About

Gemma Neylon is an in-house lawyer with a formidable academic record. Since 2011 she has been general counsel at OpenJaw Technologies, a company that transforms travel companies into travel retailers through its unique platform t-Retail. Her skills proved invaluable to the company in 2014 when Neylon supported OpenJaw through its $41.2m acquisition by GuestLogix and then again in 2016 when TravelSky Technology, a state-owned Chinese global distribution system, bought the company. ‘This process included liaising with the IDA (Industrial Development Authority) in Ireland and working to integrate OpenJaw’s legal affairs seamlessly with those of TravelSky’, recalls Neylon. Over the course of her time at OpenJaw she has been involved in successful incorporation of new subsidiary companies in Poland and Hong Kong, and is currently in the process of incorporating their newest subsidiary in Dalian, China. Before joining OpenJaw, Neylon spent almost six years at leading Irish law firm Mason Hayes & Curran. Neylon’s notable academic achievements include receiving the UCC Conway Kelleher Tobin Prize for Excellence in Technology Law in the final year of her bachelor’s degree, receiving first prize in the Law Society 2008 Negotiation Competition during whilst completing her Law Society Professional Practice Course and being awarded first class honours for MBA at University College Dublin, Smurfit Business School in 2016. Highlighting the significance of this most recent award on her current role, Neylon says ‘the MBA has given me a more business-oriented perspective from which to view legal problems, allowing me to define solutions that are aligned with the goals of the organisation’. Neylon is also a qualified European trade mark attorney, lectures on intellectual property, commercial law and technology law at the Law Society of Ireland and is a member of the Law Society Curriculum Development Committee.