“International Women’s Day 2018: Celebration, Connection and Inspiration for Women in Business in Dublin”
Thursday 8th March 2018, The Alex Hotel, Dublin 2
Women In Business networks from the Local Enterprise Offices in the Dublin Region (Dublin City, Fingal, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin) and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce are joining forces for the ninth consecutive year to organise a major event for women in business in Dublin to celebrate International Women’s Day. Over 300 female entrepreneurs and business women have attended in previous years, and it is always an outstanding networking opportunity.
This year’s event will feature talks by the keynote speaker Geraldine Swarbrigg, Director of Inglot Ireland as well as Erica Sheehan, Homespun Foods, Roisin Lafferty of Kingston Lafferty Design, Niamh Herrity of Pink Kong Animation and Dr Nora Khaldi of Nuritas.
The Master of Ceremonies will be Mary Rose Burke of Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
This is a member only event so please book your place through one of the participating organisations or email leodcwomeninbusiness@gmail.com for more information.
5.30pm Registration & Open Networking
6.20pm Welcome by Mary Rose Burke, MC
6.30pm Introduction by Tony O’Malley, Chief Executive, Fujitsu Ireland
6.35pm Introduction by Karen Goodliffe, Director, HerMoney 6.40pm Keynote: Geraldine Swarbrigg, Inglot Ireland
7pm Introductions from:
- Erica Sheehan, Homespun Foods
- Roisin Lafferty, Kingston Lafferty Design
- Niamh Herrity of Pink Kong Animation
- Dr Nora Khaldi, Founder and CSO, Nuritas
Q&A Session (all speakers) facilitated by Mary Rose Burke, Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
7.40pm Informal networking Drinks & Finger Food Reception
8.30pm Event close
Speaker Profiles
Geraldine Swarbrigg, Inglot Cosmetics
Geraldine was born in 1952, the year her father won an All Ireland football medal playing for Cavan. The eldest of 3 girls, she grew up in Arva, Co. Cavan where her grandfather owned a general drapers store and her father Seamus Morris continued the family business until his retirement. She attended St. Louis Convent, Dundalk and then obtained a B.A. and H. Dip at UCD. Geraldine got her first real taste for fashion retailing when she worked in the Fashion Dept of Harrods in London during the summer while at college.
In 1977 she married Eurovision and showband star Tommy Swarbrigg and moved to Mullingar. There, she began her career as a serial retailer by opening a record store followed quickly by a string of fashion boutiques in the Midlands. While on a ski holiday in Norway she came across the Scandanavian fashion brand Vero Moda. She opened the first store in Galway in 1991 and over the next 10 years brought Vero Moda, Jack & Jones Menswear and Exit Kids to every city and large town in the country. In 2005 she introduced Aldo Shoes to Ireland.
In total, Geraldine has opened more than 50 retail stores during her retailing career. But her biggest success has been Inglot Cosmetics. Taking a huge risk in the height of the economic recession in 2009 she took on the franchise for Ireland opening the first INGLOT store in Liffey Valley, Dublin. Now employing a team of over 300, there are currently 17 retail stores nationwide with an Online store, distribution centre and head office based in hometown Mullingar.
Geraldine’s daughter Jane and son Peter have joined her in the business and are a vital part in the running of the company. Due to their phenomenal success in Ireland, the Swarbrigg family were offered the Inglot Franchise for the UK and last year opened their first UK store in Newcastle. This coming year they have big plans to open Inglot stores all over the UK.
Geraldine has come a long way from the Drapers shop in Arva and she’s enjoying every minute working closely with her daughter and son in building up the exciting cosmetics brand INGLOT. Most recently, Geraldine was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Image Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2017
Erica Sheehan, Founder, Homespun Foods
Erica Sheehan is founder of Irish health food company Homespun, which makes the multi award-winning ‘Quinoa Crunch’ range of breakfast products. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Erica started her career in television working with TV3 and RTE before moving into corporate PR. However her real passion has always been food, and experimenting in her kitchen, taking her favorite recipes and giving them a nutritious twist. As her interest in wholefoods grew, she was inspired to turn her interest in plant-based nutrition into a business and she launched Homespun in 2016.
Her delicious Quinoa Crunch products - which have a growing fan base amongst health conscious consumers - feature in the current Supervalu TV campaign with the Happy Pear. They are stocked in 300 stores in Ireland including Supervalu, Avoca, Donnybrook Fair and health food stores and have also just launched with the Dubai-based retailer Spinneys in the United Arab Emirates. Erica has participated in the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers program for Emerging Entrepreneurs and the Supervalu Food Academy program run by Bord Bia and Musgraves. Homespun Quinoa Crunch won Gold at the Free From Food Awards 2016 and 2017 and won the award for ‘Best Free From Cereal’ at the Irish Quality Food Awards 2017.
