This network is an initiative of Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Dublin City to support female entepreneurs to reach their full potential. I manage it on a contract basis with the goal of supporting the businesses to grow to their full potential by accessing knowledge across a range of essential business areas, by building a strong network of supportive peers and promoting awareness of the supports provided by LEO. The focus of activities within the network is driven by monthly surveys of member needs and the overall LEO goals for this group and I ensure that it is responsive and business focused. As a result of Covid 19, an expanded range of events were moved on line to help our members to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic. These included weekly Webinars, weekly informal Coffee Zooms and Accountability Groups. The network had grown to a record 154 members by the end of 2020 after 23 Webinars and 15 informal zooms. Social media is used to support and facilitate connections between members and and there is now a LinkedIn Page, Instagram Page, Twitter account, Facebook Page and Facebook Group.

I have carried out research and strategic planning projects for a number of organisations, including start up companies, research groups in university, regional planning bodies and government agencies.

I was a Director of Ballymun Partnership and member of the Economic Development Working Group, representing Dublin City Enterprise Board from 2002 to 2014.

My role was to promote entrepreneurship across the university, particularly among students and research staff. I initiated activities such as a Business Plan award for students, the €60K DCU Mallin-Invent Award for new businesses, ongoing lunchtime seminars on various aspects of starting a business and a DCU Entrepreneurs Network, which connected alumni entrepreneurs with staff, researchers and students.

I established the first Plato network in region. I recruited 90 owner-managers of SMEs and 8 large companies (Becton Dickinson, IFI, Premier Dairies, Schering Plough, Tesco Ireland, UCD, McGhan, Warner Lambert). This role involved assessing the needs of the companies at the beginning of the two year programme and gearing the activities of the programme towards helping them to grow and to overcome gaps in their skills and knowledge. In addition to organizing training and briefing sessions, and assisting the Group Leaders with the monthly group events, I was proactive in introducing members to contacts that might be useful to them, both within and outside the network. I had review sessions with each member every year to monitor their progress and needs and responded to them.I jointly set up and managed initiatives to maximize the benefits to members of participating in the Plato network, including the inaugural National Networking Day and the website.

I successfully managed over 50 market research and business strategy projects. The companies were in a range of sectors including print and packaging, food, engineering, furniture and medical products. A lot of the work involved working with the companies to identify and investigate export opportunities and I met potential customers/distributors in the UK and Germany on behalf of many companies. I worked with the companies to prepare marketing and business plans based on research findings.