Have worked in the brand development space for 9 years since graduating from University College Cork with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2015. After graduating, I moved from Cork to Tralee to work as a trainee department manager with Dunnes Stores managing several departments within two years. Still to this day, my time in stores was the most invaluable experience I’ve had in my career. Spending time on the ground with customers- learning their behaviour, understanding stock management and managing staff- skills that I have built on throughout my career from my time in Tralee. In 2017, I moved to Dublin to join the Dunnes Stores buying department where I became a buying administrator within the company. I worked across several departments here also, getting experience in product development, department strategy, range planning, stock ordering and forecasting. I left Dunnes Stores in 2019 and started working for a London based brand platform called SilkFred. SilkFred is a fashion platform that supports and grows small independent fashion brands. I was a Senior brand manager within the company and their only Irish employee based in Dublin. I was managing their Irish expansion, Irish brands and public relations work on the ground in Dublin. It was from here that I got marketing experience and where I fell in love with the industry. I managed the company’s influencer activity, press office and marketing budgets for Ireland which grew month on month under my supervision and following my growth strategy. In 2020, I made the decision to leave the company after being approached by an Irish brand called 4th Arq to assist them to start the brand, develop a product range and bring it to launch. Using my product development and marketing experience together to successfully get this new brand to market. From here, my company has worked with and managed 40 Irish start up’s in a 3.5 year period, taking on new team members and growing at a rapid rate.