When Siobhán Duffy first travelled the road from her native Bundoran, in County Donegal, to Shannon in 1989 to work as a lab technician for Element Six, she thought the journey was endless and her time in Shannon would be short, one year at the most. Now, thirty-five years later, and countless miles clocked up from her travels around the world as chief executive of the organisation, she proudly leads a team of over 1,600 people in a company that is a world leader in synthetic diamond super-material solutions, and part of the De Beers Group.

Her journey to this role took many twists and turns. Recruited as a lab technician following her advanced analytical science diploma studies in Letterkenny Institute of Technology, she was quickly appointed as a production supervisor. Her heart, however, yearned for sales and marketing and her decision to take a step backwards to accept the role of sales assistant soon saw her career take off in an upwards trajectory. Three months after accepting that position, she was offered a product manager role, which opened the world of travel, taking her to India and Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China.

A twenty-three-year span in sales and marketing, where she progressed to business management level, came to an end when she was asked to transfer her knowledge to the company’s oil and gas division. This involved a secondment to Texas where, after two years, her accomplishments and her initiative-taking disposition, resulted in a call to join the company’s executive team, as head of innovation for the entire company.

As she recalls: “My initial reaction was to say no, simply because I was the first non-PhD scientist to head up research, development and innovation and I felt that, taking on a role like that, I needed the academic background to be respected by the teams, and looked up to.”

Despite her initial scruples, on 1 July 2014, she became the first female executive director for innovation, working in the company’s innovation centre near Oxford, UK, where she remained for two years until her return to Shannon, in 2019, as executive director for sales and marketing.

Looking back on that period of her career she says: “It was a massive honour to lead innovation in a company that places such emphasis on research and development and has so many outstanding scientists and engineers. I learned so much during the four-and-a-half years I was in that role.”

The move back to Shannon as executive director for sales and marketing was the path to an even bigger and greater personal achievement as it led to her selection as CEO for the entire organisation.

“My decision to apply for the position was driven by the thought that I might regret it if I did not try. Once I made that decision, I put a lot of energy into my application. The mistake that many people make when applying for an upward move in an organisation they have worked in for many years is to assume that those making the hiring decision know you. My advice to anyone who finds themselves in this position is to look on yourself as an external applicant and sell your qualities, experiences, and ambition.”

Siobhán Duffy was appointed CEO of Element Six in January 2023 and officially took up her position a month later.

When asked what she feels about this mantle, she says: “The role is both exciting and daunting. It’s exciting as I’m passionate about Element Six. I truly love the company’s values and live them. It’s daunting as it’s a huge responsibility, and it’s a massive challenge.”

A career that has spanned over three decades has enabled Siobhán Duffy to watch the changes that the synthetic diamond industry has undergone.

“Diamonds, in the standard sense, shape the world; synthetic diamonds for industrial applications are such an exciting space to work in,” she says.

“They enable the video streams we see during calls on Teams and Zoom. In the automotive world, they shape everything from gear boxes to the traditional combustion engine. As a result of signing a partnership with a US company called Lummus, we will be able to use synthetic diamonds to purify water and rid the world of PFAS, the ‘forever chemicals’. 6G communications may also be enabled by synthetic diamond technology,” she adds.

While responsible for Element Six globally, Duffy continues to base herself in Shannon, which is one of Element Six’s global centres of excellence, concentrating on processing, with another example being the company’s site in South Africa, a centre of excellence for synthesis. “We have invested a lot in Shannon, through building a new processing site for chemical vapour deposition (CVD), a process whereby diamonds are grown in layers inside a very high-power microwave system. CVD enables some of the extreme properties of synthetic diamonds – thermal management, optical transmission, and electrical conductivity – to be exploited.

“Diamond is a very interesting semiconductor, which creates lots of opportunities for the future, in, for example, aerospace, energy, telecommunications and consumer electronics.  Through the decades, there has always been a step forward with regards to understanding its properties and how they can be used in applications. We want the 500 people working in our Shannon facility to be part of our future innovation,” she says.

Despite Duffy’s busy schedule, which limits her time in Shannon, she has confidence in her local management team, led by Stephen Linnane.

Shannon has played a huge role in Element Six’s new product development and the advancement of its technologies over the years and, while recruiting engineers can be problematic due to the competition from other industries in the Mid-West region, Element Six’s focus on developing talent from within is paying dividends.

Citing centres such as the Digital Manufacturing Ireland in Limerick as being an excellent resource for collaborating on operational excellence programmes and bringing digitalisation into play, she believes that hubs like this help to reinforce the case for external investors’ interest in the opportunities Shannon provides.

In addition to its people, the key to success for Element Six is its leadership in materials science and innovation, engineering and exploiting the properties of synthetic diamond, to improve effectiveness and efficiencies. The Shannon site has been a major contributor to this success, helped in no small way by its proximity to leading technological universities, a source of next generation employees.

Looking to the future, Duffy’s focus for Element Six will be on moving further down the value chain, developing partnerships to enhance capability and positioning the company as a key technology solutions provider, noted for its ability to tackle and unlock even the most demanding industrial applications, beyond the material-level.

“It’s going to be a journey, but we can do it. Working out of Shannon, near so many leading-edge companies and a Chamber of Commerce that is supportive and striving to make Shannon a centre of excellence, I’m in good company,” she concludes.