Róisín Lafferty, Kingston Lafferty Design
Róisín Lafferty is the Founder and Managing Director of Kingston Lafferty Design. Róisin has built a team of talented Designers, Contractors and Craftsmen around her and believes firmly in the power of creative collaboration. With the help of this powerful creative force Róisin has received a string of prestigious accolades, including Young Designer of the Year at the 2015 Fit Out Awards, numerous IDI Awards for both residential and commercial projects and the Emerging Talent Award at the 2017 Excellence in Property Awards.
A former judge on RTE’s SuperGarden, she is recognized as one of Ireland’s leading creative personalities with a monthly column in the Sunday Business Post and a regular slot on Newstalk. Her work is of such a calibre that it has been featured in many Irish publications, including International ones such as ,Living ETC, Italian Vogue and he Wall Street Journal. She is a Brand Ambassador for INM’s House Event and for the past three years has worked closely as Brand Ambassador for DFS and Fleetwood.
Niamh Herrity, Pink Kong Studios
Niamh Herrity is CEO and award-winning Producer at Pink Kong Studios Dublin. Recipient of Female Entrepreneur of the year 2015, IBYE finalist 2016 and Dublin City Entrepreneur of the year 2017 - Niamh's Business background has enabled her to push the studio to new heights.
Since Niamh co-founded Pink Kong in 2014, she has produced award winning content for the Studio including a BAFTA winning Game "Virginia" (2016) and award winning short films "Meanwhile on the Train"(2015) and TV Series "Urban Tails" (2016).
Niamh most recently produced IFTA nominated "Departure" (2017) funded by the I.F.B & R.T.É. The film is currently on the international festival circuit. And Irelands first animated Virtual Reality short narrative “AURORA” (2018) which premieres as the main centrepiece for Audi Dublin International Film Festival “Immersive Stories” conference.
Niamh also plays an active role within Ireland's animation community holding seats on both the board of both Animation Ireland and Women in Animation Ireland.
Dr Nora Khaldi, Founder and CSO, Nuritas
Nora is a mathematician with a PhD in Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics. Nora’s research has focused primarily on protein evolution and comparative genomics. Some of Nora’s publications have been placed in a library of the top 2% of published articles in the fields of biology and medicine. Throughout her career, Nora’s ambition has been to disrupt the status quo in areas that have been void of technology by introducing new ways of thinking, big data, and new algorithms.
Previous to Nuritas™, Nora was the first scientist to show gene transfer between multi-cellular species. This groundbreaking find put into question many of the phylogenetic methods currently in use today. Nora has developed a multitude of innovative software throughout her research career that are used to this day by research institutes and companies in over 70 countries. Nora has led international research teams around the world, in both academic and industrial settings, and has a proven record in new health-benefiting molecule discovery and commercialisation. Over the next few years, Nora plans to lead the Nuritas™ team in their goal of reaching billions of people with their life-changing ingredients.
Sponsor Profiles
Tony O’Malley, Fujitsu
Tony O’Malley was appointed Chief Executive, Fujitsu Ireland, in June 2015 and was also appointed to the board of Fujitsu Ireland at the same time. In this role as Chief Executive, Tony is responsible for leading the Fujitsu Ireland business and working with its 400 plus team to provide value to its private and public sector customers through the use of technology. Prior to this, Tony held a number of senior Sales and Delivery roles in Fujitsu since 1998 and before then, was a military officer with the Irish Defence Forces.
Karen Goodliffe, Director, HerMoney
Karen Goodliffe is a Financial Advisor and Director with HerMoney, a division of CWM Wealth Management Ltd. A Financial Services graduate from Manchester Metropolitan University, Karen began her career in the Financial Services Industry over 20 years ago in the UK where she worked in the Life and Pensions sector for seven years. After moving to Ireland in 2004, she worked with New Ireland Assurance for over twelve years before joining HerMoney in May 2017. Karen’s main focus is to help other professional women set and achieve their financial goals.HerMoney, with offices in Dublin and Cork, are an all female team of experienced Qualified Financial Advisors (QFAs), and offer financial planning advice for women on areas such as retirement planning, protection, savings and investments.
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Participating Organisations:
Local Enterprise Office Dublin City https://www.localenterprise.ie/DublinCity
Local Enterprise Office Fingal https://www.localenterprise.ie/Fingal/Welcome-to-Local-Enterprise-Office-Fingal.html
Local Enterprise Office South Dublin https://www.localenterprise.ie/southdublin
Local Enterprise Office Dun Laoghaire Rathdown https://www.localenterprise.ie/DLR
Dublin Chamber of Commerce www.dublinchamber.ie/
Local Enterprise Office
