Laois entrepreneur is guest speaker at National Women’s Enterprise Day 2018

Local Enterprise Offices from Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath are hosting National Womens Enterprise Day on Thursday, October 18.

This year the event will take place in the Backstage Theatre, Farneyhoogan, Longford. The national theme for the day is 'From Local to Global' with the objective of encouraging more female entrepreneurs to explore potential markets and to 'go international' with their businesses, availing of various supports from their Local Enterprise Office to help them achieve this.

The MC for the day is RTE’s Sinead Hussey who will introduce the panel of speakers which will include Ciara Donlon, CEO and Founder of THEYA Healthcare; Dr. Ciara Kelly, T.V. Radio Broadcaster and Columnist; Louise Lovett, CEO Longford Women’s Link; Dr. Anne Cusack, MD Critical Healthcare and Alison Ritchie, MD Polar Ice.

Ciara Donlon who is the keynote speaker has over 15 years experience in marketing in large corporate including RBS, Irish Life and Permanent and Vodafone. In 2010, she set up a lingerie retail business in Dublin. Many women undergoing treatment for breast cancer came into her shop looking for a comfortable bra to wear post surgery.

It was Ciara’s desire to help these women that was the catalyst for the creation of THEYA Healthcare. Louise Lovett is CEO of  Longford Women’s Link and, since her time with the company, she has grown and diversified the organisation, doubling turnover to €2.2m by creating a flexible adaptable organisation which can respond to developing needs and which is awake to emerging opportunities.

Alison Ritchie, who is from Portarlington is Managing Director of Ireland’s leading manufacturer of dry ice products since 1996. A serial entrepreneur, Alison established her second business in 2005, growing the business to become the market leader in Cryogenic Cleaning and successfully selling the business in 2016.

Dr. Anne Cusack is the co-founder of Critical Healthcare Ltd., an award winning Irish company delivering a range of medical products and SAAS to pre-hospital and emergency service providers in Ireland.

Finally, Dr. Ciara Kelly will talk on Work Life Balance – Dr. Kelly currently presents ‘Lunchtime Live’ weekdays on Newstalk. She qualified as a Doctor in 1997 from UCD and was Honours in General Practice. She teaches General Practice in UCD and Trinity College.

 This event is open to women in business in the Midlands and tickets are only €15 and available on www.localenterprise.ie/longford