The Science of Business

In a reversal of roles on this podcast, Louise Grubb leaves the presenter's chair, to be interviewed by WLR's Mary O'Neill. Mary finds out what motivates and inspires the serial entrepreneur, who has an incredible track record of business success and is currently working on her third successful start-up. Louise spoke to Mary on the day she was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" at the Waterford Business Awards, and Q1 Scientific was a category winner at the virtual ceremony.

Dr Mahony is an Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, a Specialist in Maternal and Fetal medicine and an Honorary Clinical Professor with RCSI. She previously served as Master of the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin from 2012 to 2018. She recently joined the board of Halocare and currently serves on the Board of St Vincent's Healthcare Group. During the interview, Dr Mahony speaks of her experiences at school, through her career to now working with Trinity Business School in an area that will see a broader education for medical students. She also speaks about collaboration in healthcare stating that “it is deeply absent in medicine” and that the Pandemic has offered us a flavour of what can be achieved when we work together.

Ruth is Head of Cluster and Insulins Manufacturing at Sanofi. Here, she recalls some of her career experiences, ranging from early roles in the UK beer and soft drinks sectors, to leadership in Sanofi via a stint at Waterford Crystal. She also speaks about Waterford’s appeal as a great place to live and work, and the importance of lifelong learning. Ruth also discusses some of the lasting changes to global business arising from COVID-19, and how mRNA is a breakthrough moment for pharma.

In this insightful interview with Louise, co-founder of Eirgen Pharma Patsy Carney also discusses how his early interest in science was ignited at secondary school. He details his extensive career journey, including how his decision to take an MBA with his work colleague Tom Brennan, would lead them to develop the business plan for what would become one of the country’s more successful indigenous pharmaceutical companies. Patsy also goes onto detail new venture Kinetic Labs, a Waterford-based facility offering state-of-the-art single and shared wet lab space - the first of its kind in Ireland.

Q1 Scientific stores pharmaceutical samples at very specific temperatures for 11 of the top 20 pharma companies in the world. In discussion with Louise, Stephen recognised that the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine will need to be stored at subzero temperatures, and that there are distribution challenges in rolling out both that and Moderna's vaccine across Ireland. However he sounded a positive note by explaining that Q1 Scientific already stores and distributes medical drugs at this level, and is ready to provide its services to store and distribute the anticipated vaccines.

Chanelle McCoy is the founder of McCoy Health. In this discussion with Louise, she shares her insights on growing a global business and her plans to roll out a ten minute finger prick test to check if an individual has had COVID19. The All-Ireland Business Champion Award winner and Dragon’s Den funder Chanelle tells of key moments in her incredibly successful career, which saw her bring the family pharma business into 96 countries around the world and secure over 2,500 product licences. She also chats about building McCoy Health which focuses on developing pharmaceutical-grade cannabidiol (CBD) and the rights to distribute the ground-breaking ‘SugarWatch’, a needle-free glucose monitoring device for diabetics, across Ireland.

Michael Kelly is a social entrepreneur, author, TV presenter and hacker grower. GIY aims to support 100 million people to grow, cook and eat some of their own food for a healthier, more sustainable world by 2030.In this episode the Meath native shares the story of his career starting with how he left a life in IT Consultancy, moved onto journalism and then successfully established the fast-growing social enterprise that is GIY. Michael also shares insights on the key decisions that were required for the social enterprise growth journey, where a crossroads was met and a pivotal moment meant that in order to grow the movement in a sustainable fashion he made the decision to solidify it with a business structure and the establishment of GROW HQ in Waterford.

Laois native Tom is co-founder of speciality healthcare company EirGen Pharma, and, more recently, co-founder and director of Triviumvet. In this podcast he discusses how his early career started at Clonmel Healthcare and moved to IVAX a few years later. He took a leap and set up his own Pharmaceutical company, after undertaking a part-time MBA at University of Limerick. It was there he met Patsy Carney, and Tom tells the story of they came up with the idea of setting up Eirgen Pharma together.

Frank shares his incredible career journey from the starting point at Temple Street Children’s Hospital, to his former role as Chair of the HSE, to establishing his global businesses Rigney Dolphin and international healthcare company Relate Care. He also speaks of working remotely, and how, as a result of Covid19, businesses will place more scrutiny on productivity levels than ever before and a recalibrating of how employees are managed into the future.

Louise’s guest on this episode is Orlaith Ryan, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Shorla Pharma, a Tipperary based pharmaceutical company. Along with her business partner Sharon Cunningham, Orlaith set up the company in 2018, after several years working in the pharmaceutical industry. In this episode of “The Business of Science,” she chats to Louise about her career to date, and what motivated her to go out on her own. Louise’s guest on this episode is Orlaith Ryan, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Shorla Pharma, a Tipperary based pharmaceutical company. Along with her business partner Sharon Cunningham, Orlaith set up the company in 2018, after several years working in the pharmaceutical industry. In this episode of “The Business of Science,” she chats to Louise about her career to date, and what motivated her to go out on her own.