FOUR of Limerick’s best women in business are now set to compete on the national stage for this year’s Network Ireland Limerick Business Women of the Year Awards, sponsored by the Limerick Local Enterprise Office (LEO) and AIB.
From 13 finalists, the four category winners were announced at a special awards evening last week at No.1 Pery Square.
Rachel Walsh, Discover Digital won the Emerging New Business Award. The Employee Award went to Rachel Leahy of Cube Printing. Valerie Dolan, Dolan’s Pub & Restaurant won the Arts category and Bernie Carroll, Students Programme Ireland Ltd won the SME Award.
The winners of each award category will now go on to the national finals for Network Ireland which will be announced at a Gala Ceremony in October in Druids Glen, Wicklow.
The 13 finalists, representing a broad range of businesses, were joined by their family, friends and fellow members at the glamorous awards ceremony.
The Awards night was opened by special guest speaker Shauna Keogh, an Emmy nominated film producer and director of docu-drama series. She shared her success story to date and gave support to the finalists, noting “Take risks. There are times when you doubt yourself but have belief and make sure you have the right people around you”.
Edwina Gore, President of Network Ireland Limerick said, “Throughout the year we support the personal and professional development of our members so it’s great to have an opportunity to recognise their achievements, ambition and professionalism. Our network is growing rapidly and it’s fantastic to see such a wide variety of businesses represented. I hope our winners and finalists really benefit from the recognition they are receiving by being part of these awards. I would like to especially thank the support of our sponsors, LEO Limerick and AIB, and judges who made this fantastic evening possible.”
Award Winners
Emerging Business Award – Rachel Walsh, Discover Digital
Rachel is a digital marketing expert/addict with over 10 years’ industry experience with international brands such as Ryanair, Tesco and Virgin Media. She created Discover Digital in 2016 after noticing how small businesses could save money by using digital marketing channels to reach their customers. Her company specialises in digital strategy, execution and training. As well as working on Discover Digital, Rachel is a lecturer at Limerick Institute of Technology. She is studying a MSc in Digital Marketing & Analytics at Dublin Institute of Technology.
Employee Award – Rachel Leahy, Cube Printing
Having graduated from LIT with a first-class honours degree in Business with Event Management, Rachel began her career in Marketing with CUBE – design, print and packaging specialists based in Limerick. She activated a complete re-brand of the organisation and re-positioned them as leaders in their industry. In addition to her Marketing and Communications role, she is an active volunteer with Cliona’s Foundation.
Arts Award – Valerie Dolan, Dolan’s Pub & Restaurant
In 1994 Valerie Dolan and her husband bought The Mill tavern (now Dolans) in the docks in Limerick. Dolans now consists of a Pub, Restaurant and three performance venues and is recognised as one of Ireland’s leading music venues., They also have out of house venues; the Belltable Theatre, the Limetree Theatre, the University Concert Hall, Limerick, Live at the Big Top in Limericks iconic Milk Market and Live at King Johns Castle.
Valerie has volunteered time to help develop new festival initiatives to help boost the local economy such as the Limerick Jazz Festival, Culture and Chips, Riverfest, Limerick Fringe and the Siege of Limerick.
SME Award – Bernie Carroll, Student Programmes Ireland Ltd
Bernie identified a gap in the market for European students coming to Ireland to improve their English language learning skills and also realised that families and schools could benefit greatly from tailor made programmes. Her business has developed a strong network of services within Ireland which has made her customers want more and more of what has to offer and she has many more new agents coming on board in 2017. She works with agents and governments in 5 different European Countries; France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Slovakia.
