration from other women. In PwC, I worked for a female partner, Maria O'Connor. She was the only female partner, and she was just incredibly supportive.

"At one point, I worked for a female senior manager in Dell on their Irish, UK, and European operations. I also worked for a female manager in Treasury Holdings, and she would've been the only woman on the executive team in the construction industry. She was incredibly inspirational and really successful in a very male dominated industry.”

The Drum resident lives a seemingly quiet life on a farm just outside of Athlone, with her two teenagers, and her husband Kevin Lee - a local man whose mother is the owner of Glendeer Pet Farm.

"We always planned to come back and put down roots in Athlone," Karen said. "My own parents are from the West of Ireland, Sligo and Mayo, so the West has a place in my heart."

However, aside from her cosy home life, Karen has forged a hugely impressive career in finance, complete with a number of accolades and prestigious awards.

Karen hopes that her achievements can inspire other women in the Midlands to pursue their dreams, and to push the boundaries when it comes to balancing a home life alongside a career.

"I want women in business to see what they can achieve, and I hope I can inspire other women. I think we always put ourselves at the back of the list, and I just would love to inspire women to push the boundaries and and not be afraid.

"I think sometimes we're afraid to step up because we're also the primary care for our children and families, and we're very selfless. We don't want to make them feel that they're second best because they never will be. Sometimes those fears cause us to make decisions that potentially limit own development, and I just think that it's really important that you're actually personally developing and achieving things as well as taking care of your family."

From her earliest memories growing up in Leixlip, Kildare, Karen was always set up for a life in business, with her large extended family of entrepreneurs setting the scene for the finance specialist.

“My Dad actually is from a family of 12 kids, and they all set up their own businesses and were really successful in doing that. I was always hugely motivated by my Dad, who sadly passed away in 2016, but I grew up with that kind of business spirit in our house and in our family.”

Karen co-founded XOcean with engineer James Ives, after he began to get frustrated with the level of ocean data that was available in the marine industry.

The pair previously worked together in Mr Ives company, OpenHydro, which was an Irish developer of tidal stream turbines, established in 2004.

She was the Head of Finance in the company, and when Mr Ives came up with the idea for XOcean, he knew Karen was the right-hand woman he needed for the job.

“James came up with the idea for the technology behind XOcean. He reached out to me to join him on that journey because I had worked with him for six or seven years in the previous company. In the early days of the company, James would have been involved on the technology side and developed the technology.

"I would have kind of run everything else for the finance and I was involved in direction and operations, but also I would have recruited up 200 people to the company before we appointed a Chief People Officer. I was very much involved in the running of the company, and that's where the title of Director comes from.”

In the last year, XOcean has been awarded the Innovation Award at the prestigious Business & Finance Awards in the Convention Centre in December, as well as becoming the only Irish company included in the Top 100 Global Cleantech companies.

The company is just seven years old, and has already extended operation to 23 countries across the globe, and has prevented the emission of over 215,000 tonnes of carbon to date.

With metrics like that, there's no wonder the company has caught the interest of a host of foreign investors.

"It's just been incredible, you just have to pinch yourself really," Karen said.

"We closed funding rounds just at the end of 2024 for €115 million in investments into the company with Morgan Stanley, a few other US funds. They see us as the leader in this whole sector, and so that was a huge endorsement of of the team and everything that we've achieved.

"It puts us on a different levels and I'm really excited about 2025. It was just an incredible endorsement of the team that we've built and that really has allowed us to to scale to where we're at at the moment."

Currently, XOcean employs 247 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees, rising to over 300 when including contractors.

Karen has had an incredible year, too, on a personal level.

The Drum resident was recognised as STEM Professional of the Year at the Image PWC Businesswoman of the Year Awards in May 2024, and in the same month was named CFO of the Year at the Sunday Business Post Excellence in Leadership Awards at the Intercontinental Hotel Ballsbridge.

She also received the Irish Tatler Entrepreneur of the Year at the Woman of the Year Award at the Shelbourne Hotel in November of last year.

"I guess incredible because I'm a person who's very loyal to the company, and I always put the company first, so to be personally recognised as well is kind of a total surprise - but in a really nice way. I think I've come to terms with my own achievements, as well as the achievements of the company. I've always known the company was doing well, but it's really nice to be recognised for my work as well."